Types of Advocacy Including Lobbying

Types of Advocacy Including Lobbying

Advocacy
Advocacy encompasses a broad range of activities that involve identifying, embracing, and promoting a cause. It is an effort to shape public perception to effect change that may or may not require changes in the law. Advocacy is about using effective tools to create social change. Lobbying is only one of these activities.

The following activities do not involve lobbying:

• Public Education
A nonprofit develops a public information campaign to raise awareness of the rise in childhood obesity. In this campaign they recommend a variety of approaches to reverse this trend.

• Issue Research
A nonprofit regularly creates and distributes briefs describing policy barriers to improving end-of-life care to its state's legislative committees on health, insurance, and aging.

• Policy Education
At the request of a congressional committee investigating how to move children out of foster care into adoptive families more quickly, several nonprofit organizations from various states describe their innovative foster care reform models to help policymakers make a more informed decision as they grapple with policy decisions on this topic.

• Voter and Candidate Education
A nonprofit sends a questionnaire about their priority issue to all the mayoral candidates in a local election and published the received responses (unedited) in their newsletter or the local paper.

• Organizing and Mobilizing
A grantee nonprofit organized a series of community meetings, public hearings, interviews with target group members, scientific surveys, and events that drew hundreds of child welfare system stakeholders together over a period of months to "vision" a comprehensive strategy to reform child welfare system policies and practices in its state.

• Judicial Advocacy
The NAACP files a class action suit to compel a state to integrate public schools.

• Executive (Administrative) Advocacy
A nonprofit representing patients and loved ones struggling with Alzheimer's disease consulted with state health department officials to help rewrite eligibility rules to ensure better access to subsidized assisted living facilities. Legislation is not discussed.

A nonprofit promoting school-based health centers met with representatives from its state's Medicaid office to recommend an innovative way to structure a Medicaid waiver that will increase funding to all centers in its state.

A nonprofit urges the general public to send comments to the Department of Health and Human Services on a proposed federal rulemaking that is open for public comment.

When these kinds of advocacy (above) take positions on specific pieces of legislation, particularly pending legislation, they become lobbying. For example, if the Alzheimer's association mentioned immediately above, took a position on pending legislation and asked for health department officials' support for their position, they would be lobbying.

Lobbying

Definitions

• "Lobbying" is virtually any advocacy activity aimed at influencing a "legislator's" vote on specific legislation.
• "Legislator" refers to
   --Members of Congress or their staff
   --State legislators or their staff
   --Local legislative representatives (e.g., on county boards and city councils)
   --The public, in case of a ballot measure
   --Members of an organization (if asked to take action on legislation)
• "Legislation" is defined as action by a legislative body including the introduction, amendment, enactment, defeat or repeal of Acts, bills, resolutions, appropriations, and budgets. Also included are the U.S. Senate confirmations of executive and judicial branch nominees and proposed treaties that need U.S. Senate approval.

Direct Lobbying
Direct lobbying occurs when a nonprofit organization attempts to influence specific legislation by stating a position to a "legislator" or other government employee who participates in the formulation of legislation.

• Leaders from a nonprofit offer unsolicited testimony before the local city council meeting just before it was to vote on a proposed ban on soda in school vending machines.
  
• A nonprofit sends a letter to the chair of the appropriation committee opposing certain budget cuts and proposing other budget increases.
  
• There are four statutory exceptions:

Nonpartisan analysis, study or research - may have a point of view but must provide a full and fair exposition of the underlying facts to enable reader to form an independent opinion or conclusion on the subject and be widely disseminated and not limited to people on one side of an issue.

Request for technical advice or assistance - a written request from a legislative body that is available to all members of the requesting body.

Self-defense - communication on an action which could impact an organization's existence, powers, duties, tax-exempt status or the deductibility of contributions to the organization.

Discussion of broad, social, economic, and similar problems - discussion on general topics which may be the subject of specific legislation but must not refer to specific legislation or directly encourage action.

Grass Roots Lobbying
Grass roots lobbying occurs when a nonprofit organization urges the general public to take action on specific legislation.

For example, MADD organizes a massive "call or write your governor and senate president campaign" to urge toughening a state drunk-driving law.

Key indicators of Grass Roots Lobbying:

• Relates to specific legislation
• Reflects a point of view on the legislation's merits
• Encourages the general public to contact legislators

Lobbying is Legal and Important

The term "lobbying" carries negative connotations for many people because it may raise the specter of violating federal law and losing tax-exempt status, or because it is often associated with scandals involving paid lobbyists representing corporate interests. Nonetheless, lobbying by nonprofit organizations exempt under 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code is a legal and acceptable activity that is often essential to creating good public policy and stronger, more democratic communities.