Volume XIII, Number 1&2, Spring 2007

Issue Topic: Advocacy and Policy Change

Beyond Basic Training

Continuous Progress: Better Advocacy Through Evaluation

Continuous Progress: Better Advocacy Through Evaluation

Edith Asibey and David Devlin-Foltz describe the new Continuous Progress website, which helps advocates and grantmakers collaboratively plan and evaluate advocacy efforts.1

Grantmaker: I think my board is ready to consider supporting your organization's advocacy work, but there's one question I know they'll ask me: How do you plan to measure the impact of this campaign?

Advocate: Advocacy work is hard to measure. But we've been working on this issue for years, and we have the support of key legislators. We know when we're influencing their thinking and actions—we just do. Plus, we'll be happy to show you and your board our media placements, letters from our constituents to the White House, and the legislation championed by members of Congress in support of our issue.

Advocacy organizations and grantmaking institutions that invest in policy advocacy share an interest in getting better at evaluating advocacy's impact. But how does our fictitious advocate go from counting column inches and responses to electronic alerts to proving that her work led to policy change? This is one of the several challenges we identified through the work of our Evaluation Learning Group—an expert panel tasked with identifying best practices for foreign policy and global development advocacy. Over the span of 2 years, we interviewed numerous grantmakers, advocates, evaluators, and communications experts and conducted an extensive review of recently published studies on assessing public policy impact and related topics.2

Our work led us to develop Continuous Progress—an online collection of tools for better advocacy through evaluation (www.continuousprogress.org). The website features practical steps to help advocates, grantmakers, and consultants plan and evaluate advocacy efforts and do so in a collaborative manner. Our expectation is that the guide will result in more effective advocacy.

Although we designed Continuous Progress for newcomers to advocacy evaluation, we hope that the tools will also help more experienced advocates develop a more systematic approach to planning and evaluation. Over time, we believe these tools will contribute to an increased demand for rigorous, carefully designed evaluations of advocacy programs. Below, we describe the guides for both advocates and grantmakers that make up Continuous Progress.

“Guide for Advocates”: Proving Impact on Policy
The “Guide for Advocates” helps groups plan and evaluate their work within a dynamic policy environment. We show users how to define specific and measurable goals and provide tips for developing a theory of change; we encourage doing both at the program's onset in order to estab-lish baselines, benchmarks, and indicators to monitor progress. The advocate guide also provides guidance on building capacity to advocate more effectively as an organization or in coalitions. Real-life examples illustrate the points discussed in each section.

“Guide for Grantmakers”: Achieving Policy Change
The “Guide for Grantmakers” encourages grantmakers to define their own goals for advocacy funding by laying out a vision for the desired policy change and the needed steps to get there. We suggest that this process will be conducive to clearer, focused, and more constructive dialogue with existing and potential grantees. A well-crafted theory of change takes some of the “guesswork” out of the process for both grantseekers and grantmakers. The guide also proposes evaluation guidelines for grantees.

We urge grantmakers (and advocates) to accept that they will rarely be able to attribute policy change to a single organization's activities. Continuous Progress proposes instead that helping grantees prove “contribution” rather than “attribution” is a valid and more provable goal. It can also reduce tensions within coalitions when grantmakers and grantseekers agree that no single organization should get all the credit.

Collaboration: Opportunities for Shared Learning
Continuous Progress brings to life the possibilities offered by a collaboration between grantmakers and advocates during planning and evaluation. The tools make it easy. A special icon tells users when they can easily jump to the corresponding discussion in the other guide. If you're an advocate, the icon tells you, “Here's your chance to see how a grantmaker might think about whether to fund a coalition.”

The guides focus on the importance of tracking incremental progress, highlighting the value of continuous learning that, when shared, builds capacity of individual organizations and the advocacy field as a whole. Staying true to our own principles, we welcome your feedback about ways to improve the tools; together, we can make continuous progress.

1 The authors would like to acknowledge Justin van Fleet and Tarek Rizk for their support in the development of Continuous Progress.
2 Continuous Progress features an extensive list of recent studies and tools available on evaluation of public policy, advocacy grantmaking, communications strategy, and studies of U.S. public opinion on global issues, among others. Visit www.continuousprogress.org/node/56 to view the full list.

Edith Asibey
Principal
E. Asibey Consulting
21-48 47th Street, 1st floor
New York, NY 11105
Tel: 646-239-8774
Email: edith@asibey.com

David Devlin-Foltz
Director
Global Interdependence Initiative
The Aspen Institute,
One Dupont Circle NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: 202-736-5812
Email: ddf@aspeninstitute.org