Do We Have The Capacity For Real Advocacy?

Author: Kevin Lignell

In my initial thoughts about this essay for advocacy - in following with the energy of Emily Stoddard Furrow's essay - I had planned a merciless attack on my own kin. I was ready to lambast every nonprofit who didn’t participate in “real” advocacy (That is, working publicly with government to produce significant policy change to an issue.) I was ready to deride every nonprofit executive that didn’t put resources into substantial advocacy, insult every board who was too skittish to stick their necks out in the name of a cause, debunk every excuse, and unveil the schizophrenic nature of our sector.

I was honed in and ready to unleash my fury of prose, until a certain nonprofit redirected my energy. I had the opportunity to hear from Executive Director Cheryl Schuch from Family Promise of Grand Rapids. Family Promise is an Interfaith Hospitality Network, partnering with local individuals, families, congregations, foundations and corporations to provide emergency shelter and viable solutions for families with children who are facing a housing crisis. They are no slouch at what they do – in fact, 90% of the families they come into contact with are able to secure housing.

Cheryl spoke about capacity challenges, with an emphasis on funding for staff salaries and positions. As Executive Director, Cheryl averaged 73 hours a week over the last year, enough work to make even the most dedicated do-gooder cringe. Cheryl puts in so many hours because her organization can support only 7 part-time staff members, not nearly enough to see their mission carried out. Due to her passion, Cheryl works tirelessly to fill the void.

Organizations that serve the poor, homeless, disabled and other marginalized populations already suffer from enduring stigmas of their own. If the stigmas are to change, the most important thing they must do is powerful, enduring advocacy. Family Promise has interaction with some of the neediest clients you can imagine. An organization like this should be heavily involved in advocacy, as they understand deeply the challenges that their clients encounter. But how much advocacy work can you REALLY do when your staff consists of an overworked director and a mere 7 part-time positions?

For small organizations, the enduring problem with capacity always reigns: If you don’t have it, it’s hard to get more of it.

Let’s face it, sending a check for someone’s “general fund” isn’t exactly the most attractive donation for the average person. Funding capacity doesn’t offer the quick, feel-good results that funding programs does. Yet, capacity is the most essential element a nonprofit needs in order to be effective.

This is where the hypocrisy exists in the attitude of many funders: Build us a program, but don’t expect us fund the actual people.

This approach is beyond asinine. Think of it this way: an entrepreneur invests his money in small business looking to expand, but only on the condition that they cannot use any of the money for staff. Do you think this would fly in the business world? That investor would be laughed away. But in the nonprofit sector, we have an inferiority complex. We take what we can get…. but we don’t have to.

Advocacy is one of the most important functions of a nonprofit, but we hardly reach our potential. There are so many topics we aren’t addressing in our nonprofit silos and it’s time to change that. It starts with unifying nonprofits to be an advocacy force of our own. I believe YNPN can help do that.

I have a vision: that, through YNPN, we can support sector-wide issues for all nonprofits. We need to organize and identify the issues we can advocate for as a whole. We don’t have to feel inferior anymore. It is our duty to educate funders, but this is only the start of where we need to go. Advocacy should be front and center in all that we do, whether it's supporting the populations we serve, or improving the nonprofit sector as a whole.

(If you want to continue to the discussion, check out our events on the topic of advocacy this month.)