Giving Compass' Take:

• Advocacy work has huge potential for lasting impact, nut only 4% of donations go towards it. Nonprofits can better align and present their advocacy strategies to help encourage donors to support them. 

• How can donors best support nonprofits that need to reassess their advocacy work? What causes are ideally positioned for advocacy pushes? 

• Learn about one family's advocacy funding journey.

Every year, people donate roughly $60 billion to foundations. But only about $2.5 billion (just 4%) goes toward advocacy work. But historically, many major nonprofits’ successes–from increasing LGBT rights to ending apartheid in South Africa–have hinged on major financial backing that raised public awareness of injustices, while working in tandem with the government to create change.

The reason that donors aren’t contributing appears to be twofold. “In addition to kind of the reputational risk and uncertainty, there’s still the legal question of just not being sure how to do it,” Wolf Ditkoff says. The answer to the first part is easy if unglamorous: Donations can be made anonymously. As for the second part, typical charities—those with 501c3 status—have some restrictions but they’re actually pretty minor. “There certainly are things that you can’t do through charitable dollars or tax-advantaged dollars, but there are many many things you can do,” she says.

To help donors understand the difference, Susan Wolf Ditkoff, a partner at Bridgespan, a nonprofit consultancy, and co-author of a recent report called “When Philanthropy Meets Advocacy” and her co-author Patrick Guerriero, a senior fellow at Bridgespan and partner at Civitas Public Affairs Group, have come up with a sort of guidebook centered around answering (often with deep case studies) five main questions philanthropists like aren’t but should be asking.

  • Do you know the rules of engagement?
  • Who is your opposition?
  • Have you converted strategy into a map of opportunities?
  • Are your messages aimed at winning new allies or just making your base feel good?
  • Are you using new technologies to educate and advocate?

Read the full article about improving nonprofits' advocacy work by Ben Paynter at FastCompany.