Type of RFE Service: Learning System Diagnostic

IPA partnered with the Rural India Supporting Trust (RIST) — a foundation based in the USA—to develop its first learning agendas and implement a more systematic, learning-focused approach to grantee reporting. This partnership streamlined reporting requirements, reducing the burden on grantees while ensuring actionable insights that enhanced RIST’s organizational learning and strategic vision.

The Rural India Supporting Trust (RIST) is a philanthropic foundation dedicated to improving health, disability, education, and environmental outcomes in India, building long-term partnerships with global, local, and grassroots organizations. 2025 marks 15 years of RIST’s operations, offering the organization an opportunity to consider future directions. RIST recognized the need for a more structured Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) system, with a clearer vision to identify the most critical program components to track in key sectors and formal strategies to embed learning within the organization and inspire it across their grantees.

IPA conducted a comprehensive diagnostic of RIST’s MEL system, focused on collecting credible and actionable data, conducted partner outreach and collaborated with RIST to define key learning priorities in their focus sectors, namely health, disability and the environment. IPA also supported the design of a refined, strategic MEL framework and priority documents designed to enhance learning and reporting across grants.

With IPA's support, RIST has developed its first sector-specific, funder-focused theories of change, enabling the creation of actionable learning plans informed by their own research and insights from future grants. These plans are designed to be revisited and adapted annually, ensuring continuous learning and improvement while generating more evidence on the effectiveness of their theories of change. RIST is now set to implement new MEL requirements for grantees, tailored to each intervention's development stage. With this framework, Program Managers have improved clarity on the integration of learning into daily reporting, creating a stronger foundation for institutionalizing learning and refining their program visions and theories of change with better-aligned evidence and insights.

This partnership has reinforced RIST’s goals to identify and partner with evidence-based organizations that measure and adapt interventions for greater efficacy. With this streamlined approach, RIST hopes to advance the design and implementation of multiple pipeline projects with the lessons and best practices shared by IPA.