The biweekly “So What?” guide highlights advice, events, and tips – mostly from the advocacy and evaluation worlds, selected by the Aspen Planning and Evaluation Program. We’re a consulting practice at the Aspen Institute that partners with foundations, nonprofit organizations, and individual funders to help them strengthen their efforts to bring about positive change in society.
APEP Book Event: June 14 from 5:30 to 7:30 at One Dupont Circle NW
- Ever wondered why advocacy evaluators whine all the time about how complex advocacy and policy change processes are?
- Ever wish that evaluators had a better grounding in political theory and policy formation?
- Tired of hearing that advocates should focus on “contribution, not attribution” and wondering how evaluators are actually measuring your contributions to policy changes?
- Curious about whether evaluating an advocacy effort has ever led to improved advocacy?
- Are you an advocate frustrated that evaluators and funders don’t give you credit for building your capacity just because you didn’t get the policy win?
- Are you a funder frustrated that advocates
insist on taking credit for building their capacity even when they don’t get a policy win?
Some of us wonder some of these things. And some of us are indeed frustrated, curious (or tired). However you’re feeling, come talk it through with Annette Gardner and a great panel as APEP co-hosts the DC launch of Advocacy and Policy Change Evaluation: Theory and Practice, co-authored by Annette and her UCSF colleague, Claire Brindis.
Come join us June 14 from 5:30 to 7:30 at the Aspen Institute’s offices at One Dupont Circle NW, Suite 700 for wine, beer, hors d’oeuvres and a discussion of the first study of this emergent evaluation field. Click here to learn more and RSVP! We’ll feature author remarks and a panel discussion with Sue Hoechstetter, Senior Advisor for Foundation Advocacy and Evaluation at the Alliance for Justice, and Julia Coffman, our co-host and the founder of the Center for Innovation Evaluation. And with you there as well, perhaps we can answer some of those nagging concerns. Reserve your spot now.
