Advocacy Activities in Nonprofit Human Service Organizations

Abstract

The article describes political and advocacy activity in nonprofit human service organizations for children, elderly people, women, and people with disabilities. On the whole, the level of their political activity was found to be moderate, as perceived by the directors of the organizations. The main findings reveal a significant positive correlation between advocacy and political activity in nonprofit organizations and their perceived influence on setting the public agenda. Analysis of the findings indicates that the larger the number of volunteers in the organization, the greater the organization's political influence. In addition, it was found that the more dependent the organizations were on funding from local authorities, the lower the level of advocacy and political activity. The effectiveness of strategies used to attain political influence was also analyzed. The most effective strategy was exerting pressure on decision makers, both on the national and local levels.

Nonprofit Advocacy Under a Third-Party Government Regime: Cooperation or Conflict?

“…As such they function as intermediaries with the ability to deepen the ways in which people are represented and participate in democracies (Reid 1999). A substantial amount of empirical and normative scholarship focuses on the levels of nonprofit advocacy in civil societies and the strategies through which NPO's can exert a direct or indirect influence on policymakers (Page 1999;Rees 1999;Grant 2000;Hoefer 2001;Berry and Arons 2003;Andrews and Edwards 2004;Binderkrantz 2005;Child and Gronbjerg 2007;Onyx, Dalton et al 2008;Schmid, Bar et al 2008). A second debate discusses the question whether organizational features, and especially the amount of government funding received, might predict whether or not these NPO's will become politically active to fulfill this expressive advocacy role (Smith and Lipsky 1993;Salamon 1995;Boris and Steuerle 1999;Chavez, Stephens et al 2004;Nicholson-Crotty 2005;Dalton and Lyons 2006;Child and Gronbjerg 2007;Guo and Saxton 2010).…”

Legislators’ Need for Civil Society Expertise: Tunisian Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Opportunity

“…Although CSOs in Tunisia already enjoy some opportunity to influence legislators' votes, Tunisian CSOs face similar obstacles to engaging in legislative advocacy that CSOs in other developing countries face (Andrews and Edwards 2004;Schmid, Bar, and Nirel 2008;Mosley 2010). Tunisia's historical and organizational factors, such as financial and human resources, accessibility, and time all affect the ability of CSOs to engage in advocacy.…”

“…The literature on civil society advocacy has grown steadily (Berry 2001;Dalrymple 2004;Ezell 2006;Hudson 2002;Boris 1999;Boris and Steuerle 2006;Schmid, Bar, and Nirel 2008). However, most of this research has focused on Western democracies and on the role and efforts of CSOs (Appe and Layton 2016;Guo and Zhang 2014;Najam 2000;Smith 1984).…”

“…However, most of this research has focused on Western democracies and on the role and efforts of CSOs (Appe and Layton 2016;Guo and Zhang 2014;Najam 2000;Smith 1984). Studies of legislative advocacy (Saidel 2002;Schmid, Bar, and Nirel 2008;Mosley 2010;Child and Grønbjerg 2007) have examined CSOs' organizational capacities and legal restrictions, and the impact of those factors on CSOs' legislative advocacy efforts, mainly in developed countries.…”

Nonprofit Influence on Public Policy

“…Further, in strengthening their advocacy work NPOs often use political ties (Beyers & Kerremans, 2012), establish advocacy networks (Galaskiewicz, Bielefeld, & Dowell, 2006) join specialized umbrella organizations (Balassiano & Chandler, 2010;Kraemer, Whiteman, & Banerjee, 2013), or bolster membership (Schmid, Bar, & Nirel, 2008).…”