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Session Title: The Holy Grail Of Advocacy Evaluation: Connecting Advocacy to Long-Term Impact
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Panel Session 331 to be held in Panzacola Section F1 on Thursday, Nov 12, 3:35 PM to 4:20 PM
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Sponsored by the Advocacy and Policy Change TIG
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| Chair(s): |
| Beth Rosen, Humane Society of the United States, brosen@hsus.org
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| Susan Hoechstetter, Alliance for Justice, shoech@afj.org
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| Discussant(s):
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| Philip Setel, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, philip.setel@gatesfoundation.org
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| Abstract:
The Holy Grail of advocacy evaluation may be learning how the lives of people intended to benefit from advocacy are affected over time. In this session, presenters will discuss how they faced time constraints, high costs, and other challenges to connecting advocacy/community organizing to long-term improvements in social welfare.
The first presenter will discuss methodology used to assess financial savings accrued in New Mexico through nonprofit work, citing findings from her recently completed study "Strengthening Democracy, Increasing Opportunities: Impacts of Advocacy, Organizing, and Civic Engagement in New Mexico." Different approaches to assessing long-term impact will be discussed by a Florida funder who worked in collaboration with national and other local funders to define and measure the long-term impact of advocacy/community organizing accomplished by grantees of their Fund. Before opening the session to a discussion with all participants, evaluation staff from the nation's largest foundation will react to the methodologies described.
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Methodology for Determining Long-Term Advocacy Impact
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| Lisa Ranghelli, National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, lranghelli@ncrp.org
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The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy completed the first of its series of studies on the long-term impact of advocacy and community organizing in 2008. Their documented findings included that every dollar invested in advocacy garnered $157 in benefits for New Mexico communities, and that the state economy has received numerous economic benefits from the work. The author of "Strengthening Democracy, Increasing Opportunities: Impacts of Advocacy, Organizing, and Civic Engagement in New Mexico" will discuss how these findings and more were obtained.
When the methodology was presented at a 2009 it was both acclaimed as groundbreaking and noted for missing inclusion of factors external to the advocates' work that might affect the impacts. The evaluator/report author will also share the strengths and challenges of the New Mexico study and methodological changes being planned the next state study.
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Funder Perspectives on Measuring Long Term Impact
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| Charisse Grant, Dade Community Foundation, charisse.grant@dadecommunityfoundation.org
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In 2004, the Dade Community Foundation partnered with the Ford Foundation and other Florida funders to establish the Fund for Community Organizing to build the capacity of community organizing organizations. For this session, the speaker will share how she, the foundation, and the organizing funding collaborative defined and measured the long-term impact of advocacy and organizing in Dade County. For example, two of the Fund's grantee organizations obtained a policy agreement from Miami-Dade County's Housing agency to provided 1-for-1 replacement of all 850 low-income housing units the county had recently demolished. The county, though, did not know where to locate displaced residents to make sure they had received the housing. How the Fund determined the impact of these and other policy gains will be discussed with a focus on the challenges of assessing impact in a way that is useful, but not overly burdensome for nonprofit partners (grantees).
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