NPAction Update
Vol 1, Issue 2
11/11/03

Welcome to the second issue of NPAction Update, a bimonthly newsletter highlighting content and useful features available on NPAction (http://www.npaction.org) and information on noteworthy resources from across the nonprofit sector. You are receiving this newsletter as requested during your registration with NPAction.org. If you do not wish to receive future editions of this notice, please e-mail: npaction@npaction.org with the subject: UNSUBSCRIBE NPACTION UPDATE.


In this issue:

*What's New*
*Featured Articles*
*Featured Resource Links*
*Featured Forum*
*Hey, You Asked*


*What’s New*

A recent report from PolicyLink, "Leadership for Policy Change," describes the barriers to participation of leaders of color in local and national public policy development, and offers strategies for the removal of these barriers.

(http://www.policylink.org/pdfs/LeadershipForPolicyChange.pdf) (PDF format)



*Featured Articles*

This issue's featured articles focus on the use of technology in two different types of advocacy.

"Electronic Petitions: Spamming the Globe" discusses the inefficiency, and sometimes outright falseness of forwarded e-mail petitions that ask you to add your name and forward to friends. With authentic online petitions (which are usually web-based and require a signers full name and address) gaining popularity as a useful tool for advocates, it is important to be able to differentiate them from their spam-like email counterparts.

(http://www.npaction.org/article/articleview/153/1/123/).

"Impact of Online Administrative Advocacy" discusses electronic advocacy focused on the executive branch of government. Many advocates do not engage in administrative advocacy, which includes commenting on agency regulations and working to shape budget priorities, due to the relatively sophisticated knowledge required to understand the rulemaking process and the inner workings of agencies. Unlike legislative advocacy, administrative advocacy also does not easily translate into a consistent or tangible set of online activities. This article discusses some of the reasons why, as well as efforts to bring administrative advocacy online.

(http://www.npaction.org/article/articleview/107/1/121/)



*Featured Resource Links*

The NPAction Resource Links Directory is a human-edited compendium of 2000+ tools and references, contributed by nonprofits for nonprofits.
(http://www.npaction.org/link/category/0)


NPAction’s State Advocacy Guides provide links to state elected officials, nonprofit regulations, lobbying rules and other state legal resources.

(http://www.npaction.org/article/articleview/343/1/147)


The SPIN Project, a nonprofit media training organization, provides public relations advice, tips for how to work with reporters, and tutorials on hosting media events.

(http://www.spinproject.org)

More nonprofit outreach and media resources
(http://www.npaction.org/link/category/85)


*Featured Forum*

Have a question or opinion regarding nonprofit advocacy? Share your thoughts in the NPAction Forums. Anonymous posting is allowed, but we encourage everyone to register, so that others know everyone better, and so that you can receive updates whenever someone responds to your message.

You're invited to join in the "Advocacy Stories" forum. Share your advocacy success stories, or share what you’ve learned from your mistakes, to help other groups in their efforts.

(http://www.npaction.org/forum/messagelist/179/)



"Hey, You Asked"

This special forum features questions about advocacy posed by nonprofits, and answered by nonprofit advocacy experts.

This issue’s question is one that your teachers had in mind when they said "there’s no such thing as a dumb question." An NPAction reader has said that he is confused about all the different levels of government and asks "just who are all these people?" Everyone knows who the president is, or who their governor is, and most can probably name their Senators, but what about their state legislator or their town supervisor?

There are basically three levels of government (local, state, and federal) each broken into three branches (legislative, judicial and executive). The legislative branch includes bodies such as Congress, a state legislature, a city council, or town board. The executive branch include leaders like the president, the governor, and the mayor or town supervisor; but also agencies.

The judicial branch is a little trickier to map, because while the state and federal judiciary each usually have three levels (the trial court, the appeals court, and the supreme court), a town or city court system usually consists of only one level. Town courts generally decide cases based on town laws (speeding tickets), state courts on state laws (fishing without a license), and federal courts on federal laws (treason). Often, state, local and national laws overlap and there can be disagreement over where a case it tried.

For a more details, or to add your comment visit:
(http://www.npaction.org/forum/message/71/).

To ask a question for the experts behind "Hey, You Asked" visit:
(http://www.npaction.org/forum/messagelist/170)


*"Steal This Code": Put NPAction on Your Site*

NPAction invites organizations to share our tools on their websites. Choose a logo that best meets your needs, whether you want to link to our site, incorporate our search engine with results from a range of nonprofit sources, add the ability to connect to federal lawmakers and national media, or state-level policymakers and media. Just copy the HTML code from our site, and you're ready to go (just let us know when you steal the code!).
(http://www.npaction.org/article/archive/208)


That’s it for this edition of the NPAction Update. More to follow in two weeks!

Have suggestions or ideas for items and resources to include? E-mail (npaction@npaction.org) with "NPAction Update Suggestion" in the subject line.

NPAction Update is a service for NPAction subscribers. If you received this message from another party, and wish to subscribe, visit (http://www.npaction.org) and hit "Login" then "register new user." Registration not only allows you to receive the NPAction Update, but also to fully participate in the growing NPAction community.

NPAction, an online resource hosted by OMB Watch, provides access to tools and information for nonprofit advocacy from a wide range of organizational partners and sources in order to encourage greater participation by nonprofits in the policy arena. Funding for this project was provided by Atlantic Philanthropies, the Ford Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the Surdna Foundation.

For more information, contact:

NPAction
1742 Connecticut Avenue, N.W. Washington DC 20009 (202) 234-8494
E-mail: npaction@npaciton.org Web: http://www.npaction.org