Date: Monday, November 2, 2026
My name is Alissa Marchant, Co-Director of Innovation Network and co-Chair of the Advocacy Policy Change TIG. I think a lot about how power shows up in our systems, and how people can build and influence power for change. In this post, I share four applied frameworks for power building in advocacy work.
Foundations have become more interested in supporting community power building in recent years. I’ve seen it in how the conversation around advocacy evaluation has shifted: from a focus on policy wins to a focus on building power as an advocacy outcome.
In response, evaluators like me have been called upon to explore a line of questioning that movement builders have always asked: How can people build power for social change? New frameworks have emerged that seek to name categories of power and build understanding of what power is and how it shifts.
I’ve been collecting these frameworks, especially frameworks that are grounded in the direct work of movement builders, showcasing the knowledge of the people making change.
These frameworks are imperfect. While frameworks can build common language and understanding for solving injustice, they can also be used to perpetuate the status quo. Even so, they are a window into what power building looks like in different contexts and how different advocacy groups approach power building. And they provide a way for us as evaluators to unpack what power means and how to measure it.
Below I share some frameworks that describe the types of power that we see at play in advocacy work, frameworks that have real examples connected to advocacy and are built with movement builders themselves.
Here are the four applied frameworks for power building for social change:
In comparing these frameworks, I’m noticing a couple of things. First, power building starts at the individual level: before people can come together as a collective, they have to see their own agency and their connection to an issue, so attention is focused on the individual to start. Second, relational and internal dynamics are prerequisites to external influence—power is built within an environment of safety, trust, and collective alignment.
What other power building frameworks do you reference? Please share in the comments!
*AI note. All resource curation and the original draft of the post was by me. I used ChangeAgentAI to suggest edits for readability and clarity.
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