Deputy Director, Strategic Learning & Evaluations

About Communities Foundation Of Texas

The mission of Communities Foundation of Texas (CFT) is to improve the lives of all people in our community by investing in their health, wealth, living, and learning. CFT works to accomplish this by growing community giving, expanding community impact, and advancing community equity. With a vision of building thriving communities for all, CFT works locally and across the state with many individuals, families, companies, foundations, and nonprofits through a variety of charitable funds and strategic grantmaking initiatives.

CFT professionally manages more than 1,400 charitable funds and has awarded more than $3 billion in grants since its founding in 1953.

CFT is committed to serving and understanding donor needs, expertly handling complex gifts, wisely managing charitable funds, and leveraging its community knowledge to increase charitable impact. It powers several initiatives, including the W. W. Caruth, Jr. Fund at CFT, the Center for Business Impact, Educate Texas at CFT, Emerging Leaders in Philanthropy at CFT, Give Wisely, and CFT’s North Texas Giving Day. CFT’s North Texas Giving Day raised more than $78 million in 2025 to help over 3,500 North Texas nonprofits, and has raised more than $712 million since its inception in 2009.

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The Strategic Learning and Evaluation Deputy Director is a strategic leader responsible for driving the development, implementation, and management of a comprehensive learning and evaluation framework at CFT, focusing on the Philanthropy and Educate Texas teams. The Deputy Director elevates the organization’s thought leadership through visually compelling white papers, data visualizations, and presentations that spark conversations about learning and achievement. This role reports to the Chief Strategy and Insights Officer and requires expertise in program evaluation, logic modeling, and applying insights to drive social impact.

The Deputy Director is an empathetic, user‑centered leader with a commitment to the Texas communities where CFT invests.

• Build a learning and evaluation agenda and set of metrics aligned to the organization’s strategic goals.
• Procure and manage research and evaluation consultants as needed to amplify internal capacity and deliver insights to the board and field.
• Communicate key findings effectively to various audiences, building the social sector and driving strategy.

• Oversee the design and implementation of data collection methods, including surveys, interviews, focus groups, and case studies.
• Use both quantitative and qualitative research methods to evaluate funded programs and initiatives.
• Contribute to the analysis of complex data sets to identify trends, insights, and areas for improvement in foundation operations and programmatic efforts.

• Synthesize data and findings into clear, compelling, and actionable reports for internal and external stakeholders.
• Present insights and recommendations to senior leadership and program teams, emphasizing effective data visualization and decision‑making frameworks.
• Report on the foundation’s overall impact to stakeholders using storytelling methods aligned to the audience and digital communications strategies.

• Provide training and support to internal teams and grantees in using data for decision‑making, continuous improvement, and learning.
• Facilitate a learning culture within the foundation, promoting the use of data and insights in day‑to‑day work and program design.
• Advise and support grantees in designing and implementing their own monitoring and evaluation frameworks.

• Build and maintain relationships with external partners, including academic institutions, evaluation consultants, and community organizations.
• Collaborate with program staff, fundraising teams, and other internal stakeholders to integrate insights into strategy, decision‑making, and communications.

• Monitor trends and developments in the philanthropic sector related to evaluation, learning, and impact assessment, incorporating…