Media Impact Funders' Director of Research and Strategy Jessica Clark presented on tools for evaluating the impact of documentary film at this daylong workshop hosted by Philanthropy New York: Communications Evaluation for Foundations and Nonprofits

1. Hands-on Workshop:
Communications Evaluation for
Foundations and Nonprofits
Evaluation tools in film and digital media
Jessica Clark
Research and Strategy Director
Media Impact Funders

2. How can you know when a film or
video is making an impact?
1. Ask yourself: What’s the goal?
2. Ask the filmmaker: What happened?
3. Ask the audience: What did you do next?
4. Ask the data scientists: How do films work in context?
5. Ask your partners: How did you share this work, and
how did your network respond?

3. Question: Ask yourself
What’s the goal?
Tool: Horticulture
Active Voice Lab
Explore: howdoweknow.net/
horticulture-tools

4. Horticulture uses garden tools as metaphors to provide a
fresh, common language for exploring media’s impact.

5. Question: Ask the filmmaker
What happened?
Tool: BRITDOC Impact Field
Guide & Toolkit
Explore: http://impactguide.org

6. BRITDOC’s Impact Field Guide & toolkit is geared towards
filmmakers, giving them the tools to “take control—to
make a plan and share it with your funders and partners.”

7. Question: Ask the audience
What did you do next?
Tool: The Participant Index
Explore: www.takepart.com/tpi

8. The Participant Index tracks social media conversations,
viewership information, and audience opinion data for
narrative, documentary, and short film.

9. Question: Ask the data scientists
How do films work in
context?
Tool: StoryPilot
Harmony Institute
Explore: storypilot.org/home

10. StoryPilot draws data from a variety of public sources,
including OMDB, Wikipedia, Freebase, film websites,
social media data, YouTube, and Congressional data from
the Sunlight Foundation to place films in context.

11. Question: Ask your partners
How did you share this
work — and how did your
network respond?
Tool: Strategy Tools
Dot Connector Studio
Explore: dotconnectorstudio.com

12. Dot Connector Studio’s strategy tools are designed to
help funders, makers and advocates think through
impact goals and process.

13. Question: Ask me
How can I learn more?
Tool: Assessing Impact of Media
Media Impact Funders
Explore: http://bit.ly/MIF_AIM

14. Your turn: Where are you in your
impact process?