Knight Foundation launched the Tech for Engagement initiative in 2010 to experiment with new civic technologies and tools that spur citizen engagement, improve cities and make government more effective. Knight has invested over $25 million in nearly fifty projects since that time, ranging from neighborhood forums like Front Porch Forum, to civic crowdfunding platforms like neighbor.ly, to efforts that promote government innovation like Code for America.

The field of civic tech has grown dramatically with a proliferation of new technologies connecting residents in neighborhoods, catalyzing community discussions, changing the way governments and citizens interact, and making government more transparent. These efforts have different goals, strategies and scopes, but all of them offer new tools to inspire people to take action.

A recent landscape analysis supported by Knight, entitled The Emergence of Civic Tech, uncovered 241 organizations that received a combination of private and philanthropic funding totaling $695 million between 2011 and 2013. The breadth of activity and investment captured in the report triggered lively discussions about next steps for this growing movement, but the most common question was this: How do we capture insights into the effectiveness of new civic tech tools and measure their impact?

Practitioners in this expanding field are already tracking progress using metrics such as number of active users, and most organizations are familiar with tools like Google Analytics. But measuring the impact of civic tech means more than counting clicks, views, downloads and tweets. It also means tracking on-the-ground outcomes for people, places and processes.

Knight Foundation engaged Network Impact to conduct a scan of the field of civic tech assessment and provide technical assistance to several grantees. This resource summarizes assessment approaches, tools and case studies that Network Impact identified and developed through their extensive research and consultations with thought leaders in the field.