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You will be able to identify where your campaign is strongest, but also areas where you have to increase resources or activities to meet your objectives. You can measure a great number of things:

  • Your tactics : digital outreach, media partnerships, coalition building, rallies/marches, voter education, briefings, polling, policy analysis and development, lobbying
  • Interim outcomes: partnerships, new champions and advocates, political/public will, media coverage, constituency growth, awareness, issue visibility
  • Impacts: positive social, physical and economic conditions

List of monitoring indicators of activities

Activities, interim outcomes, goals, impacts Indicators
100%renewable energy pledges Number of businesses/schools/districts governments pledging to 100% renewable energy
Digital or Internet-based media/social media New pages developed, number and frequency of messages sent, number of list subscribers
Earned media Number of outreach attempts to reporters, number of press releases developed, number of editorial board meetings held
Media partnerships Number and types of partnerships, number and types of distribution outlets accessed through media partnerships
Coalition and network building Number of members, types of constituencies represented
Grassroots organisation and mobilisation Number and geographical location of communities, number of community events or trainings held and attendance
Rallies and marches Number of rallies/marches and attendance, participation of high-profile speakers or participants
Briefings/presentations Number of briefings/presentations held, types of audiences reached, number of attendees
Public service announcements Number of print, radio or online ads developed, number and types of distribution outlets for ads
Policy proposal development Number of organisations signing onto policy guidelines or proposals for 100% renewable energy
Target audience education, decision-makers/lobbying Number of meetings held, number of decision-makers reached, follow-up actions
New advocates Number of requests for advocate products or information, including downloads on page views of online material, number and types of invitations to speak as experts

How to measure impact

How you measure impact obviously directly relates to what you wanted to achieve. Remember the above are indicators of output, but don’t actually tell us if you have shifted power so that your goal becomes a reality. The most obvious example of shifting power include the number of adoption pledges for 100% renewable energy have been made. Regardless of your ultimate target’s pledge status, others might be inspired by your campaign to pledge to a just renewable energy transition.

Examples of shifting power include but are not limited to:

  1. Pledges of key targets for your goal e.g. adoption of a 100% renewable energy target
  2. A new bill / law being passed legislating your goal into reality.
  3. Policy-makers / decision makers treating your goal as a norm
  4. Measurements of renewable energy percentage of energy mix (in your target
    country, town, company) rising
  5. Measurements of fossil fuel percentage of energy mix (in your target country, town,
    company)

Here are some useful guides with more detail on carrying out monitoring and evaluation for your campaign:
http://www.unicef.org/evaluation/files/Advocacy_Toolkit_Companion.pdf
http://assets.wwf.org.nz/downloads/hpf_monitoring_toolkit.pdf

If you don’t make your goal first time, or have a setback because of conditions outside your control, do not be disheartened. It would be strange if this didn’t happen, as no one said campaigning was easy. Persevere, adapt your tactics, timeline and resource budget if necessary, and then access if your objective is still SMART.  If it is not, you may be able to adapt that objective too in order to still run a campaign under the 100% renewable energy vision.

If politics is the ‘art of the possible’, campaigning is the science and art of changing what is possible. Campaigning lowers the barriers and increases the incentives to take action.

Chris Rose

Director International Development at Canadian Red Cross

Tips for your monitoring and evaluation

  • Many campaigns use interactive maps to track the different initiatives taking place. The global Go 100RE campaign is a good example. This allows you to visualise their success stories and also keep track of progress e.g. you could track which local authorities committed to 100% renewable energy in your area.
  • Many campaigns use surveys to find out how individuals feel about the progress being made. When using surveys for evaluation, it’s useful to have taken a baseline survey at the beginning of your campaign, some during the campaign, and one final one at the end to get accurate results.
  • In addition to surveys you can always monitor the media. Media coverage shows you effective your digital outreach is, how much attention your campaign gets, if it does sway politicians etc. Same goes for old-style newspapers of course. Summarise all your findings in a document and see if your coverage increases and becomes more positive towards your ask as your campaign progresses.
  • You can also use stakeholder or focal groups discussions or individual interviews on all levels you are engaging with. This is particular useful if you want to get an immediate sense of your campaign’s success.