March 20, 2023

As part of the ongoing debate over the charitable sector’s role – or lack of a role – in policy advocacy, it is instructive to define what policy advocacy is not.

It is not scaling buildings or hanging banners from bridges, nor is it defacing art or blocking traffic. There is a long history of such disruptive advocacy and it has led to success, particularly in moving environmental concerns to the top of political agendas. But policy advocacy is a skill that requires patience, focus, resilience, and an understanding of the inner workings of government. Policy advocacy turns zeal into strategy and anger into persistence.

The need for the sector to lead on policy advocacy has been described as a moral imperative, yet the sector often faces criticism that it has lost its sense of urgency, too meekly becoming a pale vessel for service delivery.

But there is a churn in the sector, driven by policy schools across the country that are reporting an uptick in applicants who want to learn how to channel passion for an issue into the pragmatic skills of building support, refining a policy “ask,” and having bureaucratic and political doors open. They learn skills such as negotiating treaties and narrowing and refining a message. They are learning how to build collective action and the fine points of government relations. And they are learning from those from the government side of the divide who have been the target of those policy asks over the years.

…..

But there is a churn in the sector, driven by policy schools across the country that are reporting an uptick in applicants who want to learn how to channel passion for an issue into the pragmatic skills of building support, refining a policy “ask,” and having bureaucratic and political doors open. They learn skills such as negotiating treaties and narrowing and refining a message. They are learning how to build collective action and the fine points of government relations. And they are learning from those from the government side of the divide who have been the target of those policy asks over the years…..

Read the full article: Building the charitable sector’s policy muscle – The Philanthropist Journal

By Tim Harper, The Philanthropist Journal