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.

REGISTER HERE

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.

REGISTER HERE

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.

REGISTER HERE

Looking for a fun and safe way for youth to learn more about their area’s biodiversity? BioBlitz is the learning experience for you! Join National Geographic staff and educators for a series of free webinars for afterschool and summer time professionals that share resources on exploring biodiversity from home and within your local communities. The webinar series is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Learn more and register at here.

September 1, 2020 10:30 AM — Register here!

501(c)(3)s play an important role in educating the public about policy issues and actions taken by elected officials. Elected officials vote on bills, make public statements and executive decisions, and set the course for public policy on a wide range of issues. These actions may be consistent with or conflict with a nonprofit’s mission. After this workshop you will have a clear understanding of how to maximize your advocacy, the kinds of advocacy activities 501(c)(3)s can engage in, and when a communication is considered lobbying.

Participants will learn:
– How federal tax law and Texas law permit lobbying for charities and how lobbying is defined;
– One easy step most charities can take to maximize the amount they’re allowed to spend on lobbying;
– Yearly lobbying limits for charities;
– Tips for taking advantage of the narrow definitions of lobbying – which will help charities make the most of their lobbying limit; and
– The application of these rules to ballot measure activities.

This year, we have seen the impact COVID-19 has had on afterschool and summer learning programs, and the young people and families who rely on them. In these ever-evolving circumstances, it is important for funders, policy makers, education leaders, and the overall public to understand the current situation, as well as the projections and concerns for the future.

To help make that possible, this is the second in a series of surveys the Afterschool Alliance is conducting to monitor the situation and help provide solutions. For this wave of the survey, the Afterschool Alliance is partnering with the National Summer Learning Association to learn more about how the pandemic has or has not affected your summer programming. The survey should take approximately 10 minutes of your time and your responses will be anonymous. Thank you for sharing information about your program! Please complete this survey.