Evaluating Advocacy Campaigns

January 29, 2007 at 10:18 pm 10 comments

I’ve written previously about work that others and myself have done on evaluating communication campaigns, particulary concerning campaigns that aim for both changes in individual behaviour and government/private sector policies. In this same direction, a post from the Mission Measurement blog caught my eye on evaluating advocacy campaigns. They make the very relevant point that although evaluating the impact of advocacy campaigns is difficult – trying to isolate the precise influence on changes being observed – what certainly can be measured is the progress towards the desired change.

They go on to provide some further insight into this issue, by looking at various measurements undertaken, such as:

Number of contacts established
Intermediate changes to knowledge/attitudes
Measuring progress of change on a continuum
Bellweather ratings

Read the full post here >>

In the same vein, what I recommend to organisations is to set clear objectives to start with in terms of what is precisely expected from advocacy/campaigning and establish relatively simple “tracking mechanisms” to follow “progress” on an issue – on a policy level (e..g. number of governments that publicly commit to a given issue) or at an individual level (e.g number of people who pledge to undertake a given action). Often this information is “known” within an organisation but is not centralised or analysed – making any conclusion on a campaign’s impact difficult.

Glenn

Entry filed under: Advocacy evaluation, Campaign evaluation, Communication evaluation, PR evaluation, Research & Studies.

Measuring an organisation’s position D.I.Y. Workshop on Monitoring and Evaluation in Geneva

10 Comments Add your own

1. George Kyriacou | March 6, 2007 at 4:47 pm

Hi Glenn,

I’d like to contact you to talk about a possible contribution to my magazine. Our next edition will explore the facets of evaluation and measurement from the Comms spectrum.
Please go ahead and contact me where we could get a conversation underway.
Best
George
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2. Glenn | March 8, 2007 at 9:47 am

thank you George, i will certainly contact you.
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3. Ntlhonamo Khabisi Bokaako | March 12, 2007 at 12:44 pm

more elaboration of words so that it is easy to understand more
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4. Douglas W Hubbard | March 25, 2007 at 3:54 pm

The content of this blog makes me think that the readers would be interested in my book “How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business”. Although the term “business” is in the title, it broadly address measurement issues for a variety of topics, including media and the affects of government policy.

It’s a book about the quantitative methods some people have used to measure things often thought to be “immeasurable” but I think I’ve made it very accessible to the general management audience. It’s not out until July 2007 but you can find it now on Amazon and most of the other book-seller sites.

Douglas W Hubbard
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5. Glenn | March 25, 2007 at 7:59 pm

Thank you Douglas, I looked through you book’s table of contents and your approach does interest me – I’ll be getting a copy once available!
Glenn
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6. Susan | April 15, 2007 at 11:25 pm

How do I get to your new book’s table of contents? I would like to review it for my organization’s new newsletter.

Thanks,
Sue
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7. Douglas W Hubbard | April 16, 2007 at 2:13 am

Sorry for my infrequent visits to your discussion. Sue asked me for the table of contents. I’ll post it on the books website within the next few days at http://www.howtomeasureanything.com

Thanks for your interest!

Doug Hubbard
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8. Doug Hubbard | June 11, 2007 at 9:29 pm

I have a synopsis, table of contents and some very nice early endorsements for the book “How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business”. Sue was asking for copies of this material. Tell me where to send it and I will be happy to oblige.

Thanks,
Doug Hubbard
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9. Glenn | June 12, 2007 at 8:58 pm

Thanks Doug; I’ve sent you Sue’s email. I read the synopsis, it does look interesting.

Glenn
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10. Evaluating advocacy campaigns - No. 2 « intelligent measurement | April 7, 2008 at 2:03 pm

[…] written previously about work that others and myself have done on evaluating communication and advocacy campaigns, […]
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