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Session Title: Evaluating Policy and Advocacy Organizations Through Short Term Measures of Organizational Capacity
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Panel Session 381 to be held in Carroll Room on Thursday, November 8, 1:55 PM to 3:25 PM
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Sponsored by the Advocacy and Policy Change TIG
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| Chair(s): |
| Astrid Hendricks,
The California Endowment,
ahendricks@calendow.org
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| Discussant(s):
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| Don Crary,
Annie E Casey Foundation,
dcrary@aecf.org
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| Astrid Hendricks,
The California Endowment,
ahendricks@calendow.org
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| Abstract:
The policy and advocacy field has struggled with developing evaluation approaches, measures and tools that are relevant to its information needs, particularly regarding organizational capacity of policy and advocacy organizations, which ultimately leads to successful policy and advocacy work. Drawing from our recent work in evaluating policy and advocacy organizations that received general support grants from The California Endowment, we highlight the importance of organizational capacities for policy and advocacy organizations in four areas: leadership, management, adaptive and technical. We discuss how this core capacity framework can benefit both funders and advocates in assessing readiness factors of organizations. We also present the Advocacy Core Capacity Assessment Tool (ACCAT) as one mechanism for measuring organizational capacity of policy and advocacy organizations. Discussants will offer their reactions and insights about how this core capacity framework and assessment tool could fill the current knowledge gap about how to evaluate policy and advocacy organizations.
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The Context for Evaluating Policy and Advocacy Organizations: Challenges and Limitations
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| Shao-Chee Sim,
TCC Group,
ssim@tccgrp.com
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We begin by providing an overview of the changing political, economic, and social contexts of the work of policy and advocacy organizations. We then discuss the increasing trends in philanthropy towards making greater investments in policy and advocacy organizations. Along with this increased attention have come greater efforts to understand the effectiveness of policy and advocacy organizations. Drawing from some recent work in the evaluation literature and our collective experience in this area, we discuss the unique challenges and limitations in evaluating the outcomes of policy and advocacy organizations. More importantly, we argue that the current missing link is how funders, advocates and evaluators have overlooked efforts to strengthen the left side of the logic model - organizational readiness to undertake important policy and advocacy activities.
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Proposing A Core Organizational Capacity Framework to Evaluate Short-term Outcomes of Policy and Advocacy Organizations
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| Pete York,
TCC Group,
pyork@tccgrp.com
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Building upon its work of evaluating the organizational capacity of nonprofit organizations, TCC brings an important element of understanding key organizational traits for conducting policy and advocacy activities. We present a core capacities framework that looks at effective nonprofit organizations comprising of four capacities (Leadership, Adaptive, Management and Technical). We also include organizational culture as a component of the assessment since it has a significant impact on each of the above core capacities. We also discuss the similarities and differences between TCC organizational capacity framework and the advocacy assessment tool developed by the Alliance of Justice. Building on that framework, we developed a methodology for evaluating specific capacities critical to policy and advocacy organizations, which is intended to assist funders to assess the readiness of potential grantee organizations and to assist advocates in understanding how to run an effective organization.
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Advocacy Core Capacity Assessment Tool: One Mechanism to Measure Organizational Capacity of Policy and Advocacy Organizations
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| Jared Raynor,
TCC Group,
jraynor@tccgrp.com
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Drawing from TCC's work in strengthening organizational capacity of nonprofit organizations, we present the Advocacy Core Capacity Assessment Tool (ACCAT) as a tool for measuring organizational capacity of policy and advocacy organizations. Specifically, in the area of leadership capacity, we examine advocacy board leadership, leadership persuasiveness, community credibility, external credibility, leadership strategic vision and leadership distribution. In the area of adaptive capacity, we examine strategic partnership, measuring policy/advocacy progress, strategic positioning, and funding flexibility. In the area of management capacity, we examine staff roles and management, management systems, staff coordination, and resource management. In the area of technical capacity, we examine legal understanding, general staffing level, policy issue and theory knowledge, stakeholder management skills, stakeholder analysis, media skills, knowledge generation skills, and information dissemination skills. We also share our experiences using this specific tool with major national and state policy and advocacy organizations.
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