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Global Interdependence Initiative
CONTINUOUS PROGRESS Better Advocacy Through Evaluation
 

Our Projects

At Continuous Progress Strategic Services, we're proud of our diverse range of clients and activities:

Representative Current Planning and Evaluation Projects:

  • Connect US/Tides Foundation: The Connect US funding collaborative hired CPSS to work with its portfolio of 27 grantees addressing five major foreign policy challenges. CPSS convened workshops for the five issue clusters, at which grantees used our Advocacy Progress Planner to review their strategy and develop an evaluation plan for their project. CPSS will follow up over the course of the grants to help the project leaders assess and improve their strategies. Connect US is a foundation/NGO initiative led by a professional staff, supported by a donors' collaborative, with a grantmaking fund managed by the Tides Foundation. The current funders are: the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation; the Ford Foundation; the Open Society Institute; the Rockefeller Brothers Fund; and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

  • Humanity United - Action Group to End Human Trafficking and Modern-Day Slavery: Offering strategic and tactical advice to Humanity United and creating a case-study evaluation of the Action Group's model for advocacy coalition management.
  • World Learning: Offering strategic communications advice and convening assistance as World Learning highlights the value of international exchange and citizen diplomacy as a critical component of "smart power."
  • Americans for Informed Democracy: This youth-led organization seeks to "build a new generation of globally conscious leaders who can shape an American foreign policy appropriate for our increasingly interdependent world."  CPSS is developing evaluation plans and benchmarks to help Americans for Informed Democracy and the JEHT Foundation assess the impact of student-generated videos on human rights themes under a project called "Rights, Camera, Action."

Past Projects

  • 3D Security Initiative: Assisted with design and convening of Balanced Security Outreach working group
  • Arabella Philanthropic Investment Advisors: Produced white paper (pdf) on evaluating the advocacy role of think tanks
  • Aspen Institute Policy Programs: Facilitated effort to identify common objectives and strategies among several Institute programs addressing structural causes of poverty in the United States.
  • The California Endowment: Developed the Advocacy Progress Planner, a flexible, easy to use, web-based tool for planning and evaluating advocacy efforts. 
  • Citizens for Global Solutions: Advised program staff and local community leaders on policy "asks" and messaging for proposed energy, climate change and development initiative.
  • Community Strategies Group: Conducted and analyzed 25 interviews with citizen-leaders in Pickaway County, Ohio as part of a project to build county-wide consensus about its economic development strategy.
  • Realizing Rights : Analyzed content of coverage of immigrant rights issues, convened expert panel, drafted and revised talking points placing US debate in context of findings from International Commission on Global Migration.
  • Save Darfur Campaign Divestment Initiative: Provided "first-cut" advice to divestment initiative on strategic plan, suggesting benchmarks for launch and early media campaign.

Featured Project

The Advocacy Progress Planner: an online "logic model" for planning your advocacy effort

The Advocacy Progress Planner was designed to give you and your team an at-a-glance look at the ingredients of advocacy efforts. It can guide you to clarify the elements of your own campaign: goals and impacts; audience; what you bring to your campaign; the activities and tactics you're planning for; and benchmarks along the way to your goals. As you click on your choices in each area, you will see your campaign strategy come into focus. And you’ll get some clues about how to gauge your progress and make improvements.

As you and your colleagues ask and answer these tough questions, you can improve your model - and your advocacy. When you're ready, you can print out a PDF of the customized logic model with your notes, or click a link to get an individual URL you and your team can use to revisit the logic model. Visit the Advocacy Progress Planner now at planning.continuousprogress.org.