HOW DO WE KNOW RESOURCES
Below we've compiled a curated, working list of practical measurement resources developed by Active Voice Lab and other organizations, including our new Ask the Evaluators! series, which explores real-world assessment of recent media projects. Whether you’re a funder, a creative, an advocate, or other change agent, we hope these resources help you understand each other’s perspectives on the push for—and consequences of—measuring impact.
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A Report From the Documentary Sustainability Summit
2017 Doc Summit Report
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Media Impact Project
A 2-in-1 Guide: Impact Assessment & Metrics
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Media Impact Project
Offline Impact Indicators for Documentary Film
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AndACTION
Pop Culture Works for Social Change
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Culture and Engagement Lab
Harnessing Documentaries for Social Change
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AV Lab's communications framework can help you articulate how story will advance your objectives
Horticulture
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Ford Foundation
The View From the Top: POV Leaders on the Struggle to Create Truly Public Media
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Documentary Filmmakers and Social Change: a Survey of True/False 2014 Filmmakers
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Doing the wrong thing better: your numbers will not save you
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by Elmo C. Wilson
The Effectiveness of Documentary Broadcasts
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Exploring social change documentary film outreach, engagement and impact campaigns
Winston Churchill Memorial Trust 2012 Fellowship Report
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Spitfire Strategies
AndACTION
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HDWK/Learn Organization
TCC Group
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Working Films
Impact & Assessing Impact Videos
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Conducts rigorous, mixed method evaluation to advance community and systems change
Community Science
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Norman Lear Center
Advancing the Story: The Next Chapter in Media Impact
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Center for Evaluation Innovation
Five Ways Foundations Can Better Support Policy Campaigns and Build Lasting Advocacy Capacity
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Center for Evaluation Innovation
How Do You Measure Up? Finding Fit Between Foundations and Their Evaluation Functions
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Media Impact Project
How the Media Engagement Strategy Deck Helps You Play Your Way to Impact
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Norman Lear Center
What’s New Media Good For Anyway?
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Liz Manne Strategy
#PopJustice: Social Justice and the Promise of Pop Culture Strategies
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Center for Evaluation Innovation
Strategy Design Amid Complexity: Tools for Designing and Implementing Adaptive Funding Strategies
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iDocs
Impact & Engagement Resources
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Ochre.is
Measuring Impact: Just How Does Film Drive Change?
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Center for Evaluation Innovation
The Advocacy Strategy Framework: A tool for articulating an advocacy theory of change
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Center for Evaluation Innovation
Four Tools for Assessing Grantee Contribution to Advocacy Efforts
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Tribeca Film Institute
TFI Sandbox Impact
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Download discussion materials, event planning guides, and other campaign materials from AV Lab’s predecessor, Active Voice.
Active Voice Library
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Key findings from AV Lab's 2009 research on connecting with new audiences “beyond the choir”
Beyond the Choir
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Download a free template of the Megaphone, Active Voice Lab’s framework for linking engagement strategy with distribution milestones.
Megaphone
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Showcases and analyzes media for public knowledge and action
Center for Media and Social Impact
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Specializes in the evaluation of hard-to-assess areas advocacy and systems change
Center for Evaluation Innovation
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Collaborates with journalists, producers and funders to research and develop social impact media projects
Dot Connector Studio
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Works with media makers and funders on media assessment and more
Media Impact Project
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The Chronicle of Philanthropy
How Do You Know Your Stories Are Making a Difference?
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Media Impact Funders
Assessing Impact of Media
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Media Impact Funders
Building the Case for Interactive Impact
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Media Impact Funders
Media Impact Focus: Assessing the Impact of Media
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Media Impact Funders
Funders Perspectives: Assessing Media Investments
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Media Impact Funders
State of the Impact Debate: Storming, Norming, Sometimes Performing
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The Fledgling Fund
Assessing Creative Media’s Social Impact
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The Fledgling Fund
Impact Workbook
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Social sector evaluator with expertise in practicing evaluation in vulnerable communities and communities of color
jdcPartnerships
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The Fledgling Fund
Fledgling Fund Impact Resources
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The Fledgling Fund
The Fledgling Fund Provider Directory
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Ford Foundation
Cara Mertes, Head of Ford Foundation’s JustFilms, Explains Why Thinking about Impact Will Make Your Doc Better. Yes, Really!
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ITVS
Building Social Change Campaigns with Documentary Films: The Case of “Women and Girls Lead Global”
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PBS
Engagement Strategists for Impact
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The Center for Media Justice
Measuring Impact: An Organizer’s Toolkit to Evaluate Communications Effectiveness
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Center for Investigative Reporting
Impact: From gold standard to convertibility
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Center for Investigative Reporting
Creating an impact community
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MediaShift
Measuring Non-Profit Newsroom Impact Easier Said Than Done
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MediaShift
MetricShift
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Solutions Journalism Network
Why We Need Solutions Journalism
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American University
Measuring Impact: The Importance of Evaluation for Documentary Film Campaigns
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American University
The Art, Science, and Mystery of Nonprofit News Assessment
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Aspen Institute – Aspen Planning & Evaluation Program
Aspen Planning and Evaluation Program
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Aspen Institute – Aspen Planning & Evaluation Program
What’s the Value of a Facebook “Like”?
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ConText
Computational Assessment of the Impact of Social Justice Documentaries
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ConText
Using Socio-Semantic Network Analysis for Assessing the Impact of Documentaries
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ERIN Research Inc.
Breaking New Ground: A framework for measuring the social impact of Canadian documentaries
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FSG-Social Impact Consultants
Measuring the Online Impact of Your Information Project
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Learning For Action (LFA)
Measuring Public Media’s Impact: Challenges and Opportunities
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Learning For Action (LFA)
Deepening Engagement for Lasting Impact: A Framework for Measuring Media Performance & Results
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Perception Institute
Telling Our Own Story: The Role of Narrative in Racial Healing
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Social Impact
The Behavior Measurement Tool
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Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR)
Can We Measure Media Impact? Surveying the Field
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Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR)
Measuring Impact Isn’t for Everyone
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Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR)
Collective Impact
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The Harmony Institute
StoryPilot
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Picture Motion
Measurement
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Working Narratives
Storytelling and Social Change Guide
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Norman Lear Center
How Impact Metrics can Help Documentary Filmmakers Attract More Funding
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Norman Lear Center
Media Impact Project Resources
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Norman Lear Center
Media Impact Project – The Fray
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Norman Lear Center
Norman Lear Center Research & Evaluations for Hollywood Health & Society
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Norman Lear Center
Research Study Finds That a Film Can Have a Measurable Impact on Audience Behavior
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Norman Lear Center
Johanna Blakley and Sheena Nahm – The Primetime War on Drugs and Terror
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Participant Media
The Participant Index Inaugural Report: Key Findings
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Animating Democracy
Arts and Civic Engagement Impact Initiative
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Animating Democracy
Evaluation in Action
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BRITDOC
BRITDOC Impact Distribution Lab Resources
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BRITDOC
Impact Field Guide & Toolkit
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Culture Group
Reports: Culture Matters
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Culture Group
Making Waves: A Guide to Cultural Strategy
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Harmony Institute
The Metrics of Maximum Impact
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Harmony Institute and BAVC
Impact Playbook
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Harmony Institute & BAVC
A Reaction to the Impact Playbook
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How Do We Know/Learn Organizations
Social Science Research Institute at Duke
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HotDocs
Documentary Impact: Social Change Through Storytelling
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AV Lab’s online campaign planning tool to help mediamakers, funders, and community leaders design more effective campaigns
ACTivate
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Survey of methods for researching the effects of media.
Assessing the Social Impact of Issues-Focused Documentaries
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Evaluation of AV's TAKE YOUR PLACE campaign targeting the U.S. hunger and obesity epidemic.
AV “Take Your Place” Community Study
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Case studies of real-world assessment of recent media projects from AV Lab's advisory group HDWK/Learn
Ask the Evaluators!
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What filmmakers and funders should talk about before tying the knot.
The Prenups
