Q: My organization has decided to take on some advocacy work, so how do we get started?

A: The simplest answer is, talk to a policymaker, your neighbor, a reporter, or a stranger on a bus about an issue that you care about. That's really about all there is to becoming an advocate.

But if you’d like to learn how to be an effective advocate, there are many sources that can help you out. The most obvious to readers of this feature should be this site, whose main purpose is to get nonprofits involved in advocacy, and make them better at it. Check out the articles in our Advocacy Know-How section, or learn everything you need to know by reading So You Want to Make a Difference. If you need more encouragement, or some proof that advocacy and lobbying by charities is perfectly legal, check out one of our organizational partners, Charity Lobbying in the Public Interest (CLPI)

However, if you don’t want to do all that reading, and would like the five cent version, here’s the quick lowdown on getting involved in advocacy with policymakers. For techniques on media advocacy, coalition building, electoral advocacy and others, check out NPAction's Advocacy Means and Methods section.

1) Find an issue (and you’ve probably already done that).

2) Give somebody responsibility for advocacy. Like most things in the nonprofit world, if no one is specifically responsible, it will always be on the back burner.

3) Find out who can have an impact on that issue. This could be your members of Congress, a Congressional committee, an executive branch agency, the Governor, your State Legislature, or even all of the above. Also, keep an ear out for any proposed legislation that has an impact on your issue (the easiest way to do this is to belong to a national or state association).

4) Decide what is the most important message you’d like to send to said policymakers, as hammering one message home is a lot easier than hammering ten home. The message that you choose is often dependent on who you’re talking to (a Governor usually can’t introduce legislation, for example, and a legislature doesn’t make agency regulations).

5) Start letting them know what policies you’d like to see. If you’re just dealing in abstractions (“We’d like to see funding for after school programs increased”), that’s advocacy. If you’re asking a policymaker to take a specific position on a specific piece of legislation, that’s lobbying, which has some restrictions for charities (see CLPI’s for specifics).

6) Lather, rinse, repeat

At the most basic level, it really is that simple, but like most things, the simplicity can be deceiving. While there’s hardly anything to becoming an advocate, there are all sorts of tips and strategies that can be found on this site to help you become an effective advocate. Read up on advocacy on NPAction, and check out the Resources section both for links to other groups that can help you get started, as well as links to policymakers and the media. And most importantly, keep checking back here for more help and advice.