Theory of Change Samples

Sample #1

As an elected official myself, I understand that the change that happens locally has the potential to spread across jurisdictions and impact legislation at the state and federal levels. Moreover, local elected officials have the unique ability to engage with their constituencies, hear from people who have been historically disconnected from power, and share that power through collaborative governance. This engagement has been critical to my work.  

By building a table where local electeds and stakeholder organizations can share resources on this discrete issue, driving equity policies will naturally expand. The campaign will initially focus on passing driving equity legislation at the local level, but these jurisdictions will build a broad base of community support for the issue and provide evidence of the campaign’s success. This community support and evidence will engender real motivation to adopt driving equity policies at the state level and make the case for federal funding to support these projects. 

Driving equity campaigns will also provide context for larger questions left unanswered after calls to defund the police following George Floyd’s murder. By removing this narrow police power in traffic enforcement, our communities will be able to imagine how to reallocate police powers more broadly.

Sample #2

Community-driven loss and damage litigation has the potential to move the needle on climate change by making the fossil fuel industry pay the true costs of its historic and ongoing role in creating the crisis, while also providing transformative remedies to frontline communities.

Shorter term outcomes:

• Community coalition achieves its goals, including climate adaptation resources.

• Critical precedent is set holding fossil fuel corporations liable for climate and environmental injustices.

• Public awareness is raised about the climate injustice endured by frontline communities.

Medium term outcomes:

• Frontline communities across the country bring loss and damage suits, achieving local level remedies and resiliency while imposing further economic and reputational costs on the fossil fuel industry.

• Other climate accountability strategies benefit from precedent establishing fossil fuel corporations’ liability for climate-induced damages and losses.

• Loss and damage legal liability informs international climate talks, including about inclusion of non-state actors in loss and damage funds

Longer term outcomes:

• Fossil fuel companies are forced to pay the true costs of their climate-destructive activities at scale – speeding up phase out of fossil fuels even without mandatory emissions reductions.

• Frontline communities have greater climate resilience and endure less local-level pollution and environmental damage from climate-destructive projects.