Best Practices - Advocacy

Strengthening Democracy, Increasing Opportunities: Impacts of Advocacy, Organizing and Civic Engagement in Los Angeles
National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy
This research documents how 15 nonprofit organizations in Los Angeles County and their allies leveraged foundation grants to secure nearly $91 of benefit for every dollar spent for Los Angeles citizens.

Agenda for Action: Building a Movement for Elder Women's Advocacy
The Women's Foundation of California
Agenda for Action: Building a Movement for Elder Women's Advocacy presents the findings from the Elder Women's Initiative research and Speak-Outs organized through the combined efforts of The Women's Foundation of California, The California Endowment, UCSF Institute for Health & Aging, and the Insight Center for Community Economic Development.

Advocacy Funding: The Philanthropy of Changing Minds
GrantCraft
Advocacy includes many opportunities to improve public policy through work that is well within the limits of the law. Whether your organization is advancing an idea, arguing a position, or enriching the policy debate, the guide offers resources and strategies for planning your work, reaching your audience, assessing impact, and more.

A Guide to Measuring Advocacy and Policy
Annie E. Casey Foundation
The Annie E. Casey Foundation commissioned this guide to help determine meaningful ways to measure and evaluate the impact of its advocacy and public policy grantmaking. This guide also serves as a broad call to grantmakers to build and advance the field of evaluation in this area.

Funding Community Organizing: Social Change through Civic Participation
GrantCraft
This guide highlights how funders and organizers make community organizing unique and uniquely effective, how to manage grantee relationships over time, understanding the value of process, and the grantmaker’s special role in fostering change.  This guide dispels grantmakers’ fears of not knowing how to measure the impact and effectiveness of community organizing work.

Words to Give By: Leading Voices in Advocacy Funding
Alliance for Justice
While making the case for foundation support of advocacy, the Alliance for Justice compiled lessons learned from 23 philanthropic leaders around making social change happen, identifying advocacy activities to support, and ensuring these efforts result in long-term community benefits.  Together, their stories offer a powerful and very personal look at the importance of investing in social change.

How Can Foundations Engage in Advocacy and Lobbying?
Donors Forum of Chicago
This resource outlines rules for foundation advocacy and lobbying.  It also describes the importance of engaging in advocacy and lobbying work especially in order to protect and strengthen the charitable sector.

Advocacy Fact Sheets
Alliance for Justice
The Alliance for Justice has compiled one-page fact sheets about engaging in advocacy, funding advocacy and election activities.

Tips for Evaluating Advocacy: A Checklist for Grantmaking Organizations
Alliance for Justice

The Challenge of Assessing Policy and Advocacy Activities: Strategies for a Prospective Evaluation Approach
Blueprint R&D
Blueprint R&D provides a variety of resources for foundations to measure the impact of policy advocacy work. A follow-up to this report, The Challenge of Assessing Policy and Advocacy Activities: Part II - Moving From Theory to Practice, is also available.

Why Supporting Advocacy Makes Sense for Foundations
The Atlantic Philanthropies
This report describes various forms of advocacy that a foundation can support, including commissioning research, policy development, community organising, coalition work, legislative lobbying, litigation, mass campaigns and more.