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Help Increase Nonprofit Influence
Independent Sector's newly released "Retreat of Influence" research report assesses the current state of nonprofit advocacy and public engagement and also provides insights into how nonprofit organizations’ activities have changed over the last two decades and how activities vary by organization size, geography, communities served, and leadership demographics. Your feedback can help us understand how we can best leverage this new information to inform strategies, resources, and capacity-building materials to support nonprofits' ability to increase their influence and achieve their missions.
Name
*
First Name
Last Name
Email
*
example@example.com
Job Title
*
Organization Name
*
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Please provide the following information about your organization. We collect this information to ensure we're engaging a representative sample of the nonprofit sector.
Please select the state where your organization or organization's headquarters is located.
*
Please Select
AL
AK
AZ
AR
CA
CO
CT
DC
DE
FL
GA
HI
ID
IL
IN
IA
KS
KY
LA
ME
MD
MA
MI
MN
MS
MO
MT
NE
NV
NH
NJ
NM
NY
NC
ND
OH
OK
OR
PA
RI
SC
SD
TN
TX
UT
VT
VA
WA
WV
WI
WY
What best describes where your organization is located?
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Rural
Suburban
Urban
Organization Type
*
Academic Center
Charitable Nonprofit
Corporate Giving Program
Foundation
Government
Social Enterprise /Benefit Corperation
Not affiliated with an organization
Other
Which of the following best describes your organization's annual budget?
*
< $100,000
$100,000 - $499,999
$500,000 - $999,999
$1 million - $9,999,999
$10 million and above
Please select your organization's subsector. If you are not a nonprofit organization, please select other.
*
Arts & Culture
Education
Environment
Healthcare
Human Services
International
Public Benefit
Religion
Other
Which best describes the geographic scope of your organization's work?
*
Please Select
Local
State/Regional
National
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Please review the key findings, below, and share your thoughts. You can access the full report at https://independentsector.co/AdvocacyResearch
A significantly lower proportion of nonprofits
report advocating or lobbying compared to
20 years ago.
Only 31% of nonprofits report engaging in advocacy or lobbying over the last 5 years and only 25% report ever lobbying, which is
less than half
of the percentage of nonprofits that reported ever having lobbied in 2000 (74%).
Mission plays the largest role in determining nonprofit advocacy and lobbying.
Approximately
70%
of policy-engaged nonprofits report their mission encourages their policy engagement. For nonprofits that
do
not
engage in policy, 56% report policy engagement is not applicable to their mission and 18% believe that their mission discourages advocacy.
Today, significantly fewer nonprofits know advocacy activities they are legally allowed to do compared to 20 years ago.
In 2000, over half of 501(c)(3) public charities (54%) knew they could support or oppose federal legislation in the year 2000, compared to
fewer than one-third
(32%) of nonprofits that are aware of that fact today.
Although a majority of nonprofits have a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) statement, only 36% of them engage in policy activities to create more equitable systems.
However, policy-engaged nonprofits’ investment of time and resources in DEI activities is
much higher
than for non policy engaged nonprofits.
Nonprofits that belong to collaborative groups advocate at higher rates than those that are not members.
Of nonprofits that belong to local, state, or national coalitions, 57% advocate or lobby, compared to only 12% of nonprofits that do not belong to such coalitions.
Only 13% of nonprofits conduct nonpartisan activities to help people vote.
Among nonprofits that advocate, 1 in 5 provide people with nonpartisan voter information.
Based on your experience and expertise, what do you recommend the sector do to address challenges identified in the research findings? What else would you like to share?
*
Additional information about the Retreat of Influence Advocacy Report can be accessed
here.
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