In this post for Center for Effective Philanthropy, my colleague David Shorr and I argue that advocacy organizations and their funders learn best when the advocates themselves are supported to measure progress on their highest-priority issues and concerns.
Focusing on what grantees want to learn helps ensure that measurement is consistently incorporated into advocacy grantees’ busy schedules, and that the information that’s obtained is actually used by grantees to adjust to their environments and course-correct when necessary.
Drawing on our experience with clients, we give examples of measurement projects where clients were empowered to focus on important advocacy-policy change concerns and put that learning to immediate use.