Q: I run an after school program for low-income kids. Why should I be an advocate too? It’s not really part of my mission.

A: Yours is one of the most common questions about nonprofit advocacy. Most people think of advocacy as something done in back rooms by people in expensive suits and Gucci loafers. In reality, most advocacy is done by people who are not professional lobbyists. The right to petition government for redress of grievances (a fancy 18th century way of saying advocacy) is a cornerstone of our democracy.

So why should an after school program be concerned about advocacy? Aren’t your hands full already? The short answer is, of course you should care about advocacy, even though you’re extremely busy already. Government can have an impact on your organization and the people you serve in many ways, so it pays to become involved with policymakers.

In your specific case, there may be changes to government funding or regulations of after school programs, or other proposals that don’t impact you directly but would have an effect on the people you serve. You might be surprised at how effective you can be at advocating your position without a large amount of effort.

My boss tells a story about a church with a charitable spirit that happens to be located next to an extremely dangerous curve in the road. Over time, members of the church witness many car crashes, and decide that they need to do something about it. They decide to send a few members for medical training so that they can help people who’ve run off the road. This helps a little, and eventually they decide to buy an ambulance, in order to not only give medical attention to people who’ve crashed, but get them to the hospital as soon as possible. Pretty soon, a good portion of the church’s time and money is going to helping people after they crash due to the dangerous road. This begins to put a strain on the church, and a meeting is held to decide what to do. After all sorts of fund raising proposals a member of the church’s youth group (and probably a civics honor student) stands up and says “why don’t we all go down to the county road department and ask them to fix the road so it’s not so dangerous.” The church’s older members look around at each other for a moment and begin to as themselves “can we do that? Isn’t that lobbying? That’s not for people like us.”

The church’s reaction is a common one. Many nonprofits use tremendous energies to help people, but all too often do not go after the underlying problems. This is where advocacy comes in, and it doesn’t need to be as scary as you might think. A simple phone call to a policymaker can make a huge diference.