Evaluation of the Archives Revealed Funding Programme 2024 - 2029

The purpose of this procurement process is to select a supplier to evaluate the Archives Revealed funding programme between 2024 and 2029. The attached invitation to tender document outlines the requirements for potential suppliers. The Archives Revealed programme is seeking an evaluation partner to help us understand the (direct and indirect) impacts of the fund, explore the process of funding, and the contribution that the fund makes to defined outcomes and goals for its stakeholders. This summative evaluation should gather learning about the programme as a whole, including both the grants awarded and the associated sector development activity. We want to develop our understanding of our grantees and applicants' experience with the programme; consult with the sector and key stakeholders, generating quantitative and qualitative data to support its evolution and refinement; and create advocacy and knowledge products for the sector, and for existing and potentially future funders. The evaluation supplier should propose methods, measures and outcomes that relate to the aims of stakeholder groups, and that are realistic and proportionate to the size of the grants offered and to the capacity of the archives sector. These should be shaped into an ambitious but viable evaluation plan. We require the successful supplier to develop the programme's existing aims and deliverables, and other stakeholder perspectives, into a logic model and/ or Theory of Change to help guide the programme's delivery and explain its purpose and design. The evaluation will be used to: 1. produce reliable and useful information to inform decision-making 2. iteratively improve the programme's delivery during implementation 3. inform future funding provision and 4. support advocacy for the fund and sector