While watching a recent Democratic primary debate, I heard Senator Amy Klobouchar cite a Vanderbilt study that named her the most effective Democratic Senator during the...
Continue reading...The Conventional Wisdom on Funder Diversification is (Partly) Wrong
If you have joined an advocacy organization board meeting, you have heard some form of a conversation on funding diversification. Typically it starts with a board...
Continue reading...A Seven Factor Checklist for Advocacy Decisions
With so many critical issues to work on, how do you decide where to allocate your limited time and resources? This is a perennial question for...
Continue reading...When Hiring, Advocacy Organizations Focus Too Much on Subject-Matter Knowledge
A position just opened up on your policy team for an analyst to lead your health care work. The hiring manager drafts a job description highlighting...
Continue reading...Hahrie Han Says If You Want to Mobilize, You Need to Organize
You’ve heard it before. The digital age will change everything-including political activism. With the costs of communication at near zero, social change agents can mobilize people...
Continue reading...Talking About Advocacy Goals: How Foundations and Nonprofits Should Navigate a Sticky Conversation
Pitching your latest advocacy campaign to a foundation* can make for some frustrating conversations. Some of that results from necessary but tedious back and forth in...
Continue reading...10 Ways to Grow Your Team’s Advocacy Skills (Part 1 of 2)
Note: This is the first part in a two-part series cataloguing professional development ideas for advocacy professionals. Part 1 will focus on external opportunities, while Part...
Continue reading...What to Do When Facing Polarized, Divided Government
Divided government and partisan politics present an obstacle that can stymie even the best advocacy campaigns. The United States’ peculiar separation of powers model, copied by...
Continue reading...How to Streamline Your Approval Processes
Have you ever watched a press release meander through approvals for so long that by the time everyone has signed off, the document is no longer...
Continue reading...How to Tailor Your Ask for Advocacy Funding to a Foundation
One of the initial questions advocacy organizations need to ask when approaching a foundation is whether the foundation will support policy work. Many do not support...
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