Section 1. Overview: Getting an Advocacy Campaign Off the Ground

What is advocacy?

Before taking action, it is important to understand what advocacy is, what it can accomplish, and how it differs from other forms of community work.

• Advocacy is the active promotion of a cause, policy, principle, or community priority.
• Advocacy involves actions intended to move decision-makers, institutions, or the public toward a specific goal.
• Advocacy is one of many possible strategies for addressing a community problem.
• Advocacy can be one part of a broader community initiative that also includes services, education, organizing, research, or other activities.
• Advocacy is different from direct service, although the two can support one another.
• Advocacy does not necessarily involve confrontation or conflict.

Some examples can help clarify the difference between advocacy and direct service:

• Volunteering with an organization that builds or repairs housing for families facing housing barriers is direct service.
• Organizing residents and working with local officials to require or encourage affordable housing in a new development is advocacy.
• Helping sort materials at a community recycling center is direct service.
• Organizing community members to preserve a recycling center that is at risk of closing, or to secure a replacement site, is advocacy.

Advocacy often involves encouraging government agencies, businesses, schools, health systems, nonprofit organizations, or other institutions to change a policy, practice, funding decision, or condition affecting a community.

That change may be pursued through education, negotiation, public communication, community organizing, coalition building, administrative processes, elections, legal action, public demonstrations, or other strategies.

Advocacy can be collaborative or adversarial. The appropriate approach depends on the issue, the decision-makers involved, the level of urgency, the power relationships, and the needs and preferences of the people most affected.

Several factors can contribute to effective advocacy:

• A clearly defined issue and goal
• Meaningful participation by people affected by the issue
• Careful research on the issue, decision-making process, community conditions, and relevant institutions
• An understanding of who has influence and how decisions are made
• Strong relationships with allies and partners
• Skill in using available advocacy tools, including traditional and digital media
• Strategies and tactics that fit the goal and circumstances
• A plan for evaluating progress and adapting when conditions change

Advocacy may be a new role for some community members. Speaking publicly, challenging a policy, meeting with decision-makers, or participating in a campaign can feel unfamiliar or uncomfortable.

Other people may find advocacy more appealing than operating a direct-service program.

Advocacy can also be demanding. Public campaigns require time, organization, relationships, accurate information, and careful decisions about risk.

If an advocacy effort is poorly planned, it can reduce trust, strain partnerships, use limited resources without producing change, or unintentionally make conditions more difficult for the people the campaign is intended to support.

Does advocacy always involve confrontation?

No.

Advocacy can involve confrontation, but many campaigns begin with communication, relationship-building, education, negotiation, or participation in formal decision-making processes.

Before choosing a confrontational strategy, consider:

• Whether decision-makers understand the problem
• Whether there are existing administrative or policy processes available
• Whether negotiation is possible
• Whether people directly affected support the proposed tactic
• What risks participants may face
• Whether a more public or confrontational strategy is likely to move the campaign toward its goal

Confrontation can sometimes be appropriate, particularly when institutions refuse to address serious harm or when less public approaches have failed. It should be selected deliberately rather than treated as the defining feature of advocacy.

Why and when would you choose advocacy?

Advocacy may be useful when changing a community condition requires action by people or institutions with the authority to make decisions.

For example, direct services may help individuals respond to an immediate need, while advocacy may address the policy, funding, institutional practice, or other condition contributing to that need.

Consider advocacy when:

• A policy or institutional practice is contributing to the problem
• Resources are distributed in ways that do not adequately address community needs
• Decision-makers have authority to make a needed change
• Community members want greater influence over decisions affecting them
• Existing processes have not produced an adequate response
• Public education or organizing could build support for change

Advocacy does not need to be reserved only for situations in which every other strategy has failed.

In many community initiatives, advocacy, direct service, education, research, and organizing can occur at the same time.

However, an advocacy campaign requires sufficient capacity and a realistic understanding of what may be involved.

Before launching a major campaign, consider whether:

• The issue and desired change are clearly defined
• The group has or can build the capacity to carry out the campaign
• Participants can sustain the effort over the time it may require
• People directly affected by the issue have meaningful roles in shaping the campaign
• The likely benefits justify the costs and risks

This chapter provides an overview of advocacy planning, including understanding the issue, identifying allies and sources of resistance, developing strategy and tactics, involving community members, and evaluating the effort.

What are the basic components of advocacy?

Each component is addressed in greater depth in the following sections of this chapter. The following provides a broad overview.

Prepare for Public Advocacy

Once an advocacy campaign becomes public, its statements, actions, relationships, and use of information may receive greater scrutiny.

Preparation can help protect the credibility of the campaign and the people involved.

Important practices include:

• Verify factual claims before making them publicly
• Obtain permission before speaking in the name of partner organizations
• Clarify who is authorized to speak for the campaign
• Understand relevant laws, policies, and organizational requirements
• Protect confidential or sensitive information
• Develop realistic plans for events, media work, and public actions
• Prepare for disagreement or criticism

For example, imagine a campaign seeking better access to health care for people facing economic barriers.

• Before publicly accusing a hospital of refusing care, verify the facts and understand the relevant policies and circumstances.
• Before including a partner organization's name in a public statement, confirm that the organization has approved the wording and its involvement.
• Before announcing a public event or demonstration, make a realistic assessment of participation, logistics, accessibility, safety, and communication.

Good preparation strengthens credibility and allows advocates to spend more time advancing the issue and less time correcting preventable mistakes.

Understanding the Issue

Advocates may begin with direct knowledge of a community concern, but effective advocacy requires a deeper understanding of the issue.

Examples might include:

• An increase in homelessness or housing instability among families with children
• Concern about youth tobacco or nicotine use
• Concern that a proposed development may affect local water quality

Research should help advocates understand:

• The scope and causes of the issue
• Who is affected
• Existing policies and programs
• What has already been tried
• Who has authority to make changes
• Who has influence over those decision-makers
• What resources are available
• What forms of resistance may arise

Advocacy involves power. Understanding how decisions are made – and who can influence them – is therefore an important part of campaign planning.

Power should not be understood only as something held by an opposing institution. Residents, workers, voters, consumers, organizations, media, professional networks, funders, and community relationships may all provide different forms of influence.

Recognizing Allies

Advocacy is often strengthened by partnerships with people and organizations that share some or all of the campaign's goals.

Potential allies may include:

• People directly affected by the issue
• Neighborhood or community organizations
• Advocacy groups
• Service organizations
• Faith communities
• Businesses
• Professional associations
• Researchers
• Public officials
• Youth organizations
• Labor or worker organizations

A small group should not assume that its own members represent everyone affected by an issue.

Instead, ask:

• Who is affected?
• Who is already working on the issue?
• Who has relevant knowledge or relationships?
• Who has been missing from previous decisions?
• How can people directly affected participate in leadership?

Alliances can vary in form. Some organizations may become formal coalition partners, while others may provide information, endorsements, technical assistance, meeting space, public testimony, funding, or other support.

Before entering an alliance, discuss:

• Shared goals
• Areas of disagreement
• Roles
• Decision-making
• Public communications
• Risks
• Expectations about credit and visibility

Understanding Resistance and Opposition

Some advocacy efforts encounter organized opposition. Others face institutional inertia, competing priorities, limited resources, uncertainty, or disagreement over the proposed solution.

Before assuming that someone is an opponent, understand the source of the resistance.

Ask:

• What interests are involved?
• What concerns does the person or organization have?
• What authority or influence do they possess?
• Are there areas of shared interest?
• Is the disagreement about the goal, the strategy, the cost, the timing, or something else?
• Could additional information or a revised proposal change their position?

Avoid dividing the community too quickly into “good” and “bad” sides.

An organization expected to oppose your campaign may support part of it. An organization expected to support it may disagree with your strategy, feel excluded from planning, or have legal or institutional limits on what it can do.

Understanding those differences can improve strategy without requiring advocates to minimize genuine conflicts of interest or violations of rights.

Involving Potential Opponents as Well as Allies

In some campaigns, people or organizations that disagree with part of your position may still be able to contribute to a solution.

Once your goals and proposal are clear, consider whether discussion with people who have concerns could:

• Clarify misunderstandings
• Identify practical barriers
• Reveal shared interests
• Improve the proposal
• Produce a compromise consistent with the campaign's core goals
• Reduce unnecessary opposition

Engagement is not always appropriate. Groups should consider safety, power differences, legal strategy, the seriousness of the harm involved, and whether direct engagement would place an unreasonable burden on affected community members.

Developing a Plan for Advocacy

Advocacy planning can be complex because campaigns often involve multiple decision-makers, competing interests, public opinion, institutional procedures, and changing political or economic conditions.

A strong plan should identify:

• The desired long-term change
• Specific measurable objectives
• The decision-makers who can produce those changes
• People and organizations that can influence those decision-makers
• Allies and partners
• Sources of resistance
• Strategies and tactics
• Communication plans
• Resources and responsibilities
• A timeline
• Possible risks
• Measures of progress

One way to distinguish these elements is to think of a building project:

• Vision: The broader future you want to help create – for example, a community in which people have access to safe, stable housing.
• Objective: A specific change that moves toward that vision.
• Strategy: The overall approach for reaching the objective.
• Action plan: The specific tasks, responsibilities, timelines, and resources required to carry out the strategy.

These elements fit together into a broader advocacy plan.

In Summary

Advocacy is organized action intended to influence decisions, policies, practices, institutions, or public understanding in support of a community goal.

It differs from direct service, although both approaches may be part of the same community initiative.

Advocacy does not always require confrontation. It may involve education, negotiation, coalition building, public participation, media work, administrative processes, legal strategies, organizing, public demonstrations, or other approaches.

Effective advocacy begins with a clear understanding of the issue. Advocates should know who is affected, who has authority, how decisions are made, what previous efforts have occurred, what evidence is available, and what forms of influence exist.

People directly affected by the issue should have meaningful opportunities to help define goals, choose strategies, communicate the campaign's message, and evaluate progress.

Building alliances can strengthen an advocacy effort, but partnerships should be based on clear expectations about goals, roles, decision-making, and communication.

Resistance should also be understood carefully. Not every disagreement comes from hostility, and not everyone who supports the general goal will agree on the same strategy.

At the same time, advocates should not minimize genuine conflicts of interest, discrimination, violations of rights, or institutional practices that are causing harm.

Public advocacy requires preparation. Verify information, protect credibility, consider legal and ethical responsibilities, communicate accurately, and assess risks to the people involved.

Finally, advocacy is most effective when strategy remains connected to the community goal rather than to the excitement of a particular tactic.

Demonstrations, meetings, media campaigns, negotiations, legal action, and other tactics are tools. Their value depends on whether they help produce the change the community is seeking.