Community Organizing and Advocacy Capacity

Assessment NuancesSusan HoechstetterNovember 11, 2010

Continuum for Organizing

and Advocacy Work

Advocacy Community Organizing

For Many Groups Effective Evaluation Requires Both Models

Continuum for Organizing and Advocacy

Power, Some PolicyPolicy

& Power

Policy,Some

Power

Mainly Policy

Mainly Power

AdvocacyCommunity Organizing

Groups May Self-Define Differently!

Similarities:Organizing and Advocacy

• Social good, passion

• Long-term

• External factors, changes in course

• Complex processes

• Capacity building critical

• Not easy to measure

• Self evaluation important

Differences:Organizing and Advocacy

• Empowerment vs policy influence

• Focus on democratic leadership—CO

• Social justice focus--CO

• Leadership development—CO

• “Professional” staff guidance—Advocacy

• Attitudes, culture

PICO believes that when people have power they can protect the things that are important to their families and their communities, and that one way to have power is to build strong, broad-based, democratic organizations. 

The Marin County Equal Voice Coalition represents a broad-based partnership of organizations that…work collaboratively to address the need for policy change …to improve our quality of life. We aim to…empower our constituencies to participate in decision-making processes that shape our communities

The Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) is the leading national nonprofit organization

working to improve public policies and public-private partnerships to eradicate hunger and undernutrition in the United States. FRAC works with hundreds of national, state and

local nonprofit organizations, public agencies, corporations and labor organizations to address hunger, food insecurity, and their root cause, poverty.

AFJ ADVOCACY CAPACITY INDICATORS

I. Organizational Indicators:

Decision making structures

Advocacy Agenda

Organizational commitment/resources

II. Relationship Indicators:

Advocacy base

Advocacy partners

Advocacy targets

III. Strategy/ Knowledge & Skills Indicators:

Media skills and infrastructure

Issue expertise

Advocacy strategies

Knowledge, skills, and systems to effectively implement strategies

I. Organizational Indicators:

Organizing commitment/resources

Fiscal Sustainability

Constituent leadership in decision-making

II. Empowerment/Constituent Leadership Indicators:

Constituents understand concepts of organizing

Constituent leadership is developed and utilized

Constituents develop Political Consciousness and Sense of Empowerment

III.Strategy/ Knowledge & Skills Indicators:

Media Skills and Infrastructure

Community Organizing Strategy

Staff/Constituent Relations

Knowledge, skills, and tools to obtain organizing outcomes

AFJ DRAFT COMMUNITY ORGANIZING CAPACITY INDICATORS

“Advocacy and community organizing are very close cousins and they strengthen each other."

 -Marjorie Fine  The Linchpin Campaign of the Center for Community Change

Resources for Evaluating Community Organizing

• An Evaluation of the Ford Foundation's Neighborhood and Family Initiative, by Robert J. Chaskin, Selma Chipenda-Dansokho, Mark Joseph, and Carla Richards, a report by the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago

• Creating Change through Community Organizing: Funding Strategies That Develop Local Leadership and Build Collective Power, by Marjorie Fine of the Center for Community Change

• “Do-it-Yourself Evaluation of Community Organizing” videos, created by Blueprint Research & Design.

• Grassroots Action and Learning for Social Change:  Evaluating Community Organizing, by Catherine Crystal Foster & Justin Louie

• Movement Building Indicators, by the Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice

• Organizer Training and Bi-annual Strategic Evaluation and Organizer Evaluation,by Rabbi Moshe Ben Asher of Gather the People

More…

New November 2010!

Available at the Alliance for Justice Website: www.bolderadvocacy.org/RECO

• Organizational Indicators:– Decision making structures– Advocacy Agenda– Organizational commitment/resources

• Relationship Indicators:– Advocacy base– Advocacy partners– Advocacy targets

• Strategy/ Knowledge & Skills Indicators:– Media skills and infrastructure– Issue expertise– Advocacy strategies– Knowledge, skills, and systems to effectively implement

strategies

AFJ ADVOCACY CAPACITY INDICATORS

AFJ DRAFT COMMUNITY ORGANIZING CAPACITY INDICATORS

• Organizational Indicators:– Organizing commitment/resources– Fiscal Sustainability– Constituent leadership in decision-making

• Empowerment/Constituent Leadership Indicators:– Constituents understand concepts of organizing– Constituent leadership is developed and utilized– Constituents develop Political Consciousness and Sense of

Empowerment

• Strategy/ Knowledge & Skills Indicators:– Media Skills and Infrastructure– Community Organizing Strategy– Staff/Constituent Relations– Knowledge, skills, and tools to obtain organizing outcomes