Advances in Research on Nonprofit Advocacy and Civic Engagement

Abstract

Nonprofits are collective endeavors that supply a bewildering range of products and services, including some of value to their immediate members only. Many also advocate policy positions on issues of direct interest to themselves, their clients and beneficiaries, and/or the broader community. There is substantial variation in their advocacy strategies, the scope of policy goals they embrace, and the types of individuals they engage in such activities. Consequently, there are also differences in whether and how nonprofit advocacy activities reduce inequalities, enhance civic participation, and promote deliberative democracy. This symposium interprets and theorizes about emerging nonprofit challenges by showcasing research of nonprofit advocacy and civic engagement scholars. Collectively, the papers demonstrate the vibrancy of the field of nonprofit civic engagement and advocacy and identify important areas for future research to capture the complexity of nonprofits as actors guided by both instrumental and normative goals, serving organizational and social missions, and reducing some types of inequalities but creating new ones.Résumé Les organisations à but non lucratif sont des entreprises communes qui offrent une variété étonnante de produits et de services, dont certains sont seulement utiles pour leurs membres proches. Beaucoup préconisent également des positions politiques sur les questions présentant un intérêt direct pour elles-mêmes, leurs clients et leurs bénéficiaires ou la société en général. On constate de fortes variations dans leurs stratégies d'action, la portée des objectifs politiques qu'elles appuient et & Kirsten Grønbjerg les personnes qu'elles engagent pour ces activités. Par conséquent, il existe égale-ment des différences qui expliquent pourquoi et comment les activités d'action des organisations à but non lucratif réduisent les inégalités, développent la participation civique et agissent en faveur de la démocratie délibérative. Ce symposium interprète et émet des hypothèses sur les nouveaux défis des organisations à but non lucratif en présentant les recherches sur les combats de ces organisations et les universitaires de l'engagement civique. Collectivement, les articles démontrent le dynamisme du domaine de l'engagement civique et du combat des organisations à but non lucratif et identifient des domaines importants pour les recherches futures afin de saisir la complexité des organisations à but non lucratif en tant qu'acteurs guidés par des buts instrumentaux et normatifs, qui servent des missions organisationnelles et sociales et réduisent certains types d'inégalités mais en créent de nouveaux.Zusammenfassung Gemeinnützige Organisationen sind kollektive Initiativen, die eine verblüffende Reihe von Produkten und Dienstleistungen anbieten, wobei einige wertvolle Produkte und Dienstleistungen nur ihren unmittelbaren Mitgliedern zur Verfügung stehen. Viele unterstützen zudem politische Standpunkte zu Themen, die für sie selbst, ihre Kunden und Nutzträger oder die breitere Gemeinschaft von di...

Organizational Antecedents of Nonprofit Engagement in Policy Advocacy: A Meta-Analytical Review

“…Similarly, some studies argue formalization and professionalization push nonprofits to focus on internal operation and organizational maintenance, crowding out attention to external policy dynamics (e.g., Alexander, Nank, & Stivers, 1999; Hasenfeld & Garrow, 2012; Hwang & Powell, 2009), but others suggest their impact on advocacy participation might be trivial (e.g., LeRoux & Goerdel, 2009; Mosley, 2010a; Nicholson-Crotty, 2009). Other discrepancies in nonprofit advocacy engagement literature have also been well documented (Almog-Bar & Schmid, 2014; Grønbjerg & Prakash, 2017; Neumayr et al, 2015).…”

“…In the political arena, nonprofit organizations engage in public debates, promote positions on policy issues, and offer policy solutions to social problems. Recent research has indicated an emergent scholarly interest in policy advocacy by nonprofits (e.g., Andrews & Edwards, 2004; Bass, Arons, Guinane, & Carter, 2007; Berry, 2003; Garrow & Hasenfeld, 2014; Grønbjerg & Prakash, 2017; Guo & Saxton, 2014; Mosley, 2011; Pekkanen, Smith, & Tsujinaka, 2014). 1 A first research question this large body of literature often examines is what factors shape nonprofit engagement in policy advocacy, because the answers to the question potentially lay the foundation for later explorations of advocacy behaviors and impact (Pekkanen & Smith, 2014a).…”

Exploring Public Perceptions of Nonprofit Policy Advocacy

“…In fact, many 501(c)3 public charities are wary of engaging in advocacy and lobbying for fear of losing tax exempt status or becoming too entangled in politics, which could tarnish reputations and lead to a decline in donations (Bass et al 2007;Berry and Arons 2005;Fyall and Allard 2017). On the other hand, nonprofit advocacy organizations and philanthropic foundations are increasingly engaged in the policymaking process (Buffardi, Pekkanen, and Smith 2017;Grønbjerg and Prakash 2016;LeRoux 2009LeRoux , 2011; LeRoux and Krawczyk 2014).…”

“…According to O'Neill (2009), an overwhelming majority of the public thinks that nonprofits are fair in their decision-making (76%), good at running programs and services (76%), and spend money wisely (61%). But from a normative perspective, political activity by nonprofit organizations that are successful in advancing policy agendas without a direct connection to beneficiaries raises a number of questions about the legitimacy of this influence in a representative democracy (Grønbjerg and Prakash 2016;Mosley 2015). This influence can be especially complicated in these policy arenas, given that the nature of advocacy is usually one that draws on expertise to identify what is best for the populations in question, without substantial input from the population itself.…”

From ‘passive custodian’ to ‘active advocate’: tracing the emergence and sport-internal transformative effects of sport policy advocacy

“…At a general level, advocacy is essentially 'institutional politics' (Stryker 2000) an activity through which organisations seek to build legitimacy. As such, advocacy may have unintended, and potentially unwanted, consequences (Suchman 1995, Grønbjerg andPrakash 2017), not least for the advocating organisation itself. The significance of this work lies in our effort to draw attention to such sport-internal transformative effects of advocacy.…”