This paper reports on an analysis, using a comparative case study design, of the degree to which policy actors use evidence in designing performance-funding policies in Colorado and Texas. The analysis reveals that features of demanders of information--including their prior exposure to research, their attitudes toward evidence, and, in the case of campus representatives, their institutions' financial resources--as well as characteristics of the evidence itself, particularly its definitiveness and perceived relevance, were critical for fostering evidence use. The interaction between suppliers and demanders also facilitated but was not a necessary condition for evidence use.