This document provides the lobbying rules for nonprofit, 501(c) (3) organizations.

• advocacy
• lobbying

This tool can be used to design an “advocacy” theory of change. It leads a group through six questions for discussion, provides facilitation tips, and several graphic representations of what final strategies might look like.

• advocacy
• facilitation
• framework
• strategy
• theory of change

This book, first published in 2007, is a guide to how nonprofits achieve extraordinary social impact. After studying 12 nonprofit, the authors identified six practices that lead to success. Advocacy and constituent engagement are key.

• advocacy
• constituent engagement
• social impact
• success practices

This paper makes the case for nonprofits to work to ameliorate income inequality beyond providing services to those who are already poor or are in danger of falling out of the shrinking middle class and into poverty.

• advocacy
• income inequality
• poverty
• public policy

From advocacy toolkits and informative “how to” sheets to recent opinion pieces and material about federal, state, and local lobbying laws, this section of the National Council of Nonprofits website provides resources to nonprofit leaders about ways to advance their missions through everyday advocacy.

• advocacy
• legislation
• lobbying
• worksheets

Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts, has an online storehouse of resources aimed at helping arts organizations evaluate the social impact of creative work that aims to make social change.  Although the site is intended for arts-focused organizations, many of the resources offered are applicable to the work of a wide variety of service agencies interested social change work.

• advocacy
• arts
• social justice

This brief describes four methods that were developed to respond to the unique challenges of measuring advocacy. Included are step-by-step instructions for use, rating scales, and sample questions that can guide evaluation.

• advocacy
• common methods
• evaluation
• sample questions

This is a series of small-group discussion questions for use during an agency retreat or extended meeting that offers a structured opportunity to explore the agency’s potential for community engagement work.

• advocacy
• community engagement
• discussion questions
• leadership development
• public policy

This is section 2 of the “Integrating Civic Participation Strategies into Service Delivery Organizations” Toolkit, which was created by the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) in order to create a “participation continuum” that links constituencies to a variety of civic opportunities such as citizenship promotion and engaging in issues. This section focuses on expanding the traditional role of service providers to affect decision-making authority, changing the systems that create the need for services.

• advocacy
• citizenship
• civic participation
• lobbying
• mobilizing
• organizing
• services
• strategy
• voter engagement