Policy Advocacy
Top Ten Rules of Advocacy (Adapted from the American Public Health Association)
1. Get to know legislators well ‐ their districts and constituencies, voting records, personal schedules, opinions, expertise and interests. Be sure to have a good understanding of the legislator and his/her concerns, priorities and perspectives.
2. Acquaint yourself with the staff members for the legislators, committees and resource officials with whom you will be working. These people are essential sources of information and have significant influence in some instances in the development of policy.
3. Identify fellow advocates and partners in the public health community to better understand the process, monitor legislation, and assess strengths and weaknesses. Finding common ground on an issue sometimes brings together strange bedfellows but makes for a stronger coalition.
4. Identify the groups and other legislators with whom you may need to negotiate for changes in legislation. Do not dismiss anyone because of previous disagreements or because you lack a history of working together. Yesterday’s opponent may be today’s ally.
5. Foster and strengthen relationships with allies and work with legislators who are flexible and tend to keep an open mind. Don’t allow anyone to consider you a bitter enemy because you disagree.
6. Be honest, straightforward and realistic when working with legislators and their staff. Don’t make promises you can’t keep. Never lie or mislead a legislator about the importance of an issue, the opposition’s position or strength or other matters.
7. Be polite, remember names and thank those who help you ‐ both in the legislature and in the public health advocacy community.
8. Learn the legislative process and understand it well. Keep on top of the issues and be aware of controversial and contentious areas.
9. Be brief, clear, accurate, persuasive, timely, persistent, grateful and polite when presenting your position and communicating what you need/want from the legislator or staff member.
10. Be sure to follow up with legislators and their staff. If you offer your assistance or promise to provide additional information, do so in a timely and professional manner. Be a reliable resource for them today and in the future.
Online Tools, How-to Guides and Practical Resources
American Public Health Association’s Advocacy and Policy Toolkit
www.apha.org/advocacy/
This toolkit by the American Public Health Association (APHA) offers tips and resources on advocacy. The site also has a directory for locating your local elected officials.
Advocacy Toolkit – The California Endowment
www.calendow.org/Article.aspx?id=1800
The California Endowment’s Advocacy Toolkit contains resources that are meant to help community-based organizations build their public policy and advocacy capacity and skills so they can identify their communities’ health needs and potential solutions; effectively communicate these issues to policymakers and opinion leaders; and mobilize their members and leaders to action.
8 STEPS TO DEVELOP A POLICY ADVOCACY EVALUATION PLAN
www.innonet.org/client_docs/File/aep_8steps.pdf
Innovation Network identified these eight key steps in our current effort to evaluate one U.S. federal policy change campaign. These steps may have similar usefulness in evaluations of other policymaking initiatives.
Learn More about Policy Advocacy
Improving Public Health Through Policy Advocacy
www.phf.org/infrastructure/resources/policy-advocacy.pdf
This brief by Christina M. Acosta with the Public Health Institute’s Center for Health Improvement, covers What is Policy?, The Importance of Educating Policymakers, The Roles of Lobbying and Advocacy in Policymaking. This brief gives a wonderful overview of the process of influencing policy through advocacy.
Advocacy and Lobbying Without Fear: What Is Allowed within a 501(c)(3) Charitable Organization
www.oldsite.nonprofitquarterly.org/section/158.html
This article by Thomas Raffa published in the Nonprofit Quarterly outlines the differences between advocacy and lobbying and helps nonprofits understand how to achieve their policy advocacy goals without jeopardizing their 501 (c)(3) status.
Impacting Social Policy: Understanding Advocacy
www.store.nonprofitquarterly.org/imsopounad.html
Although regulations, public policy and funding patterns have an enormous effect on the outcomes an organization can produce, many nonprofit managers and board members are unclear on how much advocacy they can do, what their particular advocacy agenda should be or how to organize themselves for it. This collection of articles from the Nonprofit Quarterly will walk the reader through these issues, and serves as an excellent primer for those just getting started. (41 pages, download PDF at checkout)
E-Advocacy for Nonprofits:The Law of Lobbying Election Related Activity on the Net
www.afj.org/assets/resources/nap/evaluation-tips-grantees.pdf
E-Advocacy for Nonprofits answers many of the questions raised by progressive activists about how the laws of nonprofit advocacy apply in cyberspace. It represents the best research and thinking available on how nonprofits can use the Internet for lobbying and electoral advocacy while staying within the law.
Lobbying and Advocacy Handbook for Nonprofit Organizations: Shaping Public Policy at the State and Local Level
www.fieldstonealliance.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=27
This guide is your complete road map to shaping public policy at the state and local level. It gives detailed, step-by-step instructions for developing an effective plan and putting it into action. With this handbook, you will:
- Discover how lobbying can help fulfill your mission
- Learn how to initiate, support, or defeat bills
- Develop effective lobbying skills
- Gather and mobilize support for your positions
- Learn how to use the media effectively
- Influence government administrators to back your policy positions
- Comply with state and federal regulations
- Set up systems in your nonprofit to support lobbying
© Public Health Institute, Center for Civic Partnerships 2010
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