How Do We Measure Success?
- We collect detailed data on our grantees, which gives us a clear picture of their geographic reach, focus, funding and other indicators of how they are equipped to achieve our mutual goals.
- We monitor our progress, on each issue and country, toward strategic plans that include 10-year goals, three-year outcomes and annual milestones toward each outcome. This allows AJWS to monitor and evaluate what our grantees are accomplishing collectively—on our issues, in their countries and internationally. We track successes, shortfalls and opportunities and use this data to fine-tune our grantmaking and strategies each year.
- We evaluate AJWS’s U.S. and global advocacy with the same rigorous processes of reporting, analysis and reflection, to ensure that this work is effectively furthering the same strategic goals as our grantmaking.
- We facilitate ongoing learning with staff and grantees, using the analysis of our data to respond to challenges and opportunities.
- We conduct original research and external evaluations to investigate AJWS’s impact and better understand the human rights issues on which we work. We share our findings with our grantees and other funders so they can apply what we have learned in their strategies for change.
By placing learning at the center of everything we do, AJWS maximizes our funding and our impact.
Our Theory of Change
AJWS uses a unique formula to advance social change in pursuit of our mission of empowering marginalized people in the developing world to realize their human rights.
Getting Results
Our 2014 – 2015 analysis revealed 172 distinct victories— measurable progress or key accomplishments in the pursuit of human rights—including:
- Cambodian garment workers secured a wage hike—from $128 to $140 per month—from the Cambodian government. The workers earned just $61 when AJWS grantee WIC began organizing in 2012. This latest win brings them closer to a living wage.
- Female survivors of sexual violence in the Democratic of Congo won 22 court cases against their abusers, with support from Lawyers at Dynamique de Femmes Juristes (DFJ).
- AJWS grantee Colectivo Oaxaqueño, in Mexico, secured a ban against mining indigenous land in the town of Magdalena Teitipac, preserving the farms and waterways that the community depends on for survival.
- Following strategic advocacy led by AJWS staff and supporters, the U.S. government appointed its first ever Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBT Persons, making it a clear U.S. priority to stop discrimination and violence against LGBTQI+ people worldwide.
