At a recent client meeting, the Executive Director of a large advocacy and policy organization frustratingly asked, “I wish I had a way to measure our work, in a way that makes sense not only internally, but externally…how can I measure policy and advocacy work?” We hear similar sentiments from the majority of clients, especially those that work on policy and advocacy. Achieving policy change can take years and at the end of the day, is typically measured based on whether or not a piece of legislation has been passed. We, and the people who live and breathe policy and advocacy work, understand that there are many intermediate steps that happen in order to get to that point.

RED is the new...red. Once a metonymic reference for communism, RED is now one of the hottest signifiers of capitalistic social responsibility (CSR) in the West. The brainchild of Bono and Bobby Shriver, the RED concept is centered on enlisting companies to create special "red" products, a portion of whose profits -- about 40% to 50% -- is given to the global AIDS fund for its work in Africa. The first RED products were introduced in Britain earlier this year: American Express (Red Card), Nike (special Converse shoe), GAP (Tshirt line) and Armani (who hates all color in his clothes, so he's going with sunglasses). Success is still to early to tell - but the real success is the recognition by major global brands of the consumer appeal and branding power of social impact.