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Advocacy in Action

Advocacy Guide

  • Mobilize your supporters

  • Raise awareness of your cause

  • Effect change in your community

Simply put, advocacy is the public support of a particular cause, policy, or position. Advocacy can take any number of forms, from raising awareness online to lobbying directly for change within government or other institutions.

No matter what form they take, advocacy campaigns allow nonprofits (and other organizations) to spread the word about their mission. These efforts can be paired with fundraising, marketing and outreach, and community service.

Digital advocacy encompasses all of the tactics you might take to get the word out about your cause online. Using social media, your website, mobile apps, and email, you can educate the world about your mission and inspire action.

Digital advocacy has become increasingly prevalent (and important) due to the efficiency and wide reach of the internet.You can get your cause in front of thousands of new potential supporters all through a few shares!

Advocacy and fundraising can go hand-in-hand when you have a holistic nonprofit strategy. Since you know your advocates are passionate about your cause, they’re naturally great prospects for financial contributions.

However, fundraising is not always the end goal of an advocacy campaign. It’s important to see your advocates as key pieces of your organization, even if they don’t make a monetary gift.

Peer advocacy involves individuals advocating for someone else in a one-on-one setting. Typically, these advocates and beneficiaries have shared experiences, making it easier for advocates to empathize and communicate the needs of the benefiting community.

Cause advocacy is the championing of a particular issue or cause that supporters feel strongly about. This type of advocacy can be led by organizations, groups of people, or individuals, with the goal of raising awareness for a problem and finding or promoting a solution.

Essentially cause advocacy on a larger scale, systems advocacy is a form of advocacy that seeks to effect change within social, economic, or political institutions. Systems advocacy can involve fundraising, awareness campaigns, and lobbying.

While the primary goal of any advocacy campaign is, of course, to make a change in your community (whether local, regional, or global), the ways that advocates go about effecting that change can vary greatly.

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Advocacy campaigns can have a myriad of objectives, most of which will fall somewhere along the spectrum in one of the following four categories.

A common goal of an advocacy campaign is to bring a previously unknown issue to light on a large scale. Advocates may create educational materials (such as a film or case study) and use their campaign to promote them to the public.

Many times, what stands between a problem and its solution is a lack of resources. Fundraising can fill that gap by providing an advocacy group with the money they need to supply a community’s needs or power a charitable mission.

One of the most visible results of advocacy is a tangible change in the way our systems operate. Advocates may lobby for legislation or work to elect government officials. Policy change can also take place within other systems, such as an institution or corporation.

Litigation is a specific aspect of advocacy that takes place within the court system. Through litigation, advocates can enact changes within the law that can directly impact communities on a small or large scale.

Nonprofits regularly advocate on behalf of their cause using a variety of advocacy tactics. Primarily, nonprofits will launch awareness or educational campaigns backed by fundraising initiatives. They may also work with other advocacy groups or key individuals (such as politicians or influencers) in order to promote their efforts.

Political Action Committees (PACs) and Super PACs

Though both of these groups advocate for political change, there are key differences in how they can do it. PACs donate a limited amount of funds to a specific candidate. Super PACs have no cap on the amount they can raise to benefit a candidate, but the caveat is that they can’t directly donate to that candidate.

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An umbrella term for PACs, Super Pacs, and other types of political advocacy groups, 527 organizations are tax-exempt and not regulated under campaign finance laws. This term usually refers to any group that advocates for issue-based political change — but not a specific political candidate.

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