|
Commissioned by The Annie E. Casey Foundation:
"A
Guide to Measuring Advocacy and Policy"
As more foundations and nonprofits have engaged in advocacy and policy
work to address public issues and effect social change, there is a growing
desire to gauge the impact of investments in this area. How to evaluate
the effectiveness of advocacy and policy work is an emerging question
of interest within the philanthropic and nonprofit audiences. Answering
that question, however, has proven difficult because relatively few
instructive resources exist to help those who wish to measure progress
in this area.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation commissioned
this guide to help determine meaningful ways to measure and evaluate
the impact of its advocacy and public policy grantmaking. Although a primary intent of this guide
is to contribute practical guidance to the Annie E. Casey Foundation
regarding evaluation of the Foundation’s investments, this guide
also serves as a broad call to grantmakers to build and
advance the field of evaluation in this area.
The overall purpose of this guide is twofold. To help grantmakers think
about and talk about measurement of advocacy and policy, this guide
puts forth a framework for naming outcomes associated
with advocacy and policy as well as directions for
evaluation design. The framework is intended to provide
a common way to identify and talk about outcomes, providing philanthropic
and nonprofit audiences an opportunity to react to, refine and adopt
the outcome categories presented. In addition, grantmakers can
consider some key directions for evaluation design that include a broad
range of methodologies, intensities, timeframes and purposes.
As a companion to this guide, ORS has
collected examples of measurement tools that are applicable
to advocacy and policy work. These are presented in “A
Handbook of Data Collection Tools: Companion to a
Guide to Measuring Advocacy and Policy”.
This handbook of data collection tools
is intended to serve as a companion to “A Guide to Measuring Advocacy and Policy.” Organizational
Research Services (ORS) developed this guide on behalf
of the Annie E. Casey Foundation to support efforts to develop and
implement an evaluation of advocacy and policy work. The companion
handbook is dedicated to providing examples of practical tools and
processes for collecting useful information from policy and advocacy
efforts. It is available in both document form and as an online resource.
Please see AECF.ORG, ORGANIZATIONALRESEARCH.COM and INNONET.ORG.
“A
Practical Guide to Documenting Influence and Leverage
in Making Connections Communities” (925 kb)
This manual offers practical guidance to capturing and documenting
influence and leverage in a Making Connections community. It
provides clarification, concrete examples and suggested approaches for
documentation of these often elusive concepts.
The guide is intended to be versatile to meet a wide
variety of specific audiences and needs.
“Theory of Change: A Practical Tool for Action, Results and Learning”,
Annie E. Casey Foundation (820 kb)
This guide describes an approach and practical strategies
for engaging in theory of change work with community
partners. It offers instructions in using specific techniques or “so that” chains
and outcome maps in the development of a theory of change.
Commissioned by the Office of Crime Victims Advocacy:
"Gauging
Progress: A Guidebook for Community Sexual Assault
Programs and Community Development Initiatives"(1,173
kb)
This guide is based on material from “Outcomes for Success!” and
evaluation reports developed for the Office of Crime
Victims Advocacy. It is customized with examples and
exercises for sexual assault program staff and community
stakeholders who are doing social change work specifically
using the Lofquist community development model. This
document is intended to lay the groundwork for thinking
about how to gauge progress, with an emphasis on how
to conceptualize evaluation of a community development
initiative.
Commissioned by the Center for Substance Abuse’s
Western Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies:
"A Guide to Preparing the Arizona Program Design and Evaluation
Logic Model", (1,998 kb)
This manual, produced by [WestCAPT and the State of
Arizona], is intended to be a “travel guide” to help agencies
on their program planning and outcome evaluation journey. It is written
for those in the substance use prevention and treatment community
who wish to develop or enhance their ability to effectively plan and
evaluate their programs. The material in this manual is presented
in a step-by-step, easy-to-digest format with many practical and relevant
examples and activities to help you apply planning and evaluation
concepts to your own programs.
Hopefully, this manual will enable readers to become
knowledgeable about and invested in planning and evaluation efforts
for those involved in prevention and treatment initiatives and will
have developed a critical learning tool that can help to ensure program
success.
Commissioned by the United Nations:
"How
to Design and Carry Out Data Collection Strategies
for Results-based Budgeting: A Step-by-Step Guide", United
Nations (1,157
kb)
The UN training manual is intended to guide United Nations
program managers and staff through the process of planning and implementing
data collection strategies.
|
