How Do You Measure a Healthy Democracy?

From Washington, DC, to communities across California, fundamental democratic principles and systems are under severe threat—including the right to vote, the right to fair representation, and the right to engage actively and openly in community and civic affairs. As Marc Philpart, executive director with the Black Freedom Fund, recently told us, "What is happening right now requires all of us to think about the kind of change we want to see in the world and about our relationships to communities that are being targeted." 

This critical moment for the country comes five years after the Haas, Jr. Fund created our Democracy Program. To mark the occasion and to help us plan for the next five years, we felt the time was right to learn more about how our grantee partners are assessing the impact of their efforts to increase civic engagement and voting. We want to learn more about how they measure success, how they learn from what they’re doing, and how we can support them more effectively in this work.

As part of this process, we asked the team at Everyday Impact Consulting to do research and conduct interviews with our nonprofit partners, funder colleagues, and academic experts.  

Democracy-Boosting Strategies That Get Results 

In addition to focusing on best practices for assessment, Everyday Impact Consulting highlighted how the most effective civic engagement strategies are focused on long-term change, centered in communities, and integrated in ways that assure the broadest possible impact. These strategies include:

• Promoting year-round voter engagement — not just in the weeks and months ahead of elections.
• Building strong networks of organizations working for change.  
• Supporting community-led leadership.  

All of these are strategies that Haas Jr. and our funder partners have invested in over many years. Even before we established our formal Democracy program, the Haas, Jr. Fund supported regional civic engagement tables that bring diverse interests together to build power and representation for communities that have long been locked out of politics and government. We’re also a longtime supporter of statewide networks like California Calls that amplify the voices of underrepresented communities.  

In the course of this work, we’ve seen the impact of creating new ways for people and communities to get more involved in government and civic life—and it's a focus we will continue to embrace in the years to come.  

Last year, we interviewed Jonathan Paik (JP), the executive director of OCCET, a civic engagement table that brings together groups in Orange County to build the power and voice of immigrant communities. JP helped articulate what this work is truly about. “We are trying to build a community of people who are informed and able to stand up for what they care about. If we build enough people power, we can change laws and change the livelihoods of the people we represent,” he said.   

Balancing Quantitative and Qualitative Measures

So we know mobilizing people works, but how can we tell when, how, and where these efforts are having an impact? Everyday Impact Consulting’s research underscores an ongoing shift in how funders and our nonprofit partners are thinking about assessing our progress and learning from our work together.  

A key insight from the research is that we still need to do more to combine quantitative data with community stories and other qualitative measures. While there are certain aspects of civic engagement, leadership development, and building influence that funders can count, much of the work is relational in nature.  

In other words, it is not just about tracking voter turnout. It’s also about showing how people and organizations are making connections, building alliances, and thinking differently about their ability to make a powerful difference on the issues that matter to them. And to do this, we need to share stories and other qualitative information about what's happening at the community level around these issues.                                                            

Here are examples of quantitative and qualitative indicators that can be used to assess community civic engagement efforts: 

Qualitative

Strengthening coalitions: Are community groups building multiracial coalitions that are aligned, coordinated, and growing in their power and influence?

Achieving policy wins: Are the groups making progress towards enacting policy agendas that reflect their priorities and the will of the community?

Innovation: To what extent are the groups embracing new and innovative strategies, and pivoting their work based on what they’re learning?

Quantitative 

Year-round engagement: What are the results of the groups’ civic engagement programs, both in election years and outside of election seasons? How many people are they reaching, and how are those folks changing their voting and civic engagement behaviors?

Scaling: To what degree are the groups able to scale their civic and voter engagement activities for bigger, broader impact? How are they expanding their organizing, canvassing, phone banking, and other work?  

Growing constituencies: Are the groups growing their membership, volunteers, donors, supporters, email lists, and social media followers in a meaningful way? How many more people are they engaging over time? To what extent are they recruiting new allies to the work?  

Elections and representation: Is the groups’ work approaching a level where they could swing elections and increase representation for their communities?  

Doua Thor, chief impact officer with Everyday Impact Consulting, summarized the need to balance quantitative and qualitative measurement as follows: “There is a clear and consistent trend among leading funders to move away from rigid, quantitative, ‘vanity’ metrics and toward more trust-based, qualitative, and context-aware methods of understanding impact. While some quantitative data is still collected, it is no longer the primary driver of funding decisions for foundations.”

Key Takeaways for Philanthropy

The analysis from Everyday Impact Consulting highlights the many ways in which funders can make a difference in supporting nonprofits to revitalize and strengthen our democracy. Some of these are new and emerging practices, and some have been under discussion in philanthropy for many years. Here are some key insights we want to keep integrating into our work at the Haas, Jr. Fund:

• Support nonprofits’ capacity to learn and measure impact. We need to fund the ability of grantees to partner with peers, networks, and community researchers to capture relevant learning from their work so they can keep iterating and improving. Joseph Thomas McKellar, executive director of PICO California, recently spoke with us about what it takes to embed data and metrics into organizing. “We need to track who’s joining, who’s staying, who’s stepping into leadership,” he said. “That’s how we build a stronger civil society.”
• Fund the ecosystem. It is not enough to support one or more standout groups to do this work. At Haas Jr., we are intent on expanding our investments in local and regional networks, emerging organizations, and other entities that can foster and build collaboration across issues. To do this, we are leaning into work in three priority regions (Inland Empire, San Joaquin Valley, and Orange County) where we can go deeper in our learning and investments.  
• Act as a partner and convenor. Funders also can and should work together to assure we are aligned in what we are asking of grantees, reduce the burdens we are placing on them (like grant applications and reporting), and make sure we are supporting strategies and activities that are in sync.
• Lead with trust. Funders should continue to provide flexible, multiyear funding to anchor organizations so we can support their ability to make an impact year in and year out. Haas Jr. has expanded multiyear support and general operating support for core nonprofit partners in recent years, and we plan to keep experimenting with more flexible forms of grantmaking.  

Thor summarizes the key takeaways from Everyday Impact Consulting’s research as follows: “The most effective funders are acting as partners, not just grantmakers. They are investing in the long-term health of organizations and the broader movement ecosystem. They prioritize learning over judgment and are comfortable with the complexity and non-linearity of power-building.”

Haas Jr. is thankful for our partners at Everyday Impact Consulting, as well as the funders, nonprofits, and others who contributed to this research. At a time when democracy is under threat, we are committed to learning and sharing our findings with partners so that together we can improve our work to support those at the frontlines of defending and strengthening democracy.