Printable Version Email to a Friend Related materials: The Strengthening Nonprofit Advocacy Project (SNAP) published research results addressing the state of nonprofit advocacy and barriers to policy participation. See the Executive Summary on the OMB Watch website.

Nonprofit organizations can bring about important changes for their target populations and issues by engaging in efforts to change underlying laws and regulations. However, barriers — both institutional and environmental — often keep many nonprofits from actively engaging in this work. In a four-part series, the Philanthropy Journal explores the barriers to nonprofit policy engagement and how they can be overcome.

Read Part 1 to see how tight budgets and lack of flexible funds deter many nonprofits from undertaking policy and advocacy efforts to change the laws and regulations affecting their target issues and populations. Strategies for nonprofits to increase their ability to undertake this work — such as joining coalitions to leverage limited policy dollars — are explored in this article.

The series continues with Part 2's exploration of staff capacity to undertake policy work. This article suggests that the ideal situation is for nonprofits to designate a staff person to work on advocacy and policy work. If this is not possible, successful policy engagement can also occur by providing training to staff and making strategic use of board members and coalitions to broaden the organization's policy impact.

Nonprofits are also discouraged from engaging in advocacy work by recent investigations into charities, public perceptions of appropriate roles, and lack of understanding about what actions are legally permissible. Part 3 examines the barriers of perception that keep nonprofits from exercising their right to speak out on issues affecting their constituents and to undertake policy work on their behalf. This article highlights the importance for nonprofits of learning their legal rights and not being intimidated into silence on policy issues.

Part 4 explores how reluctance by board members can lead to timidity in policy work, is forthcoming.