integrating advocacy into your organization using your whole team
TRANSCRIPT
Integrating Advocacy into your Organization
Using Your Whole Team
What do we mean by ‘advocacy’?
Advocare: “to call to aid”Rally around a causeEngage stakeholdersPromote social changeAddress root causes
AUDIENCES
OUTC
OMES
Voter Outreach
Public Education Policymaker EducationInfluencer Education
Political Will Campaigns
Litigation
Media Advocacy
Regulatory Feedback
Public Forums
Champion Development
Model Legislation
Policy Analysis/Research
Demonstration Programs
A Broad Advocacy Landscape: One Framework
Community Mobilization
Coalition BuildingCommunity Organizing
Public Will CampaignsCommunications and Messaging
Leadership DevelopmentAdvocacy Capacity Building
Public Awareness Campaigns
Public Polling
Lobbying
4
AUDIENCES
OUTC
OMES
Voter Outreach
Public Education Policymaker EducationInfluencer Education
Political Will Campaigns
Litigation
Media Advocacy
Regulatory Feedback
Public Forums
Champion Development
Model Legislation
Policy Analysis/Research
Demonstration Programs
Where are you working? Where could you, if you used your whole team?
Community Mobilization
Coalition BuildingCommunity Organizing
Public Will CampaignsCommunications and Messaging
Leadership DevelopmentAdvocacy Capacity Building
Public Awareness Campaigns
Public Polling
Lobbying
5
What would this look like in your organization?
How do you assess your advocacy capacity today?
What are your goals for the types, amounts, and arenas of advocacy in which you want to engage?
What is your theory of change for how and why advocacy makes sense, as a way to drive toward your vision?
Who is ‘on your team’, and how could you be using them differently, to increase your capacity?
Clients How do you currently honor clients’
voices and cultivate their sense of leadership and empowerment?
What are the benefits or impacts of these efforts?
If you were to do more to empower your constituents, how might you restructure an existing program to achieve that goal?
Direct-Service StaffHow do you currently incorporate
advocacy opportunities into direct service staffs’ job responsibilities?
How can advocacy responsibilities currently held by the CEO/executive staff be diffused to other employees?
What learning opportunities could you access to build staff capacity?
VolunteersThink of the last time you volunteered at
an organization:What questions did the organization ask you
to consider? What did you wish you knew more about?
How do you engage volunteers in your organization?
What questions might your organization ask in order to collaborate with the broader community in confronting social problems?
Donors What motivates people to contribute
financially to your organization? How could conveying information about your
cause(s) and the need for advocacy invite donors to feel more deeply invested in your work?
Where would your donors’ voices make a particular impact?
What types of strategies/arenas lend themselves well to engaging your donors?
Examples: Building Capacity with your Whole Team
Service ParticipantsDirect-Service StaffVolunteersDonors
What do you need to make these shifts?
Board buy-in and how to get itTechnical assistance—around what?Staff capacity—to do what? How to
cultivate it?Partnerships/mentorships—where
are there organizations positioned to guide you?
Resources Building Movement Project and the 5% Shift Bolder Advocacy Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest Case studies for the Advocacy Capacity TA
Project (available from Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City)
Case studies on nonprofits and social change, available from California Endowment
Center for Evaluation Innovation, on advocacy evaluation
Innovation Network
