To achieve the change we want to see, we have identified two important groups to work with: implementing charities, and funders in the animal and vegan advocacy area. We believe that when charities and funders make decisions informed by available research and insights stemming from data they gathered about their interventions, they can continuously improve their programs or adapt them to changing contexts.

We focus on working directly with individual organizations. This way, we can help them set up MEL systems that are suitable for the phase and type of interventions and the context of the organizations’ work. This should allow them to gather sufficient (not too much - not too little), relevant, and credible data that they can indeed act upon. We believe this direct support has the highest chance of generating sustained MEL practices.

Although we think most of our impact will come from our 1-on-1 support as outlined above, our experience is that some misconceptions about MEL may prevent organizations from seeking support or building their own MEL systems

• MEL is often seen as inhibitively complicated, which it doesn’t have to be.

• Some organizations think MEL tools are not useful for their type of interventions, while most of the time it is about choosing the right tool.

We therefore dedicate a small portion of our time to movement outreach and address these concerns. We organize online webinars, support-meetings for MEL practitioners, and will speak about MEL on relevant platforms. Next to addressing some of the barriers to taking up MEL practices, these more general activities will help participants grow their MEL knowledge and assess if and when they might want to reach out for support.