Browse research Resources
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"Participatory Performance Story Reporting" Clear Horizon, an M&E company in Australia, describes its participatory approach, specifically as it relates to the method of performance story reporting (PPSR). The company defines performance story reports as "essentially a short report about how a program contributed to outcomes." This page on their website includes links to other pages that describe the structure, process, and limitations of this the PPSR method. Author: Clear Horizon Type: Websites & Online Tools Date: Dec 31, 2008 Be the first to review this resource! Download (161.39 KB) -
"Real-life Lessons Learned and Resources in Building Capacity for Advocacy and Policy Evaluation among KIDS COUNT Grantees" The Annie E. Casey Foundation and Organizational Research Services, Inc. recount ten lessons learned from an evaluation of five KIDS COUNT grantees that began in 2007. The evaluation was designed to test some of the ideas presented in "A Guide to Measuring Advocacy and Policy", a report produced by AECF and ORS in 2006. This handout, distributed at the American Evaluation Association 2008 conference, also contains a list of advocacy evaluation resources available on ORS's website. Author: Annie E. Casey Foundation; Organizational Research Services Type: Tipsheets & Paper Tools Date: Nov 6, 2008 Be the first to review this resource! Download (261.49 KB) -
2008 Civic Engagement Evaluation Assessment and Recommendations for the Field 2008 was a historic year for civic participation in the United States. The Funders’ Committee for Civic Participation (FCCP) brings together grantmakers committed to enhancing democratic participation in all aspects of civic life. Its nearly 80 members comprised of private, public and community foundations collectively contributed scores of millions of dollars to non-partisan civic engagement efforts of all kinds nationwide.
Author: Lacy M. Serros Type: Research & Reports Date: Dec 1, 2009 Be the first to review this resource! Download (699.52 KB) -
2008 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study: An Analysis of Online Messaging, Fundraising and Advocacy Metrics for Nonprofit Organizations Note: This resource is free, but you must supply your name and email to download it from the authors' website.
Author: M+R Strategic Services; Nonprofit Technology Network Type: Research & Reports Date: Jan 1, 2008
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2012 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study: An Analysis of Online Messaging, Fundraising, Advocacy, Social Media and Mobile Metrics... Note: This resource is free, but you must supply your name and email to download it from the authors' website.
2012 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study: An Analysis of Online Messaging, Fundraising, Advocacy, Social Media and Mobile Metrics for Nonprofit Organizations
Author: M+R Strategic Services; Nonprofit Technology Network Type: Research & Reports Date: Jan 1, 2012 Be the first to review this resource! Download (2.25 MB) -
A Case Study in "Grassroots" Lobbying: How MADD Fixed the Flaw in Hawaii's Drunk-Driving Law This brief case study highlights MADD's public policy situation, lobbying strategies, tactics, and outcomes. The study includes examples of key indicators for grass roots lobbying. Author: W.K. Kellogg Foundation Type: Research & Reports Date: Jun 1, 2006
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A Case Study in Advocacy Through Public Education: How the Public Media Center Used Facts to Counter Tobacco Industry Politics This brief case study highlights how California Public Health advocates used public education to sway voter support for a ballot initiative. Author: W.K. Kellogg Foundation Type: Research & Reports Date: Jun 1, 2006
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A Guide to Actionable Measurement Staff members from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation discuss the principles and practices they use to make decisions about data collection, analysis, and reporting. Their approach, "actionable measurement," emphasizes the collection of information for specific decisions or actions.
UPDATE: We had a broken link here. It was updated on Jan. 13, 2011.
Author: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Type: Research & Reports Date: May 10, 2010
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A Guide to Measuring Advocacy and Policy Developed for the Annie E. Casey Foundation, this guide serves as a broad call to grantmakers to build and advance the field of advocacy and policy evaluation. The guide includes sections on the context of advocacy evaluation and evaluation design. Author: Reisman, Jane, et al. Type: Research & Reports Date: Mar 15, 2007
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A Guide to Measuring Advocacy and Policy This guide provides some perspective on where the field of philanthropy has been with regard to evaluation of advocacy and policy and also acknowledges the unique issues and challenges associated with measuring these efforts. In addition, this guide serves as an invitation to grantmakers to engage in and expand thinking about evaluation as it relates to advocacy and policy efforts. As seriously as many grantmakers take their investments in this area, foundations should also take seriously the need to advance evaluation of advocacy and policy work.
Author: Prepared for Annie E. Casey Foundation Research by Organizational Research Services Type: Research & Reports Date: Jan 1, 2007 Be the first to review this resource! Download (255.04 KB) -
A Model for Multilevel Advocacy Evaluation Tanya Beer of The Colorado Trust and Ehren Reed of Innovation Network produced this article for The Foundation Review to describe a three-year advocacy evaluation capacity building project for nine health access advocacy organizations in Colorado. Author: Tanya Beer, The Colorado Trust; Ehren Reed, Innovation Network Type: Research & Reports Date: Oct 1, 2009 Be the first to review this resource! Download (990.44 KB) -
A Practical Guide for Engaging Stakeholders in Developing Evaluation Questions This guide describes a five-step process for engaging stakeholders in developing evaluation
questions, and includes four worksheets and a case example to further facilitate the planning
and implementation of your stakeholder engagement process.Step 1: Prepare for stakeholder engagement: This step includes collecting information about
the program or initiative being evaluated—its history, why it came into being, what it is trying
to accomplish and what success would look like.Author: Hallie Preskill and Nathalie Jones Type: Workbooks & Guides Date: Jun 1, 2009 Be the first to review this resource! Download (1001.41 KB) -
A Practical Guide to Documenting Influence and Leverage In Making Connections Communities How does one document influence (change in policies, systems, practices and/or opinions that support one’s strategies) and leverage (investment by public and private funders in one’s strategies)?
Author: Organizational Research Services Type: Research & Reports Date: Feb 12, 2007
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A Practical Guide to Documenting Influence and Leverage In Making Connections Communities This guide offers practical steps for capturing and documenting the effects of influence and leverage in Casey's making Connections communities. Through examples of influence and leverage outcomes -- as well as tools and methods for data collection -- this guide pointed the way for Making Connections teams, partners and funders to better communicate and refine strategies to help improve the lives of vulnerable children.
Author: Commissioned by Annie E. Casey Foundation. Researched by Organizational Research Services. Type: Research & Reports Date: Dec 8, 2004 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
A Practical Guide to Evaluating Systems Change in a Human Services System Context This Guide is for evaluators who would like a practical “way in” to thinking about systems and systemschange. The key practical step the Guide takes is to limit the type of system to be evaluated to aparticular type of system (a type that systems change initiatives often target): a human servicesdelivery system (e.g. health, education, workforce development, etc.).Author: Nancy Latham Type: Research & Reports Date: Jan 1, 2015 Be the first to review this resource! Download (1.03 MB) -
A User's Guide to Advocacy Evaluation Planning Julia Coffman of Harvard Family Research Project produced this free guide to advocacy evaluation planning for advocates, evaluators, and funders. The guide introduces users to the composite logic model and includes a pullout worksheet along with several lists of sample advocacy evaluation outcomes and methods. Author: Julia Coffman Type: Workbooks & Guides Date: Sep 1, 2009 Point K Pick
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Achieving a Policy Change: Key Strategies and Factors for Success The authors, from the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco, presented the following issue brief at the American Evaluation Association 2008 conference. The document includes two case studies from an evaluation of The California Endowment's Clinic Consortia Policy and Advocacy Program between 2001 and 2006. Author: Gardner, Annette; Marshall, Nell; Geierstanger, Sara; Quinn, Holly Type: Research & Reports Date: Oct 1, 2008
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ActionAid Update No. 1 The ActionAid Update newsletter series provides a summary of the impact of participatory policy work being undertaken by ActionAid, an international anti-poverty agency. The action research project was carried out over a period of three years in four countries: Brazil, Ghana, Nepal, and Uganda. In each country, a research facilitator worked with 1-3 partner organizations to explore some of the challenges they were facing with their advocacy work. Author: ActionAid International Type: Newsletters & Periodicals Date: Jan 1, 2003 Be the first to review this resource! Download (486.41 KB) -
ActionAid Update No. 2 The ActionAid Update newsletter series provides a summary of the impact of participatory policy work being undertaken by ActionAid, an international anti-poverty agency. The action research project was carried out over a period of three years in four countries: Brazil, Ghana, Nepal and Uganda. In each country, a research facilitator worked with 1-3 partner organizations to explore some of the challenges they were facing with their advocacy work. Author: ActionAid International Type: Newsletters & Periodicals Date: Apr 1, 2003
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ActionAid Update No. 3 The ActionAid Update newsletter series provides a summary of the impact of participatory policy work being undertaken by ActionAid, an international anti-poverty agency. The action research project was carried out over a period of three years in four countries: Brazil, Ghana, Nepal and Uganda. In each case, a research facilitator worked with 1-3 partner organizations to explore some of the challenges they were facing with their advocacy work. Author: ActionAid International Type: Newsletters & Periodicals Date: Jul 1, 2003 Be the first to review this resource! Download (1.71 MB) -
Addressing Attribution of Cause and Effect in Small n Impact Evaluations: Towards an Integrated Framework With the results agenda in the ascendancy in the development community, there is an increasing need to demonstrate that development spending makes a difference, that it has an impact. This requirement to demonstrate results has fuelled an increase in the demand for, and production of, impact evaluations. There exists considerable consensus among impact evaluators conducting large n impact evaluations involving tests of statistical difference in outcomes between the treatment group and a properly constructed comparison group.
Author: Howard White and Daniel Phillips Type: Research & Reports Date: Jun 1, 2012
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Advocacy & Policy Change Composite Logic Model and associated materials This collaborative work by more than 50 advocates, grantmakers, and evaluators offers a way to improve communication in the advocacy evaluation field by articulating common goals, outcomes, and indicators. Supplements to the Model include guiding questions, definitions, and samples based on hypothetical advocacy situations—one each for the intended "strategy" and "evaluation" uses of the Model. There is also an online tool based on the Model.
Author: Coffman, Julia, et al. Type: Tipsheets & Paper Tools Date: Apr 1, 2007
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Advocacy & Public Policy Grantmaking: Matching Process to Purpose The Colorado Trust, in an effort to better understand the field of funding advocacy and public policy work, commissioned this publication to describe strategies funders use; advantages and tradeoffs to funding advocacy; implications for funders, advocates, and evaluation; and implications for the outcomes the Colorado Trust is working towards. It identifies three buckets of funding strategies that have emerged: the policy target approach, the advocacy niche approach, and the field building approach.
Author: Tanya Beer, Pilar Stella Ingargiola, Meghann Flynn Beer Type: Research & Reports Date: Aug 1, 2012 Be the first to review this resource! Download (379.48 KB) -
Advocacy & Public Policy Grantmaking: Matching Process to Purpose Building on research conducted in 2007 by Coffman and Campbell, this brief summarizes advocacy and public policy grantmaking approaches and their implications for grant portfolio composition and management, auxiliary supports and evaluation. “Advocacy and public policy grantmaking” refers to grantmaking in support of a wide range of advocacy activities that are intend to trigger, block, maintain, support and/or monitor changes in public policy at any level of government. Author: Tanya Beer, Pilar Stella Ingargiola, and Meghann Flynn Beer Type: Research & Reports Date: Aug 5, 2012 Be the first to review this resource! Download (1.17 MB) -
Advocacy and evaluation: national organizations as advocates Canadian Evaluation Society's approach to advocating evaluation at the national level, focusing on transnational sharing of evaluation knowledge to promote the use of evaluation in society. Author: Joe Kpachevsky, Marie-Hélène Adrien, & Charles Lusthaus Type: Research & Reports Date: Sep 1, 2000 Be the first to review this resource! Download (33.25 KB)