Many people have been asking such questions recently as "What are some ways of measuring outcomes in the field of public policy advocacy?" or "What are effective qualitative approaches to evaluating advocacy, are they enough?"

First, it is important to understand advocacy, and what it does. The word advocacy includes all efforts to influence public policy. Advocacy encompasses a broad range of activities including researching, organizing and building communications strategies. Advocacy and policy change evaluations focus on policy as the unit of analysis.

Advocacy capacity-building incorporates all activities that build an organization's ability to effectively sustain advocacy efforts. Some organizations build advocacy capacity by forming partnerships, securing a board with strong commitment to advocacy efforts or organizing constituency groups to influence policy decisions.

There are several types of advocacy based on specific branches of government or the electoral process:

• Administrative Advocacy includes activities that influence the development of regulations, executive orders, and other executive branch policy vehicles, as well as law enforcement. It includes efforts to influence regulatory issues, the shaping of executive branch agency budgets and grants, teaching or assisting others with the filing of comments on governmental actions. It also incorporates proposed regulations, monitoring program operations, engaging others in the practice of monitoring regulations and guidelines that control implementation of legislation, directing public attention to proposed regulations, and challenging policies or regulations in courts when they are inconsistent with the law. Many programs have advisory panels that nonprofit organizations can be a part of. Groups can also call public attention to regulations, either through advocacy campaigns, or by releasing research on their impression. Administrative advocacy can be a very effective way for nonprofits to shape government policy.

• Legislative Advocacy includes activities that influence decisions made by the Legislative Branch, including lobbying activities as defined by federal, state, or local laws. The most common means of legislative advocacy is direct lobbying, which entails contacting a legislator and sharing your views on an issue, and asking him or her to vote a specific way on a bill. Another form of legislative advocacy does exist, however, and is in the form of a ballot initiative, which puts a proposed law on an election ballot and allows voters to directly approve or reject it.

• Nonpartisan Election-Related Advocacy involves participation in the electoral process such as activities that encourage voting and educating of voters or candidates. All types of advocacy must be nonpartisan, meaning that it cannot support or oppose candidates, even indirectly. Violation of this rule can result in loss of tax-exempt status, as well as financial liability for directors and managers. Organizations are, however, able to express a point of view on issues during an election cycle. With certain restrictions, nonprofits may prepare candidate questionnaires and create voter guides, sponsor candidate debates, and work with all political parties to get its positions included on the party’s platform.

• Legal Advocacy encompasses activities that use the judicial branch to influence policy through litigation. Goals of legal advocacy include participating in the legal system as well as promoting the responsiveness of individual legal system participants. Legal advocates, in this case, lawyers and barristers, assist people to exercise or defend their rights.

In evaluating advocacy, be sure to pay attention to:

• Goals that advance your organization towards achieving its mission
• Strategies to reaching goals and specific plans for working through each of the above avenues for advocating change to meet goals.
• Benchmarks and measures of projects which may be specific accomplishments established while striving to achieve goals.
• Key activities that implement advocacy strategies or build organizational capacity for advocacy.
• Results of activities that move the organization towards the desired outcomes.

Funders should understand that the results of advocacy will be different depending on the size, mission, and experience of the organization.

• Size- Small organizations with few paid staff are less likely to have formal advocacy structures, such as systems for providing its constituents with prepared advocacy materials.
• Mission- Organizations whose missions are primarily service-oriented are less likely to have organization practices that support advocacy.
• Experience- Organizations that are new to advocacy may still be developing their practices.

Grant-making organizations must also realize what is important in evaluating advocacy. They must discuss evaluation expectations with grantees early, and value capacity building. Grant-makers must realize that credit for advocacy is shared, and that value adjustments may need to be made in strategies to address factors beyond the grantee's control.