Advocacy Evaluation Resource Hub

These step-by-step tools and templates help nonprofits get started with creating evaluation plans to assess and improve their advocacy. They cover practical topics like developing a theory of change, identifying outcomes and indicators, collecting data, and tracking advocacy impact.

• A User’s Guide to Advocacy Evaluation Planning (Harvard Family Research Project)

• Advocacy Evaluation Mini-Toolkit: Tips and Tools for Busy Organizations (LFA Group)

• Advocacy Strategy Framework (Center for Evaluation Innovation)

• A Practical Guide to Advocacy Evaluation (Innovation Network)

How can coalitions build shared power and strategize to achieve a collective goal? These resources help organizations assess key factors that contribute to successful collaboration.

• Collective Power Framework and Indicators (Innovation Network)

• What Makes an Effective Coalition? Evidence-Based Indicators of Success (TCC Group)

• ACS Assess Your Collaboration Tool (Advocacy & Communication Solutions)

Evaluation is a valuable tool for advocates working to mitigate harmful policies and protect hard-fought gains. These resources offer guidance on how to evaluate both reactive and proactive defensive advocacy strategies.

• When the Best Offense is a Good Defense: Understanding and Measuring Advocacy on the Defense (ORS Impact)

• Evaluating Legal Advocacy: A How-to Guide for Evaluators, Funders, and Advocates (TCC Group)

Power-building evaluation resources focus on how advocacy strengthens leadership, relationships, and influence in communities, not just policy wins. They offer indicators, milestones, and reflection tools to help groups assess progress in shifting power to those most affected by the issues they work on.

• Powercube.net, an Online Resource for Thinking About Power Relations (Institute for Development Studies, University of Sussex)

• Policy Wins Aren’t Enough: We Need Advocacy That Builds Power (Center for Evaluation Innovation)

• Supporting Advocacy Ecosystems to Build Power (Center for Evaluation Innovation)

• Six Things We’ve Learned About Power and their Implications for Evaluation (Innovation Network)

Equitable evaluation resources center equity, power, and community voice in how advocacy is assessed. They help organizations align evaluation practices with the values and priorities of impacted communities.

• Equitable Evaluation Framework (Equitable Evaluation Initiative)

• Racial Equity Tools (Equity in the Center)

• Awake to Woke to Work: Building a Race Equity Culture (Equity in the Center)