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Advocacy Blog
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
The Importance of Funding Advocacy
Check out this blog that references the new Atlantic Philanthropies report, "Why Supporting Advocacy Makes Sense for Foundations." The post states;
Advocacy is broader than just lobbying. For example, various forms of advocacy that a foundation can support include research of public policy issues and policy development, community organizing, coalition building, litigation, regulatory activity, mobilizing public opinion, mass campaigns and more. Foundations have unique opportunities in that they can also convene grantees, constituents, and other stakeholders to explain why advocacy is important and to directly address social, economic and political conditions which bar access to participation in our democratic society.
And in the Financial Times, Patricia Bauman, the manager of the Bauman Foundation discusses her work funding social change.
The Foundation supports the tools of advocacy: public education, litigation, science, policy-oriented research, engagement with the corporate sector and legislative lobbying. We believe we get much more "bang for the buck" through advocacy than through direct services or small-scale projects; it takes "patient capital" since the results can take years or even decades, but we believe that long-term investment in the right grantees is the right approach.
Posted by Amanda Adams
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