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Global Interdependence Initiative
CONTINUOUS PROGRESS Better Advocacy Through Evaluation
 

Who We Are

Continuous Progress Strategic Services is David Devlin-Foltz and Lisa Molinaro .

David Devlin-Foltz
DDFDavid Devlin-Foltz directs the Global Interdependence Initiative (GII), a policy program of the Aspen Institute in Washington, DC. The GII promotes the US public’s engagement in shaping this country’s role in addressing global issues like poverty and environmental deterioration. Since 1999, Devlin-Foltz has directed GII’s efforts to strengthen advocacy on global issues by commissioning and helping organizations to apply tools for effective message framing, planning and evaluation. Continuous Progress Strategic Services builds on GII’s Evaluation Learning Group and its consultations with foreign policy advocates, foundations, and strategic communications specialists. Devlin-Foltz brings to GII and CPSS some twenty years of experience in funding, managing and evaluating public education, international exchange, and constituency building efforts in southern Africa and the United States.

Before coming to the Aspen Institute in 1993, he worked for the Institute of International Education, the School for International Training and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Devlin-Foltz was responsible for Carnegie’s South African human rights grantmaking from 1984 to 1988, and continued to evaluate projects and proposals for Carnegie for several years thereafter. Devlin-Foltz also devised Carnegie’s strategy for building public understanding in the US of international development issues.

A Peace Corps volunteer at the National University of Rwanda from 1979 to 1981, Devlin-Foltz has also taught or managed programs in France, Spain, and Zimbabwe. He received his undergraduate degree from Yale College and holds graduate degrees from the Sorbonne and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. He took his hyphenated name on marrying the former Betsy Devlin; they are the proud but occasionally perplexed parents of two fine young men.

Lisa Molinaro
Lisa MolinaroLisa Molinaro is a Project Associate with the Global Interdependence Initiative (GII), a policy program of the Aspen Institute, and the GII’s advocacy planning and evaluation arm, Continuous Progress Strategic Services (CPSS).  She joined CPSS in 2008 and draws on her field experience in grassroots development evaluation to bring a fresh perspective to our work.  Lisa has contributed to shaping new advocacy evaluation methods and tools used by CPSS.  She consults with a range of nonprofits working in human rights, civil-military relations, nuclear non-proliferation, and climate change.  She is deeply committed to exploring effective advocacy strategies and imparting shared lessons across fields with CPSS clients.  Lisa writes for the Exchange blog , reaching an audience of CEOs, communication directors and advocates from the development, security, business, and environmental communities.

Prior to joining the Aspen Institute, Lisa conducted evaluations for grassroots NGOs in India and West Africa on microfinance, rural business practices, and social entrepreneurship.  During her undergraduate studies, she conducted research on microfinance and poverty alleviation strategies in Lebanon, Egypt, and Bangladesh for an upcoming book by Ananya Roy entitled Poverty Capital: Microfinance and the Frontiers of Millennial Development.  In between research and evaluation projects, she led active travel vacations for Backroads in the U.S. and Europe.  Lisa received a B.A. in International Development and French from the University of California at Berkeley.  She currently facilitates a course on women’s empowerment, and spends her non-working hours cycling and hiking, perfecting her acroyoga skills, and learning trapeze.

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.