The Nonprofit FAQ

Online Advocacy for Nonprofit Associations

Give Voice



The INDEPENDENT SECTOR (http://www.independentsector.org/) and the National Council of Nonprofit Organizations (http://www.ncna.org) have teamed up to create a website for action campaigns by nonprofit organizations. Called GiveVoice (http://www.givevoice.org), the site encourages individuals to take part in campaigns organized by participating organizations.

The site includes current news about public policy initiatives that affect nonprofits generally and offers practical ways to get involved in influencing the outcome.

NPAction



(From Ryan Turner at http://www.ombwatch.org">OMBWatch on 10/22/03):

Announcing NPAction (http://www.npaction.org), an online resource for nonprofit advocacy. Our goal is to encourage greater participation by nonprofits in the policy arena, and to strengthen their ability to advocate for their causes.
Organizations have a range of needs-- including the desire to locate, navigate, and connect with all of the great nonprofit resources in existence. NPAction serves as a "hub" for organization and sector resources regarding policy participation and civic engagement. It is designed to break down knowledge barriers, helping organizations to quickly and effectively locate the information they need.

NPAction provides a constantly updated mix of information and tools, drawn from the expertise of organizations and advocates across a wide range of policy activities and disciplines. The growing list of content partners includes OMB Watch and Charity Lobbying in the Public Interest.

Through NPAction, organizations can learn the basics of nonprofit advocacy; connect to policymakers and the media; discuss and voice opinions on advocacy issues; test advocacy knowledge; and access one of the largest online directories of advocacy resources-- focused on, and edited by, the nonprofit sector itself.

Discover everything you wanted to know about nonprofit advocacy (but were afraid to ask). Visit NPAction today! http://www.npaction.org

E-Advocacy for Nonprofits: The Law of Lobbying and Election-Related Activity on the Net



"With Internet use on the rise among nonprofits, an increasing number of activists have questions about Internet advocacy and the law. This publication answers many of the questions raised by activists about how the laws of nonprofit advocacy apply in cyberspace. It represents the best research and thinking available on how nonprofits can use the Internet for lobbying and electoral advocacy while staying within the law."

Available as a PDF document. (PDF file is 507 KB and requires the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.)

http://www.allianceforjustice.org/images/collection_images/eadvocacy.pdf

Publication date: 2000

Alliance for Justice -- http://www.allianceforjustice.org

11 Dupont Circle, NW, 2nd Floor

Washington, DC 20036

NetAction



The Virtual Activist 2.0 (Announced 1/11/01)

NetAction has just launched a completely revised and expanded version
of our Virtual Action online training course, at
http://www.netaction.org/training.

This is the first major revision of the training course that we
developed when online activism was first becoming popular. Since
then, the course has been translated into Spanish, Japanese, and
Indonesian, and activists from all corners of the world have written
to let us know they found the materials helpful.

The expanded training course includes two new sections, mini-trainers
on web design and online media advocacy. We've also provided updated
information on copyright protection, privacy, censorship and spam,
and checklists on preparing action alerts and creating email alert
lists. We've provided some of these materials in a format that can be
downloaded, printed and distributed as handouts by readers who want
to use them in online advocacy training workshops.

In the new web design section, we provide a brief explanation of the
HTML and java programming languages, web design, and information on
obtaining a domain name. The new online media advocacy section
includes a checklist of media outreach tips that can be used as a
handout in workshops, and links to a variety of other online media
advocacy resources.

We've also expanded our discussion of email advocacy to provide more
detailed information for people who are new to email and the Web, and
added information on Application Service Providers (ASPs). ASPs are
becoming increasingly popular for email list management and online
fundraising.


Virtual Volunteering



The Virtual Volunteering project has a
list of various e-advocacy resources and links to many, many different
organizations that offer information on the subject at:
http://www.serviceleader.org/new/virtual/2003/04/000112.php

Staying Connected



Rosanna Tarsiero called attention to this article by posting to Nonprofit@rain.org (see http://www.rain.org/mailman/listinfo/nonprofit) on April 8, 2005:

"Although nonprofit professionals and pundits increasingly are celebrating the Internet as a strategic tool for fundraising, there's been much less recognition of the Internet's transformative impact on grassroots advocacy.

"High profile online campaigns have proven how quickly organizations can recruit and mobilize large numbers of supporters via the Web – one of the best recent examples is the Dean for America presidential campaign which, in less than 12 months, grew its online support base to 650,000+ constituents. But online advocacy can have a significant impact beyond political campaigns. Nonprofit organizations focused on issues from health research to social services, and both large and small, can benefit from today’s advanced Internet tools and the latest strategies to drive online advocacy programs that influence policy and also build their support base."

Full article at: http://www.pnnonline.org/article.php?sid=5871



Posted 4/19/01; revised 4/28/01; 10/22/03; 4/8/05; 8/10/05 -- PB