Advocacy evaluation as a field has lacked good, rigorous examples of how to examine the cause-and-effect relationship between advocacy and policy change. A non-experimental impact evaluation method that holds promise is contribution analysis.

The field of advocacy evaluation has grown up, transitioning from an emergent area to an established field of practice. However, evaluation of multi-stakeholder advocacy is still in its infancy with evaluators, funders, and advocates working to untangle the complexity of how multiple organizations come together to influence policy change, build cohesive fields of practice, and accomplish more than any one group can do.