Handbook of Data Collection Tools: Companion to A Guide to Measuring Advocacy and Policy

An outstanding piece, this 51-page handbook presents a great discussion of outcomes as they relate to policy and advocacy. Intended for grantmakers but useful for nonprofits as well, it encourages users to think about measurement of advocacy and policy efforts toward social change. It offers outcomes lists, examples of data collection tools, and many sample instruments from which users may benefit. It is designed in five main sections: measuring core outcome areas, tools and methods for other evaluation designs, evaluation of strategic progress, measuring short-term incremental objectives, and case study documentation of process and impacts. The first section, measuring core outcome areas, is designed around six outcome areas: shift in social norms, strengthened organizational capacity, strengthened alliances, strengthened base of support, improved policies, and changes in impact. Around those six outcome areas, the authors present a variety of tools and specific approaches, including interviews (with protocol provided), focus groups, meeting observation, surveys, rolling sample surveys, self-assessment tools, tracking forms, logs (many different examples are given), and media tracking tactics. In the subsequent four sections, additional methods are presented, such as case studies, theory-based evaluation, and coding of qualitative data. This handbook also includes a plethora of tools throughout the text, some of which are: a Policy Brief Stakeholder Survey, Sample Focus Group Questions Regarding Attitudes about Welfare, Observation Checklist for Meetings, Sample Survey Questions: Community Members’ Perceptions about Prioritization Of Issues, an Excerpt from Alliance for Justice Advocacy Capacity Assessment Tool, Spider Diagram for Capacity Building Advocacy, KIDS COUNT Self-Assessment Tool, Partnership Integration Tracking Form, Campaign Champions Data Collection Tool, Example Questions from a Survey of Constituents Receiving “Issue Alerts” Excerpt from Build Initiative Checklist, Excerpt from KIDS COUNT Media Tracking Form, Born Learning Washington Monthly Media Tracking Form, Legislative Process Tracking Log, Excerpt from Policy Tracking Analysis Tool, Policy Tracking Form Example, Sample Billboard Survey Form, Sample Process Evaluation Questions: Appreciative Inquiry Approach, Interview Protocol: Intense Period Debrief, Sample “So That” Chain, Key Informant Interview Guide Sample Impact Questions, and Sample Coding Categories for Key Informant Interviews. Items of particular interest to arts and civic engagement practitioners may include the part of section one that addresses strengthened alliances (it is feasible and useful for practitioners to track).