Nonprofits and Advocacy: Engaging Community and Government in an Era of Retrenchment

3. Shaping the Government–Nonprofit Partnership: Direct and Indirect Advocacy

The Great Recession of 2007–10 affected families, communities, businesses, nonprofits, foundations, and governments at all levels. Unemployment increased and tax revenues declined. Philanthropic giving decreased as demands for supportive services increased. Despite the recent economic recovery , federal, state, and local governments today are still in severe fiscal distress, which is likely to continue for several years. State revenues are particularly hard hit, and since most states cannot run deficits, they are slashing spending to balance their budgets. The federal government is also tightening its belt, but it is trying to balance the need to rebuild the economy with the increasing pressure for deeper program cuts to stem the growing federal deficit. The impact of this fiscal crisis raised the visibility of government contracting policies that impose costly inefficiencies on nonprofits through delayed payments and other policies (Denhardt and Auger, 2008; Michigan Nonprofit Association, 2009; National Council of Nonprofits, 2009). With the slow and uncertain economic recovery, weak philanthropic giving, and the proposed budget cuts in government programs that support many human service organizations, many nonprofits face a bleak future. The National Survey of Nonprofit-Government Contracting and Grants (Boris et al., 2010) was designed to document the impact of the recession on nonprofits, their experiences with government contracting and grants processes , and the interaction of the two in calendar year 2009. The findings reveal how, in the face of shrinking resources and increasing needs, many human service providers cut back on staff, benefits, and programs. The results also detail problems that nonprofits encounter in their government funding relationships, including late payments, inadequate reimbursements, and complex paperwork requirements that have exacerbated the effects of the recession. chapter three Shaping the Government–Nonprofit Partnership Direct and Indirect Advocacy elizabeth t. boris and matthew maronick with milena nikolova Shaping the Government–Nonprofit Partnership 67 While studies suggest that human service nonprofits have traditionally been reluctant to advocate or lobby (Berry, 2003; Boris, 2012; Jenkins, 2006; Salamon and Geller, 2008), research also shows that they interact with government on a regular basis. Much of the scholarship on nonprofit advocacy focuses on individual organizational advocacy, often asking whether receipt of government money inhibits or promotes advocacy. Findings from this national survey document convincingly that human service nonprofits funded by government provide both direct feedback to government funding agencies and indirectly advocate through coalitions and associations. In this chapter, we explore the types of feedback, one-on-one meetings, formal feedback avenues , and advocacy through coalitions and associations and then focus on the determinants of advocacy through coalitions and associations. The research questions we address are: 1. What characteristics differentiate human service nonprofits that advocate through coalitions and associations from those that do not? 2. Are some of the problems nonprofits experience with government contracts and grants processes more likely to lead organizations to advocate than others? In the first part of this chapter, we describe research on coalition advocacy and the findings from the National Survey of Nonprofit-Government and Grants (Boris et al., 2010). We then model the characteristics that predict advocacy through coalitions and associations and discuss the findings. Advocacy through Coalitions Advocacy is defined in overlapping ways and encompasses many types of activities , forms, venues, and goals, aptly described by Robert J. Pekkanen and Steven Rathgeb Smith in the introduction to this volume. Following them we favor a broad definition: “advocacy is the attempt to influence public policy, either directly or indirectly.” This definition puts into sharp relief the necessity to look beyond advocacy activities undertaken by nonprofits themselves to the actions taken on their behalf (and usually with their membership dues) by organizations and associations linked to them. While much of the research on nonprofit advocacy has focused on the individual organization’s direct activities, there is growing attention to the role that coalitions and associations play in providing a voice for nonprofits in the policy process (Boris and Krehely, 2002; Boris, 2012; see also Pekkanen 68 The Local and National Dimensions of Nonprofit Advocacy and Smith’s introduction, and DeVita et al., chap. 4, this volume). Such advocacy is often cost-effective and enables individual organizations to maintain a low profile while permitting them to have their concerns promoted to policymakers by professionals with expertise in government relations and lobbying. Alexander (2000) stresses that nonprofit coalitions and collaborations provide a number of resources to individual nonprofits, namely “grants, contracts, donated professional services, referred clients, and media attention...