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“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”, as they say in business circles. In the progressive advocacy world, we could easily swap out “manage” with the words “fund”, “support” and “defend.”

Finding a coherent set of people-powered campaigning metrics is a core concern for us, so we’re excited to partner with Mobilisation Lab and 13 other groups on this new survey.

>>Take the Measuring People Power survey right away!

For some time now, working with organizations that are building people-powered approaches – such as distributed organizing – into their campaigns work, we have accompanied staff innovators as they presented their plans before their own decision makers, boards and funders.

What we have noticed, time and again, is a woeful lack of common frameworks for explaining the value of supporter activation and supporter-driven actions to non believers. 

Comms and development departments all have their impressive numbers to report. The various departments that handle people-powered stuff have a lot of anecdotes and a few case studies but few seem to have compelling metrics that demonstrate value and impact.

And yet, those of us who have had a hand in deploying people-powered approaches intuitively understand that they unlock enormous energy. People these days simply want to do more if the cause is right and they are given the means and the freedom to take on more responsibility. Seems like a pretty straightforward recipe for going further with existing resources!

>>Take the Measuring People Power survey 

For all these reasons, we are excited to partner with friends at Mobilisation Lab as they launch their Measuring People Power project. This is a sweeping listening exercise, that will map approaches to metrics and measurement across organizations of all sizes and continents in the north and south.

If you are doing people-powered campaigning at your org, even if just beginning, we strongly encourage you to fill out the Measuring People Power survey, which Moblab has laid out in a straightforward and user-friendly way. It will take a few minutes of your time but you’ll then be plugged into a global community of practice, as we learn from each other and develop common systems for measuring and reporting on people-powered impacts. 

PS. >> Here is the Measuring People Power survey one more time