Experts to gather for SmartyGrants impact forum

Dr Jess Dart, the founder of Clear Horizons and co-author of an evaluation guide translated into 12 languages, is part of the powerful lineup at the 2025 Grant Impact Forum (Wednesday, June 4).

UPDATE: The event is now sold out. Grants Management Intelligence will produce a special report about the event.

Dart will moderate a much-anticipated panel session involving fellow leading figures in the field, Patricia Rogers and Eleanor Williams. Williams is the managing director of the Australian Centre for Evaluation (ACE), while Rogers is a past Professor of Public Sector Evaluation at RMIT University and ANZSOG.

The session will seek to help funders better understand what counts as evidence and to translate those metrics into rigorous data.

Dart said she was excited to be hosting the panel with Rogers and Williams, and predicted that it “should be a ripper”.

“What is unique about this forum is that it is coming from the perspective of grantmakers, and this presents a great opportunity to enhance change making and to improve impact for people, place and planet.”

“Impact measurement is evolving rapidly, and funders play a critical role in shaping what good measurement looks like. Bringing funders, evaluators, and changemakers together in forums like this, is how we move from good intentions to real impact.”

“I think there is a great opportunity for grantmakers to engage differently with their partners and grantees around measurement and learning. In these challenging times, the role of measurement and collective learning cannot be understated.

“There are also new frontiers to explore together, such as how to evaluate systems-wide approaches, and to elevate measurement and learning up to more of a portfolio level.”

In a later session, Dart will guide grant evaluators in how to run an “annual reflection” with stakeholders to help them understand what works and what can be improved.

SmartyGrants and Learning and Evaluation for Australian Funders (LEAF) – a network of philanthropic and other funding evaluation specialists – will host the all-day event.

Forum co-convenor Jen Riley, the chief impact officer at SmartyGrants, said several intensive sessions would explore the many aspects of contemporary evaluation and impact measurement.

Riley said tickets for the face-to-face event, which will cater for a maximum of 100 participants, were selling fast to funders and practitioners interested in impact.

“We’ve already filled more than half the seats available, and I expect we’ll sell out at this rate.”

While the program continues to be refined, experts participating in the event will include:

• Dr Paola Oliva-Altamirano, data science lead at SmartyGrants
• Sandy Blackburn, founder and managing director of Social Outcomes
• Simon Faivel, co-chair of the Social Impact Measurement Network Australia (SIMNA)
• Caroline Henwood, research and evaluation manager at the Ian Potter Foundation
• Monique O’Keeffe, evaluation and impact practitioner from the City of Greater Dandenong
• Jeremy Motbey, grants and impact manager at the Ecstra Foundation
• Rebecca Moriarty, Philanthropy Australia
• Rohan Martyres, Menzies Foundation
• Kate Randall, Community Broadcasting Foundation
• Ben Rodgers, CEO, Inner North Community Foundation
• Cynthia Scherer, Anthony Costa Foundation
• Dr Skye Trudgett, of Kowa impact measurement, a social enterprise focused on supporting First Nations people
• Bill Wallace, CEO of the Australian Evaluation Society

Riley said the aim of the event would be to give grantmakers solutions to their trickiest challenges, including understanding impact measurement programs and reports, using the best tools available, employing the right kinds and amount of evidence, and drawing on case studies.

“This event is squarely focused on sharing actionable insights and problem solving, and we think that doing this face-to-face will be more effective in explaining complex issues,” Riley said.

Ticket prices range from $400 to $600, depending on grant program size.

More information

Learn more about the event