Changes are the results an advocacy effort aims for with audiences to progress toward a policy goal. The three points on this continuum differ in terms of how far an audience is expected to engage on a policy issue. The continuum starts with basic awareness or knowledge. Here the goal is to make the audience aware that a problem or potential policy solution exists. The next point is will. The goal here is to raise an audience’s willingness to take action on an issue. It goes beyond awareness and tries to convince the audience that the issue is important enough to warrant action and that any actions taken will in fact make a difference. The third point is action. Here, policy efforts actually support or facilitate audience action on an issue. Again, advocacy strategies may pursue one change with an audience or more than one simultaneously. UNDERSTANDING “WILL” Advocacy theories of change often are vague about the mysterious middle ground between awareness and action. Yet we know from research that increased awareness about a problem or a potential solution is rarely sufficient to trigger action. Public or political “will” describes the stage between the two, where issue awareness is transformed into a sense of urgency and relevance that is the precursor to an audience taking action once the opportunity arises. It is useful to explore five components of “will” when building advocacy theories of change: • Opinion is a person’s belief or judgement about an issue. People need to take a position on an issue for will to be built. There is a whole range of issues about which people may have knowledge but have no opinion at all. • Intensity refers to the strength of a person’s opinion. People need to hold their opinions strongly—either for or against an issue or a solution—before it rises to a level worthy of their time and attention. • Salience is how important and relevant an issue is to people. People may hold a strong opinion about an issue, yet still not find that the issue is relevant enough to their lives to make political choices based on the issue. • Capacity to act is the know-how, skills, and confidence to take the desired action when called upon. For example, citizens must know how to mobilize or engage with policymakers to push a particular solution before they can be expected to do so. • Willingness to act expresses the idea of a person’s willingness to take a particular action despite the risks or tradeoffs that are associated with that action, which might range from angering peers or constituents who disagree to arrest or violence as a result of participating in public demonstrations. For more information about “will,” see Willing and Able: A Broader Definition of Public Will by Julia Coffman, available at www.evaluationinnovation.org. 3

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