Nonpartisan Advocacy in Partisan Times
September 15, 2020 10:30 AM CST
Election years provide a great opportunity for public charities to highlight issues and interact with candidates and the voting public. However, public charities cannot support or oppose candidates, and must avoid the appearance or reality of electioneering and other partisan activity, particularly in public and social media communications. This webinar will highlight some common pitfalls and provide suggestions and tips for avoiding them.
Participants will learn:
- How you can continue to advocate for your issues during election years;
- How you can educate the public through candidate forums and questionnaires;
- How you can respond to candidate statements;
- How you can conduct nonpartisan voter registration and ensure get-out-the-vote efforts are conducted legally;
- How you can safely support or oppose ballot measures without being partisan; and
- How staff and volunteers’ partisan activities in their personal time can be kept separate from their activities on behalf of the organization.
Advocacy Rules for Foundation Grantees
September 29, 2020 10:30 AM CST
There are many opportunities for 501(c)(3) public charities to advocate for their missions, up to and including lobbying. Knowing how to approach foundations to obtain grants that cover advocacy work can greatly improve a nonprofit’s chances to get and keep this critical funding. This workshop will help you understand the rules that foundations operate under so you can be savvier when it comes to requesting support for advocacy.
Participants will learn:
- Why different types of foundations have to follow different rules;
- How those foundation rules affect advocacy grantmaking; and
- What activities foundations may legally fund.
Assessing and Strengthening Your Advocacy Capacity
October 13, 2020 10:30 AM CST
For nonprofits engaged in advocacy, having a keen understanding of organizational capacities is crucial to being able to act quickly when opportunities arise. Bolder Advocacy’s capacity assessment tools – ACT!, ACT!Quick, and PowerCheck – are designed to help groups become more effective by supporting their ability to carry out and sustain advocacy and community organizing efforts. These tools provide groups with a snapshot of their organizational assets, as well as help them prioritize areas for improvement. Results can help nonprofits and their funders understand where capacity needs to be strengthened to achieve social change goals, including through increased collaboration with partners to fill gaps in expertise. The tools can also be used again at regular intervals to track progress toward capacity-building goals over time.
Participants will learn:
- Basic principles of advocacy evaluation;
- How to measure advocacy and/or community organizing capacity using AFJ’s free online tools: ACT! or ACT!Quick for advocacy and PowerCheck for community organizing; and
- How other organizations have used these tools to maximize their impact.