There are a wealth of resources available to help think through evaluation in the context of advocacy. Below are a few we reference in specific sections throughout this toolkit that may provide you with an alternative, comprehensive resource for developing your evaluation plan. Each provides a different set of tools, some of which overlap with portions of this toolkit, but that also provide unique tools.
Point K is a learning center developed by Innovation Network. The learning center has free tools and resources, some of which are oriented around advocacy evaluation. Point K includes an evaluation plan builder; an online tool for developing an evaluation plan, from identifying questions to selecting indicators to documenting your data collection strategies. While these materials are not specific to advocacy, they are compatible with the needs of advocates and very user friendly.
The Advocacy Progress Planner from the Aspen Institute is a free online “logic model builder” for advocates who want to start thinking about planning and evaluation. It is particularly helpful for thinking through the design of your advocacy strategies and can help you identify benchmarks to measure along the way.
The Progress Planner is accompanied by the Continuous Progress Advocacy Tools, a suite of tools to help with advocacy planning and evaluations, during and after a campaign.
The Center for Evaluation Innovation has advocacy evaluation as one of its major focus areas. They publish briefs, case studies, tools, articles, and other resources on evaluating advocacy for funder and evaluator audiences.
Check out these great briefs of advocacy evaluation: The Advocacy Strategy Framework and Four Tools for Assessing Grantee Contribution to Advocacy Efforts.
- The User’s Guide to Advocacy Evaluation Planning is one of the most accessible, straight-forward resources for advocacy evaluation available online. It will walk you through many of the steps highlighted here, including focusing the evaluation and selecting interim outcomes.
- If you’re looking for a comprehensive list of data collection tools for advocacy settings and information on how to use them, The Handbook of Data Collection Tools is your go-to resource. Prepared by Organizational Research Services on behalf of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the handbook includes over 20 example tools from a diverse array of advocacy settings plus guidance on when and how to use different data collection strategies.
