Why advocacy work

Bringing community leaders together to jointly identify community needs and challenges and build shared priorities for public policy change.

When broad buy-in is necessary or helpful in establishing priorities and a shared strategy. More voices equals more power.

How advocacy enabled diverse stakeholders to solve problems together. LA County was in need of a robust public transportation system, the issue that Move LA was formed to tackle. Move LA understood that its mission would require widespread support and engagement and worked to create a policy table big enough to fit the broad diversity of voices in LA County in the discussion. Child advocacy centers play an essential and state-mandated role in all child abuse allegations, investigations, treatment and prosecution.

Despite this role, the most significant challenge faced by Children's Advocacy Centers of Tennessee was that very few, if any, of the elected officials knew who the organization was or the key role that the each center served in their local communities. No one understood how child abuse cases were brought to prosecution nor how victims of abuse were cared for, protected and counseled after the abuse became known.

It was incumbent upon the board to educate the state's legislators about the child advocacy center model, its statewide impact, and the government mandate to coordinate the child protection investigative team in each judicial district across the state of Tennessee.

This education resulted in legislators regularly calling the organization to testify as subject matter experts on issues and potential legislation that impacts children in Tennessee. It is not uncommon for board members and other nonprofit leaders to misunderstand the law as it relates to nonprofit engagement in advocacy. The truth is, as a c 3 nonprofit organization, you have a legal right to advocate.

And — when your mission and the people you serve are depending on you — you have a responsibility to do so. Well, that depends. For some organizations, advocacy is a major part of their strategy, and they have dedicated staffing and resources to drive that work, just like they would for any other program. Here are some simple, free ways that advocacy could make a difference:. Just like with any program or fundraising strategy, there is no guarantee that your advocacy efforts will yield the results that you want percent of the time.

On the other hand, advocacy has the potential to deliver real, long-term solutions that enable nonprofits to leverage limited resources to maximum effect. There is a lot of confusion about the rules and regulations around nonprofit advocacy, in part because the legal guidelines are different for different types of organizations.

While advocacy has always been a pillar of its mission, ArtsFund was spurred to action in when the Washington State Legislature passed a bill allowing cities and counties to levy a tax in support of access to nonprofit arts, science, and heritage organizations.

To act on this opportunity, however, ArtsFund realized that it needed more focused board leadership and support around advocacy. In response, the board formed a board-led advocacy and policy committee, which enabled the organization to restore advocacy as a mission priority and expand its influence and impact.

While the ballot initiative ultimately was defeated by a narrow margin, it energized the board and organization and was followed by a successful Seattle Mayoral Forum on Arts and Funding. We call upon those boards and board members who are not yet standing for their missions through board advocacy to have a discussion about how to get started. Board members play a vital role in providing leadership that supports, prioritizes, and engages in critical advocacy efforts in advancement of their missions.

We must advocate. Stand for Your Mission. Learn more about how your board can be a part of it. Anyone can become an advocate and can work towards making change happen in many ways whether or not they have links to organisations or people in authority. Salathiel Ntakirutimana is an advocate for education for orphans in Burundi.

Peace agreements there made it seem as if education was improving when schools began to open and security was better. But school fees made education impossible for orphans, refugees and others affected by war.

I was suspended from class, with the worry that failure to pay fees for the trimester would result in expulsion. He took action, helping to set up clubs for orphans across the country and going on radio to explain the problem. The education minister supported their cause and orphans were soon allowed to go to school for free.

Rolando Villamero Jr, from the Philippines, is an advocate for education for children with special needs. Getting them integrated into mainstream education had been identified as a priority - but teachers lacked resources and knowledge to help. It was decided that talking to and teaching student teachers in order to influence what they thought about special needs education was the way ahead - and the Caravan For Inclusion began a tour of the country.

They were being denied their rights and we wanted to support them We had no money but we made use of everything we could.

After three months more schools were teaching special needs children, more people believed it was possible and their support for inclusive education was much more widespread.

View all explainers This page explains what advocacy is and what it can be used for. What is advocacy? How does it work? Advocacy campaigns by those with less power attempting to influence those with power over them have existed for as long as the power inequalities themselves.

In the s and early s, leading development NGOs became aware that development and emergency work alone was unlikely to produce sustained improvements in the lives of the poor.

This lead them to re-examine their strategies, and they started to become increasingly focused on advocacy work. Advocacy work enables them to draw on their program experience to show the impact of existing policies on the poor and marginalized, and to suggest improvements. The increased democracy, transparency and openness of many governments make advocacy an increasingly effective method of achieving social change.

The animal welfare movement is also developing its advocacy work. Federations, coalitions and alliances have also been formed, including the World Society for the Protection of Animals and one of its predecessors — the World Federation for the Protection of Animals WFPA , which was founded way back in However, the movement has been relatively slow in developing effective strategic advocacy, with integrated research and investigations, networking, campaigning and lobbying.

The first truly international animal welfare campaign was launched by WSPA in It was adopted by over 50 WSPA member organizations and took the arguments against the wearing of fur to all corners of the globe. These days many of the leading animal welfare organizations carry out strategic advocacy. We also recognize that advocacy can benefit other aspects of our work including: visibility, recruitment, fundraising etc.