Evaluating Canada’s Sustainable Development Goals Funding Program
How can governments assess the results of funding programs that support diverse projects with different objectives, activities, and approaches to measuring success? This was a central challenge in evaluating Canada’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Funding Program.
Employment and Social Development Canada’s Evaluation Directorate engaged Blueprint to support the program’s first formal evaluation. The program funds organizations working to raise public awareness of the SDGs, foster partnerships, and develop innovative approaches to sustainable development. Blueprint led the grants-stream evaluation, contributing evidence to ESDC’s assessment of the program overall.
Working within a rapid timeline, we reviewed administrative information on 118 grant projects and analyzed 113 reports. We interviewed representatives from 12 organizations responsible for 19 funded projects, conducting interviews in English and French.
The methodological challenge was to draw meaningful conclusions across projects whose evidence had not originally been collected against common outcome indicators. We developed a structured approach, guided by ESDC’s evaluation framework, to synthesize this information. We combined project documentation with grantee perspectives to examine contributions to intended outcomes, including how projects reached equity-deserving groups and involved Indigenous Peoples as partners. This approach identified patterns across the portfolio while preserving differences in project contexts and distinguishing documented results from areas needing further evidence.
Our analysis highlighted the breadth of awareness-building activities, community-based tools, and partnerships supported through the program. It also identified opportunities to strengthen the sustainability and longer-term impact of initiatives. We translated these insights into practical lessons for future program design, including more strategic project selection, stronger collaboration and knowledge sharing, improved outcome measurement, and greater opportunities for Indigenous leadership and participation. Our technical report informed ESDC’s published evaluation, providing a foundation for departmental learning and future decisions.
This work demonstrates how Blueprint helps governments draw actionable insights from complex funding portfolios. By combining structured evidence synthesis with an understanding of program delivery, we helped ESDC assess the contributions of diverse initiatives and identify practical opportunities to strengthen future funding decisions and program performance.
Research and resources
The following ESDC publications incorporate findings from our work:
Our team and partners live and work on the traditional territory of many Indigenous people across Turtle Island. Blueprint’s home office is situated in the area known as Tkaronto, an area that has been caretaken by the Anishinabek Nation, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and the Huron-Wendat for thousands of years. We strive to meaningfully incorporate principles of reconciliation with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples in our day-to-day work, as is our collective responsibility as treaty people, which requires ongoing reflection and collective action.
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