Giving Compass' Take:

• Nonprofit Quarterly discusses a six-year initiative from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky that attempts to improve public health in the state through both advocacy and policy measures.

• How can other nonprofits learn from these efforts? There are some lessons listed below, but the main takeaways are that one must be clear, focused and committed.

• Here are some more reflections from a life devoted to philanthropy and public health.

Working on advocacy and policy is challenging. Not only is it complex, fluid, and increasingly politicized, it is also challenging to measure progress and communicate success.

Understanding this, in 2012, the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, a statewide Foundation located in Louisville, launched Promoting Responsive Health Policy (PRHP), a six-year, multifaceted initiative to address four broad health policy areas: increasing access to integrated healthcare; increasing the proportion of Kentuckians living in smoke-free jurisdictions; improving children’s health; and strengthening local public health.

The successes and challenges experienced throughout PRHP provided the foundation with lessons on how best to pursue policy change through investments by philanthropy and how funders can make policy more responsive to the needs of the communities they serve.

Recommendations from the evaluation included the following:

  1. Clearly identify policy priorities and understand potential trade-offs between a broad set of policy priorities and more focused policy goals.
  2. Articulate the funder’s role in the initiative, including the level of engagement in direct policy work and how policy positions will be developed.
  3. Align the focus and structure of grants with the necessary expertise and strategies [such as flexibility] needed to respond to the dynamic policy environment.
  4. Build awareness of the broad spectrum of strategies needed to develop, enact, and implement policy.
  5. Consider long-term investments to build infrastructure in key partner organizations.

These changes had a profound impact on the foundation and its grantees, requiring all players to reassess their strategies and make substantive adjustments.

Read the full article about lessons learned in policy and advocacy by M. Gabriela Alcade and Maggie Jones at nonprofitquarterly.org.