Community Organizing and
Advocacy Capacity
Assessment Nuances
Susan Hoechstetter
November 11, 2010
Continuum for Organizing
and Advocacy Work
Advocacy
Community Organizing
For Many Groups Effective Evaluation Requires Both Models
Continuum for Organizing
and Advocacy
Community
Organizing
Advocacy
Mainly
Power
Mainly
Policy
Policy,
Some
Power
Policy
& Power
Power,
Some
Policy
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.
II.
III.
Organizational Indicators:
AFJ DRAFT COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
CAPACITY INDICATORS
I. Organizational Indicators:
Decision making structures
Organizing commitment/resources
Advocacy Agenda
Fiscal Sustainability
Organizational
commitment/resources
Constituent leadership in decision-making
Relationship Indicators:
II. Empowerment/Constituent Leadership
Indicators:
Advocacy base
Constituents understand concepts of organizing
Advocacy partners
Constituent leadership is developed and utilized
Advocacy targets
Constituents develop Political Consciousness and
Sense of Empowerment
Strategy/ Knowledge & Skills
Indicators:
Media skills and infrastructure
Issue expertise
Advocacy strategies
Knowledge, skills, and systems to
effectively implement strategies
III.Strategy/ Knowledge & Skills Indicators:
Media Skills and Infrastructure
Community Organizing Strategy
Staff/Constituent Relations
Knowledge, skills, and tools to obtain organizing
outcomes
“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
New November 2010!
•
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…
Available at the Alliance for Justice Website:
www.bolderadvocacy.org/RECO
AFJ ADVOCACY CAPACITY INDICATORS
•
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 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