GEAR -- Getting Equity Advocacy Results
> Measurement Strategies > How To
To assess the success of equity campaigns, advocates need to ask the right questions before, during, and after the campaign. These questions are described in the Gear Guide:Planning and Assessing Success, and previewed below.
- Why assess?
- What results matter?
- When to assess?
- Who will lead the assessment?
- What are the right methods to employ?
- What's working? What needs to change?
Why assess?
At the outset of an equity campaign, it is important for stakeholders to come together to consider the value of tracking and assessing their campaign, and to determine the goals and interests to be served by the assessment.
What results matter?
The politics of a campaign can be unpredictable, but assessment can help advocates be as prepared as possible for what lies ahead. GEAR can be used to scope potential advocacy directions and help determine where to look for results.
When to assess?
Assessment may occur during and after a campaign. Improving advocacy strategy necessitates real-time information that feeds back to advocates. Real-time assessment raises practical questions about tracking progress, gathering the appropriate information, and packaging it to provide feedback.
Who will lead the assessment?
Tracking and assessing the success of equity advocacy requires a commitment to identifying, gathering, and assembling relevant information to meet the goals of the assessment. The person or team taking responsibility for this work could be internal or external to the campaign, responsible for all of the assessment, or simply parts of it.
What are the right methods to employ?
Evaluation of advocacy efforts is not an easy task, but there is a growing body of work in this area, producing useful frameworks and tools to meet the needs of multiple audiences. Much of this work states the utility of interim benchmarks and indicators to measure progress.
What's working? What needs to change?
The self-assessment of equity results both during and after an equity campaign is essential for improvement. The GEAR Guide to Planning and Assessing Success provides big-picture guidance to advocates to measure and track benchmarks of equity advocacy success. Additional resources are also available to support unique assessment needs.