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Campaign and Social Movement Evaluation: Start Here

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Resources to help activists, community organisers and advocates evaluate their campaigns, social movements and organisations.

Introduction

Welcome to the Campaign and Social Movement Evaluation resources in the Commons Social Change Library. We have gathered a wide range of materials to help activists, community organisers and advocates evaluate their campaigns and organisations. 

You can browse the categories below for general resources guides, resources by topic, and resources on indicators, methods, debriefs and more. And if you’re looking for examples and inspiration read our selection of evaluation case studies. 

Need help to put to tune up your impact evaluation? Contact The Commons librarians for options.

General Evaluation Guides and Resources

Monitoring and evaluating the success and progress of our campaigns and movement building work is a critical part of the action learning cycle: we make plans, we put them into action, we reflect on how it all went, and then we make new plans based on what we learned and prepare to do the process over again with greater knowledge, experience, and hopefully, power. – Maxwell J Smith, Campaign Monitoring and Evaluation: Measuring What Matters

Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, the founder of SumOfUs and a keynote speaker at Progress 2015, brings everyone down to earth in a punchy presentation on campaign evaluation. In just 13 minutes, she manages to tell you about how you know nothing (about your organisation’s impact) and how you might go about knowing more. 

Evaluation tools by Topic

Assessing Your Organisation’s Strategic Capacity

Measuring Narrative Change 

Media Monitoring

Assessing Collaborations and Coalitions 

Digital Tools

Measuring and Accounting for Power

Indicators, Benchmarks and Impact Measures 

Line graph measuring active support over time - showing the impact of a trigger event on the baseline of active support.
From “Funding Social Movements: How mass protest makes an impact” Engler et al. – Ayni Institute, p. 55

Methods and Methodology

Tools for Mapping and Planning and Prototyping  

Planning an evaluation often starts by creating a visual map of your campaign strategy. This will help you to map out your goals and find achievable benchmarks or indicators to measure along the way.

Tools like logic models or theories of change are useful here, but you might also want to use other campaign strategy tools such as critical paths or power maps to map out your strategies, assumptions and context. All of this information will help you evaluate what you are doing, how well you are doing it, and what impact you are having.

Black text over a white background. Text reads: Write your theory of change: If my people do... Then the result will be... Because...
Mapping your Theory of Change can help you to plan your evaluation. Source: Marshall Ganz, New Organizing Institute

Equity in Evaluation: From Measurement to Communication 

As evaluators, we make choices about what our data tell us, what results to share, how to share them, and with whom. Each of these choices is an opportunity for embedding equity. – The Equitable Communication Guide

Text over a circle. Text reads: Doing to Being. Scarcity to Abundance. Fixed to Growth. Revolutionary to Evolutionary. Judgement to Curiosity. Rigidity to Fluidity. Binary to Multiplicity. Extraction to Offering. Participatory to Reciprocity. All or Nothing to Possibilities.
The Equitable Evaluation Framework recommends shifting mindsets when approaching our evaluations.

Resources for Reviews, Reflections & Debriefs

A simple way to add more evaluative practice into your campaigns is by prioritising campaign debriefs, reviews and reflections. 

Wrapping up, Celebrating Wins and Processing Losses

Once you’ve finished your evaluation, don’t forget to celebrate! 

Activists stand on top of a sandy hill with their hands in the air. They stand behind a hand painted sign that reads "WE WON" in black, yellow and red paints.
Activists celebrate protecting Walmadan / James Price Point.

Evaluation Case Studies

Why didn’t we Stop the War? An Evaluation of the Campaign against the Iraq War by Justin Whelan
This 2013 article, reflecting on the campaign against Australia’s involvement in the Iraq war, includes insights relevant to other anti-war campaigns and other countries.

Disrupt Burrup Hub: Campaign Evaluation by Sophie Hartley
This report has been prepared on behalf of Disrupt Burrup Hub by the Commons Social Change Library. The report is intended to provide an analysis of the campaign’s activities from 2023-24.

The WA Forest Conflict: The Construction of the Political Effectiveness of Advocacy Organisations by David Worth
This article reflects on the tactics, strategy, and efficacy of two non-profit organisations involved in advocacy regarding forestry in the 1990s and 2000s.

Auckland Transport Decarbonisation Campaign (2020 – 2022) by Robyn Gulliver
This article provides a review and evaluation of the All Aboard Aotearoa campaign.

Amnesty International’s Impact and Learning System by Amnesty International
This report outlines Amnesty International’s approach to impact and learning. 

Three boxes side by side. The first box reads "Expect: What you expect to see as a result of your interventions". The second box reads "Like: What would you like to see as a result of your interventions". The third box reads "Love: What would you love to see as a result of your interventions".
In their 2016-19 Impact and Learning system report, Amnesty International explains how they use Outcome Mapping with a “Expect Like Love” progression of indicators.

Research 

Testing Change: Insights for Impact Assessment by Bonnie Koenig, Testing Change Project
The Testing Change project was a multi-year collaboration of civil society organizations to (1) develop and test new ways of operating and evaluate and (2) share the learning as widely as possible in the global civil society community.

Beyond Headcounts: Evaluating Climate Conversations for Real Impact by Advocacy Research Network
This article draws on findings from a 2025 research project conducted by the Advocacy Research Network, in partnership with the Climate Justice Coalition. The project brought together insights from a comprehensive literature review and interviews with ten experienced climate organisers across Australia.

How are we Measuring People Power in 2020+, and where do we go from here?   by Mobilisation Lab
How do you measure gifts of time, expertise and leadership? What indicators can you use to assess grassroots power building, organising and volunteer initiatives? To answer these questions, MobLab and 13 other organisations embarked on research, consultations and a global survey to learn how social change practitioners and leaders across the globe currently grapple with these questions.

Support to Improve Impact Evaluation

If you’re just getting started with impact evaluation, or reviewing your practices, The Commons can help! Services include:

  • Coaching and feedback on plans
  • Training workshops to get your team on the same page
  • Designing evaluation frameworks
  • Carrying out evaluations including debriefs, surveys, one-to-one interviews, focus groups and more

Contact The Commons librarians to explore options.

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