Focus on Foundations
When a foundation invests in advocacy, either by supporting nonprofits or engaging in advocacy itself, the value of its overall giving is multiplied exponentially. It’s important to know that foundation support for nonprofits that engage in advocacy, including lobbying and election-related activities, isn’t just legal—it’s important, powerful, and fundamental to democracy.
Whether your foundation has yet to embark on an advocacy journey or has a culture that already embraces advocacy, Bolder Advocacy can help. Bolder Advocacy gives foundations and their grantees the tools and the confidence to advocate effectively. Foundations and nonprofits turn to us when navigating complex rules governing advocacy, and we work every day to protect and expand the rights of nonprofits and foundations to advocate. Bolder Advocacy can equip your foundation’s staff and trustees with the information and strategies they need to better leverage critical dollars, expertise, and people.
Tools, Training, and Technical Assistance
Featured Resources
Philanthropy Advocacy Playbook: Leveraging Your Dollars
This publication provides information on 11 benefits and conversation-starters about philanthropic advocacy and lobbying. Specifically, it answers your questions about legal rules and provides concrete examples, templates, resources, and tips.
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The Project Grant Rule Hub
Bolder Advocacy’s Project Grant Rule Hub is designed to make your advocacy grantmaking easier by providing explainer videos, guides, and budget templates to help your foundation navigate the Project Grant Rule.
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16 Grantmaking Characteristics to Effectively Support Public Policy Advocacy
Created in partnership with Dr. Sara Watson, this resource outlines the sixteen characteristics of grantmaking that best supports effective policy education and advocacy.
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Think Your Foundation Can’t Engage in Election Season Advocacy? Think Again.
10 actions that your foundation and its staff can take now to boost public participation in elections and ensure a representative and responsive democracy.
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Advocacy by Public Foundations
On this episode of Bolder Advocacy’s Rules of the Game podcast, we dive-in to the rules public foundations need to know when advancing their missions through advocacy.
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Advocacy by Private Foundations
Our Bolder Advocacy Rules of the Game podcast team discusses the do’s and don’ts of private foundation engagement in advocacy.
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Best Practices for Foundations Supporting Multi-Entity Work
Bolder Advocacy recently partnered with New Left Accelerator (NLA) to create this resource outlining 12 best practices for foundations seeking to help multi-entity organizations unlock their full potential. Multi-entity organizations are those that use more than one legal entity – typically 501(c)(3)s, 501(c)(4)s, 501(c)(5)s, PACs, or corporate entities – to achieve their goals.
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Voter Engagement Messaging & Activities for Private Foundations
Election season offers tremendous opportunities for private foundations to use their influence and networks to encourage active participation by all eligible voters. While the IRS does restrict private foundations from engaging in some activities, these restrictions only apply to lobbying, partisan activity (campaign intervention), and earmarking funds for voter registration drives. Bolder Advocacy released Quick Guide: Voter Engagement Messaging and Activities for Private Foundations, to provide an overview of the rules that apply to private foundation activities in an election year.
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Resources from Our Philanthropic Partners and Friends
LearnPhilanthropy
New to grantmaking? Discovering a new role? Growing your skill-set? LearnPhilanthropy can help! LearnPhilanthropy exists to accelerate learning among newcomers to philanthropy and evolve how learning happens in the field. As a marketplace of knowledge and tools, it helps people overcome learning curves and discover concepts that are essential to effective philanthropy.
Visit LearnPhilanthropy.org and Learn Foundation Law for more information!
Stand for Your Mission
The Stand for Your Mission campaign is a challenge to all nonprofit decision-makers to stand up for the organizations they believe in by actively representing their organization’s mission and values, and creating public will for positive social change. It provides a framework in which board members and trustees of nonprofits and foundations can have constructive discussions about the importance—and ability—of their groups to advocate for long lasting change. Complete with guides on how to begin a conversation about advocacy and why groups should get involved, the website is a clearinghouse for useful information.