What is it?
Expanding the Bench® (ETB) is a national initiative led by Change Matrix (CM) that envisions the evaluation field as a dynamic, interdependent ecosystem where Culturally Responsive and Equitable Evaluation (CREE) is the shared value. ETB works to disrupt entrenched norms and elevate the leadership, knowledge, and lived experience of evaluators who identify as Indigenous or as racially and ethnically diverse. Through this work, ETB helps reshape evaluation so that it strengthens, rather than harms, communities and ensures that power, resources, and knowledge flow intentionally and holistically.
What Change Matrix does
CM serves as a catalyst and connector in this evolving ecosystem. We engage evaluators, funders, institutions, and community partners to build authentic relationships, deepen reflection, and align toward collective accountability. ETB’s interconnected programs act as interventions that spark systems change and nourish the conditions for a thriving evaluation ecosystem:
- LEEAD (Leaders in Equitable Evaluation and Diversity): Builds capacity for early- to mid-career evaluators through mentorship, applied learning, and cohort-based leadership development.
- ACE Evaluation Network: Strengthens visibility, connection, and opportunity for experienced evaluators who identify as Indigenous or as racially and ethnically diverse.
- Field Building and Fundraising: Collaborates with funders and institutions to reimagine how equity is resourced, measured, and practiced within the field.
- ETB Regional: Grounds national learning in place-based microsystems, co-creating regional ecosystems that respond to local contexts and inform the broader movement.
Why we love this work
This work represents both transformation and care. ETB challenges systems that have excluded Indigenous, racially, and ethnically diverse evaluators while creating pathways for connection, reflection, and shared growth. This is how we help build a national evaluation ecosystem where CREE is the norm, and communities are not only included but are leading the way in defining what meaningful, holistic evaluation looks like.
