Defining Building and Measuring Capacity Findings from an Advocacy Evaluation

This article describes an evaluation of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Consumer Voices for Coverage, an initiative supporting consumer health advocacy coalitions in 12 states, and suggests approaches to building and measuring capacity for advocacy or other nonprofit activities for funders to consider. The foundation based part of the program's strategy on a study that identified six core advocacy capacities, and designed it to strengthen these capacities. The level of funding, substantial and targeted technical assistance, and the program's three-year time frame contributed to observed increases in five capacities. Fundraising remained the lowest-rated capacity for most of the coalitions and may require different strategies.