Category:

Optional

Description and Purpose:

This is a reference tool that builds understanding of the M&E requirements of grantors.

Method:

Read the following tips for evaluating advocacy, and incorporate lessons learned into your M&E system.

Discuss Evaluation Expectations Early
Grantors and grantees can arrive at a common understanding early on of reasonable advocacy expectations and of ways to demonstrate the grantee's contribution.

Develop Long-Term as well as Incremental Goals
Policy goals may take years or even decades to achieve. For instance, a grantee may have a long-term goal of including humane education within the schools curriculum nationally within ten years, and an incremental goal of including human education in all primary schools of one state/province within one year.

Use Benchmarks to Measure Outcomes, Progress, Capacity Building
A sample outcome benchmark may be obtaining a $1 million government funding for humane education programs; a progress benchmark could be support gained from a key policy-maker; a capacity building benchmark may be educating 100 supporters about the issue and mobilizing them to contact officials.

Use Benchmarks of Success that Target Relevant Audiences
Target audiences may include public officials, the public/constituents, other organizations, and the grantee’s own organization.

Tell the Story
Tell the story behind the benchmarks. Explain the process, and why something did or didn’t work.

Make Use of Available Evaluation Resources and Plan Ahead
Organizations' self-evaluations can be very informative. When planning to use outside evaluators, grantees should include them in early budgets.

Make the Evaluation Fit the Nature of the Advocacy Work Conducted
As an example, obtaining face-to-face meetings with key officials to discuss a policy issue might sound routine. In fact, the meetings might be hard-won, critical steps in an effort to influence policy-makers, and should be documented and evaluated accordingly.

Adapted from: Investing in Change - A Funder’s Guide to Supporting Advocacy A publication of Alliance for Justice