NPAction Update
Vol 2, Issue 1
01/06/2004

Welcome to the first edition of the NPAction Update for 2004. We hope you and your family, friends, and colleagues enjoyed a wonderful and safe holiday season.

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*
*Current Poll*
*Featured Article*
*Featured Resource Links*
*Hey, You Asked*


*What's New*

Start the year off with some fun by stopping by the quiz section on NPAction, and testing your advocacy knowledge. There are quizzes on what is and is not considered lobbying, federal funding and lobbying, direct and grassroots lobbying, as well as one to see if you are an Advocate.

Nonprofit Advocacy Quizzes
http://www.npaction.org/quiz/game/list/


*Current Poll*

Take a moment to participate in the biweekly NPAction Poll, continuously displayed on the right side of the website. The current poll concerns whether organizations submit comments in response to proposed rulemaking by government agencies, so stop by and vote today (but don't try to vote twice!).

Maybe you have a question you've wanted to ask other nonprofits, but couldn't figure out how. Now here's your chance. Send your idea for a poll to npaction@npaction.org .

Past Poll Results
http://www.npaction.org/article/archive/207



*Featured Article*

One aspect of organizing often overlooked by smaller organizations is stakeholder analysis, which seeks to provide a crucial link in the formulation of policy and the actual mobilizing of support for policy-- assessing the impact of positions on engaging, utilizing, and sustaining support while minimizing or neutralizing political opposition. The two tools discussed, OUTRAGE and PolicyMaker, help users develop strategies to deal with stakeholder issues while formulating policies.

Stakeholder Analysis Tools
http://www.npaction.org/article/articleview/151/1/117/

As with most NPAction articles, users can rate and provide comments directly on the article pages themselves by scrolling to the bottom of a particular article.



*Featured Resource Links*

The NPAction Resource Links Directory is a human-edited compendium of tools and references, contributed by nonprofits for nonprofits.

Is one of your new year's resolutions to work on more development and fundraising? This issue's set of featured links deal with philanthropy and fundraising.

This first is E-Philanthropy and Technology Review, a Charity Channel newsletter that covers all aspects of online philanthropy, as well as some general nonprofit technology issues and technology how-tos.

E-Philanthropy and Technology Review
http://charitychannel.com/eptr.shtml


The second is the Grantsmanship Center Magazine, which has an online archive of articles on fundraising, grant-seeking, management and other issues of interest to nonprofits. While the archives are searchable by anyone, nonprofit and government staff may subscribe to the magazine for free.

The Grantsmanship Center Magazine Archives
http://www.tgci.com/magazine/archives.asp

More Philanthropy Resource Links
http://www.npaction.org/link/category/90/

Suggest a Resource Link
http://www.npaction.org/link/suggestlink



*"Hey, You Asked"*

This week, Jonathan Richter asks:

"A small nonprofit organization works with small grassroots organizations in Ghana on building their organizational capacity to establish community-based ecotourism sites. However, as part of building the organizational capacity, it is important to include the district government in the process. Are programs that bring these grassroots, nonprofits, and government actors together to debate on the sharing of burden and benefit undertaking "advocacy"? If so, what kinds of skills are particular to this kind of advocacy?"


As usual, an interesting question. Partnership can be a form, and also an outcome, of "advocacy". This is so, in part, because rather than framing issues and actions in terms of "us" and "them," there really is a focus on the development of sustainable, mutually beneficial relationships that stem from the intersection of common interests (in this case, the government's interest in increasing tourism, and the groups' interest in managing the sites with minimal governmental hurdles).

Though not often mentioned, the other product of "partnership as advocacy" modes of thinking is the emphasis on creating real opportunities for stakeholders who are traditionally excluded, under-utilized, or hard to engage in substantive roles. These can be smaller groups or groups on the "fringe" that feel they have no voice themselves, but can be active participants in a coalition.

This type of advocacy requires several skill sets, including lobbying/government advocacy skills, as well as coalition building and management skills.

For the full answer, see
http://www.npaction.org/forum/message/94/

To ask a question for the experts behind "Hey, You Asked" go to:
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 (but when you steal the code, just let us know!).

"Steal the Code" today
http://www.npaction.org/article/archive/208


*NPAction Update Archives*
http://www.npaction.org/article/archive/210/


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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
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