Soapbox Engage Blog

Advocacy campaigns are about garnering public support for a specific policy, cause, or position on an issue. Advocacy can take many forms, from lobbying directly (usually in political advocacy campaigns) to raising awareness or money.

Moving your followers and supporters from the stage of understanding the issue all the way to taking action can be quite a long, tedious journey. Even simple advocacy campaigns can take months to plan and execute. That's why nonprofit leaders need to identify the best ways to use advocacy campaigns and even leverage current events to fuel their advocacy and fundraising efforts.

Table of Contents

• What is nonprofit advocacy?
• How advocacy helps nonprofit fundraising
• Leveraging current events for advocacy campaigns

What Is Nonprofit Advocacy?

Nonprofit advocacy is a strategy that allows you to generate support for specific issues related to your mission or cause. It usually includes some form of speaking out on behalf of a group of people or an issue on the local, regional, or national level.

While many people think of advocacy campaigns as being primarily political, they don't always need to go that direction--and there is a difference between advocacy and lobbying.

Advocacy is more general and tends to be issues-based or focused on raising awareness. Lobbying, on the other hand, usually involves supporting or opposing specific pieces of legislation. So, lobbying is just one type of advocacy campaign.

Digital advocacy is on the rise

Digital advocacy includes all the different advocacy strategies you might use to raise support and awareness about your cause in the virtual world. Whether on social media, websites, emails, or even mobile apps, digital advocacy includes any online strategy to educate people about your mission and move them to action.

3 primary forms of advocacy for nonprofits

While advocacy can take many forms, nonprofits usually use three primary categories or types of advocacy.

Peer advocacy: These advocacy efforts usually involve one person advocating for another in a one-on-one setting. Often, the advocate and recipient have some kind of shared experience, making it easy for them to empathize with each other and speak on behalf of their community effectively.

Systems Advocacy: On the opposite end of the spectrum from peer advocacy, systems advocacy works to bring change to social, economic, or political systems and institutions. This type of advocacy can involve anything from awareness campaigns to fundraising and lobbying.

Cause Advocacy: This type of advocacy focuses on advancing a specific issue or cause that you and your supporters feel strongly about. The goal of this advocacy is to raise awareness about a problem and potentially promote a particular solution. Cause advocacy campaigns can be led by individuals, groups of people, or organizations.

How Advocacy Helps With Nonprofit Fundraising

Nonprofit advocacy campaigns can certainly fit into your overall fundraising efforts. In fact, integrating advocacy into a strategic, balanced fundraising strategy can improve your overall fundraising and help you expand your volunteer network.

Advocacy helps advance your nonprofit mission

Advocacy campaigns and efforts help reinforce your mission. They are a great way to present public support for policies that impact your issue or cause. It also creates more opportunities to discuss your nonprofit and efforts with potential supporters and expand networking opportunities.

The more visibility and authority your nonprofit cultivates within the community, the more people know and trust your mission. Greater visibility and trust increase the likelihood that they'll support your cause on the local, regional, and even national levels. Greater visibility can also mobilize your board and current volunteers toward more action.

Advocacy campaigns help you engage current supporters

Advocacy campaigns create another avenue for your supporters to get involved in your mission without necessarily having to make a financial contribution. Nonprofits have a bad rap (perhaps deservedly so) for only reaching out to supporters when they need money.

Advocacy campaigns create another way for you to engage your current supporters and get them involved without pulling out their wallets. It's a practical way to advance your mission and demonstrate that you're interested in cultivating a lasting, healthy relationship with them.

Over time, having a variety of ways for people to volunteer and get involved can increase your donor retention.

Advocacy campaigns can help you reach new supporters

Effective advocacy campaigns allow you to connect with new people in a low-risk manner. People who are passionate about your mission or cause might not be able (or willing) to support your organization financially but may be excited to offer their time and voice to your cause!

When you remove the pressure of making a financial donation, advocacy campaigns can shorten the "donor acquisition" process. It creates an "easy entry" point for many who aren't quick to donate. After they have the opportunity to engage with your nonprofit, you can cultivate that relationship and gently move them toward becoming long-term donors.

Leveraging Current Events For Advocacy Campaigns

In a 24/7 news cycle where events can happen in real life OR in the virtual world (on social media or in other virtual spaces), it's tough to keep up with current news, let alone recognize the events you might be able to leverage for your cause.

Many nonprofit leaders and development professionals curate a list of keywords and topics that are relevant to their cause. That way, they can quickly identify any relevant current events. For example, a nonprofit that advocates for affordable housing might create a list of existing housing reform bills and initiatives to follow through the news cycle, the names of elected officials involved in housing reform groups, or specific geographic areas or housing projects in question.

Once you develop your list of keywords or critical topics, Google Alerts can be a helpful tool that alerts you when those topics are mentioned online. That way, you're not left scanning all the headlines and scrolling through endless social media posts. Instead, Google Alerts delivers the latest content with those keywords to your email inbox!

Use online petitions for quick action

When there's a current event you'd like to leverage for advocacy or fundraising, you've only got a short window of time to act. It's critical to reach a large audience quickly and efficiently. One way to galvanize support quickly (and even fundraise) around a current event is to use a petition to ask people to voice their support.

Creating a petition with the Soapbox Engage Forms app is quick and easy. In just a few minutes, you'll have a beautiful, custom petition with your logo and branding, all the essential information, and a mobile-friendly form people can sign.

One rule of thumb for creating successful petitions is to keep them short. Adding more fields reduces the likelihood that people will complete the form. When time is of the essence, and you're trying to capitalize on the momentum of a current event, it's best to keep things as simple as possible.

One way you can leverage your petition for fundraising is to add a redirect to a custom donation page. That way, as soon as someone signs your petition, they've got an opportunity to take further action for the cause. After all, if someone signs a petition, they're more likely to make a donation to the cause as well.

One beautiful benefit of using petitions as a form of advocacy is collecting people's contact information as they sign your petition. Don't forget to create an effective follow-up plan for all these new contacts. Let signers know what happened with the petition and keep them in the loop about other opportunities to take action. Take the opportunity to begin building a relationship with them that can help them become long-term donors.

Now that you're ready to incorporate advocacy campaigns into your fundraising strategies, here are three more resources to keep you going.

• Grassroots Marketing Basics for Nonprofits: Grassroots marketing campaigns can be an effective way for nonprofits to raise awareness about their cause, expand their support base, and even raise money. They're also a valuable way to mobilize your current supporters to share their passion for your mission with others. This blog offers an intro guide to help you get the basics of grassroots marketing for your nonprofit.
• How To Choose the Right Fundraising Event for Your Nonprofit: Most nonprofits use fundraising events to raise large portions of their annual budgets. Events are excellent ways to bring supporters together around a common cause. Still, big events can require more time to plan and advertise, and they usually have a higher overhead cost. This blog offers some tips and wisdom to help you choose the right fundraising events for your nonprofit.
• Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit: An Introductory Guide: With Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit now available, organizations have a solution provided by Microsoft that covers a wide range of services, including constituent management, fundraising, volunteer management, program impact management, and more. Head over to this blog to learn the ins and outs of this affordable solution that pairs nicely with your Soapbox Engage apps.