The authors tell about their heterogeneous 91 person research and evaluation unit at an operating foundation in St. Paul, Minnesota. They focus on evaluation for program improvement, one of several purposes of studies they work on. The three authors write from their different manager positions within the unit. Included are the context of the organization, strategic principles of their work and how it fits into a program improvement model. Mattessich writes as the executive director and details his day-to-day evaluation work. Mueller writes as the associate director, who oversees most of the unit's evaluation work, while Holm-Hansen writes as a consulting scientist who leads a core research team of four to six. (Contains 2 figures.)