Advocacy Evaluation Project Update 

by Lily Zandniapour and Johanna Gladfelter

Innovation Network is happy to announce the completion of Phase I of  the Advocacy Evaluation Project and is thankful for the gracious support of The Atlantic Philanthropies and JEHT Foundation.  During Phase I, we accomplished many things in our effort to move the field of advocacy evaluation beyond assessing policy change into one that considers the fundamental components of advocacy efforts (capacity building, network formation, relationship building, communication, issue framing, leadership development, etc).

The highlight of Phase I is the Project website (www.innonet.org/advocacy).  The website now has a total of more than 80 resources available for free.  Since the site’s inception, it has been accessed over 1,000 times.  Also, the most popular article has been viewed more than 100 times.  While we accomplished many things in Phase I, work remains to be done to continue to advance the field of advocacy evaluation.  To that end, we are proud to announce Phase II of the Advocacy Evaluation Project. 

The second phase of the Advocacy Evaluation Project, funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and The Atlantic Philanthropies, will build on our past successes and enable us to expand the Advocacy Evaluation Project website through feature and capability enhancements, sustained data collection efforts, and continued display of helpful resources for the field.

Looking beyond our work at the field of advocacy evaluation more broadly, the topic was on the minds of many participants in the November 2006 American Evaluation Association conference.  Multiple conference sessions were either directly or indirectly focused on advocacy evaluation, for example:

• Evaluating Advocacy: A Model for Public Policy Initiatives.  InnoNet’s very own Ehren Reed and Jennifer Bagnell Stuart presented initial findings from their experience evaluating the Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

• Measuring Advocacy and Policy Work.  Representatives from the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF), Organizational Research Services (ORS), and Battelle Centers for Public Health Research and Evaluation discussed organizational infrastructure strengthening vs. policy success, and the new resource ORS is developing with the support of AECF.

• Evaluation Foundation Efforts at Policy Change and Advocacy: Frameworks, Tools, and Examples.  This multi-paper session was presented by representatives of The California Endowment, Blueprint Research and Design, Policy and Advocacy Consulting, Community Clinics Initiative, Alliance for Justice, University of California at San Francisco, Group Health Community Foundation, University of Southern California, Towson University, and TCC Group.

• Forming a new TIG Around Evaluating Advocacy and Policy Change. Led by Julia Coffman (Harvard Family Research Project). This session was devoted to assessing interest around formation of a new Topical Interest Group within AEA that would focus on advocacy evaluation.

Based on the participation of many evaluators, funders and practitioners who expressed a need and desire for such an interest group, a consensus was reached in moving forward with the formation of this TIG in the future.

For additional discussion of the 2006 AEA Conference, please see “AEA Conference Highlights”.  Also, AEA members held a meeting to discuss the formation of a new Topical Interest Group (TIG) on Advocacy Evaluation.

To learn more about the Advocacy Evaluation Project, review posted materials, or to suggest additional resources, visit the Project’s website at www.innonet.org/advocacy.  Or, if you would like to stay informed of Project updates, let us know!