Impact Evaluation of the Drop the "I" Word Campaign

The Applied Research Center (ARC) is a racial justice think tank dedicated to advancing social justice through research, advocacy, and journalism. The Capstone team was asked to design an impact eval­uation system to measure the success of Drop The I­Word (DTIW), a new advocacy campaign which asks media outlets, organizations, and individuals to pledge to eliminate usage of the word “illegal” when referring to undocumented immigrants, in favor of other less racially­charged terms. The evaluation system assessed the cam­paign's progress on reaching its identified short and long­term goals, and is flexible enough to be adapted for future cam­paigns and initiatives. The team designed and tested the system against the objec­tives of the first six­month phase of DTIW (Oct '10March '11). The team also provided training on the system to ARC staff to ensure that evaluation becomes an integrated part of the campaign and the organization.