Success Stories and Advocacy Case Studies

Throughout our nation’s history, advocacy by nonprofit organizations has led to fundamental reforms in our society that have saved and improved lives and strengthened our democracy. For example, nonprofit advocacy played a critical role in ending slavery, securing the right of women and African Americans to vote, the environmental movement, the minimum wage, and consumer protections. At all levels of public and private decision making, nonprofit has made a positive difference for many causes and people.

By examining case studies and success stories, charitable nonprofits can learn how they too can make a difference for their cause.

CLPI has been collecting and writing nonprofit advocacy success stories to use for training and motivating nonprofits and philanthropy to leverage their resources for change. Send us your advocacy success stories today!

The following are many success stories and case studies that you can draw upon:

MADD Success Story
"Across the country, everyday people just like you are making a difference in their communities and for the nation. Find a few of their stories here."

Making Friends - Before They Are Needed: "It's Hard to Say 'No' to a Friend"
The tendency to measure legislative "success" by simply counting the number of good bills passed and bad bills defeated can overlook other invaluable victories. John Askew, Executive Director of the Sunrise Arc chapter of the Arc of Florida, reminds us that true legislative success can come in a variety of shapes and forms, including nonprofits becoming friends with policymakers.

Being Prepared Pays Off for Arkansas HIPPY Program
In 2000, the Arkansas affiliate of Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters ("HIPPY"), a 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit headquartered in New York, hosted HIPPY’s annual conference in Little Rock, Arkansas. As 600 delegates from across the country gathered, word spread like wildfire through the conference hall that Arkansas’ Governor was about to slash funding for early childhood education programs.

Civic Education Legislation Passed in NC
Usually it takes a number of years to pass major legislation. The civic education legislation passed in North Carolina in 2003 was a striking exception. The measure was introduced in March of that year and became law in July of the same year. The story illustrates very clearly the importance of foundation funding of organizations that engage in advocacy. Here is how it happened.

Civic Education Legislation Passed in NC

Usually it takes a number of years to pass major legislation. The civic education legislation passed in North Carolina in 2003 was a striking exception. The measure was introduced in March of 2003 and became law in July of that year. The story illustrates very clearly the importance of foundation funding of organizations that engage in advocacy. Here is how it happened.

Sound Financial Backing, Good Research and a Strong Coalition
The North Carolina Civic Education Consortium is a nonprofit partnership based in the School of Government at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. The group has received substantial funding from Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, Smith Richardson Foundation, and many other private sources. Its focus has been on revitalizing civic education and the engagement of young people, since 1997. The foundations support The Consortium because part of its work is to educate the public policymakers about good civic education programs and policies that support such programs.

The Consortium is comprised of a non-partisan coalition of more than 190 partners including nonprofits, local and state government, education, foundations and the legal profession. One of their early objectives was to increase statewide visibility and support for civic education, with the goal of impacting state and local education. They decided that the major push for such visibility and policy change would come after their release of a statewide study of civic competencies, the North Carolina Civic Index, released in May of 2003. However, well before May 2003, they learned that there was already support for their efforts in high places.

A Committed Legislator
A new state legislator, Senator Joe Sam Queen from Waynesville, had a life-long interest in civic affairs and said that his experiences in school had fostered that interest. He wanted today's students to have these same opportunities. In March 2003, he asked the Civic Education Consortium director Debra Henzey to help him draft new legislation calling for more civic education activities in schools. Ms. Henzey connected Senator Queen's successful experiences in schools with findings in the Civic Index, which led to Senator Queen introducing a bill calling for stronger student councils, consistent exposure to interactive current events discussions and increased school-based service opportunities for students.

The bill quickly passed out of the Senate Education Committee, but met some resistance from state education leadership because of fears that many new mandates, especially No Child Left Behind, would place undue burdens on public schools. Senator Queen made several revisions to address their concerns, but the bill was stalled in the Appropriations Committee for several weeks due to a small financing requirement placed in the bill to implement several of its provisions.

A Key Mailing to All Legislators
In the meantime, The Consortium released the Civic Index results to the public in May of 2003. As a follow-up to this and to support the legislation, The Consortium also mailed a copy to all state legislators, noting dismal results on a question directly related to public understanding of the state legislature's responsibilities. The timing of this release likely played a key role in Senator Queen securing House and Senate leadership support to place the provisions of his bill into the state budget bill to assure its safe passage. The legislature was under the gun to get the budget passed by June 30 to avoid a state government shutdown, so it was most unexpected that special provisions on civic education could be inserted and accepted so swiftly. The special provisions included backing for stronger student councils, consistent exposure to interactive current events discussions in all middle and high school grade levels, and increased school-based service opportunities for students. The provisions also included funding to implement several provisions in the bill.

In Summary
The success of this effort demonstrates that one of the very best ways for a foundation to substantially increase the impact of its grant dollars is to fund groups that engage in advocacy. The multiplier effect of foundations providing grant funds to groups that advocate very often results in much greater benefit to the community than the same amount of money granted for funding direct services.

According to Ms. Henzey, "We never expected to see this legislation passed as part of a very controversial and time-pressured budget bill. However, it shows that one legislator with a genuine concern and commitment, like Senator Queen, can make a huge difference, especially when armed with good data to make his case and a broad-based consortium of interested and involved groups behind him.”

Although many of the bill's provisions are not mandatory, the new State Board of Education Chairman, Howard Lee, and State Department of Education staff stated publicly that they would carry out the legislation’s provisions within two years. The Consortium believes that his commitment also was fueled by the North Carolina Civic Index findings, which can be accessed at: www.civics.org.

A "Mere Mom" Moves Mountains -- And Legislation
Anna McCartney is the embodiment of Arthur Ashe’s quote: “Start where you are; use what you have; do what you can.” This Seattle-area mom, who modestly proclaims “Gee, if I can do it, then anyone can do it,” has worked with various nonprofits to help pass legislation in Congress, the state legislature, and local governments. And to think that it all started with a simple breakfast.

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS CASE STUDY: America's Community Mental Health Movement From 1960 - 1980
The purpose of the study is to show the enormous power of the federal government to influence social movements. ... There are at least four, and probably more, possible [ways to use] this case study. 1) Educate students about this episode in American history. 2) Provide insight as to how a social movement began as well as progressed and digressed. 3) Provide first hand impressions about the successes and failures of the federal government, hospitals and nonprofit advocacy organizations to improve care for persons with mental illness. 4) Help anyone who is interested in government, public policy formation, politics, social movements, nonprofit advocacy, health care and social work to come to better understand this critical period in the history of mental illness, homelessness, and the great society.

One Northwest’s success stories contains stories about conservation and environmental protection

The Advocacy Institute and Oxfam America’s publication, Advocacy for Social Justice: A Global Action and Reflection Guide contains advocacy case stories.

The Council on Foundation’s publication, Community Foundations and Public Policy, contains some success stories and some are works in progress. To order, contact the Council at 800-673-9036.

We welcome the opportunity to read your story of lobbying in the public interest. After a period of review we may ask permission to post the story on our website or link to it so that other nonprofits across the country may learn from your experience. Your story may be about how an organization, association or coalition worked to make social change or shape public policy. It may describe the lobbying involved, or other tactics including voter education, organizing, litigation, research, media advocacy or other forms of advocacy. Thank you for taking the time to share with us.

A few tips for writing a short lobbying story.

• Make clear the goal or goals of the lobbying or advocacy.
• Choose a focus whether it is on the type of advocacy or lobbying, e.g., media advocacy, legislative lobbying, coalition building, administrative advocacy etc.
• Provide background. Establish a context.
• Include the key facts of the case.
• Assume the reader does not know your story, issue or organization.
• Don’t be afraid or shy to share mistakes or successes.
• Include a brief conclusion with lessons learned.

Some of the tips are derived from Telling Your Story: A Guide to Preparing Advocacy Case Studies, Advocacy Institute, 1992. Please click the link below to send us your success story

Click here to send us a story