Nonprofit-government relations: The public policy and advocacy perspectives
Alena Kluknavská, CVNS, Masaryk University
19. 11. 2018

Embeddedness of NPOs
•Multi-functional organizations
–Social capital
–Economic role
–Religious role
–Service
–Policy
–Advocacy
–Global importance
•= interactions – very different environments simultaneously, different stakeholders, very complex,
dynamic shifts

NNO-government relations
•Legal perspective
•Public policy perspective
•Advocacy perspective

Public policy perspective
•Embeddednes in welfare state arrangements
•To what extent governments and public administration cooperate with NPOs
•Models of nonprofit-government relations
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Najam (2000): Four-C model
•based on institutional interests and preferences for policy ends and means •2 hypotheses: a) NPOs
constitute a distinct institutional sector with particular motivations and structural preferences,
b) NPOs have an abiding interest in public policy
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Four-C model
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Screenshot 2017-11-23 00.13.31.png

Young (2000)
•Refers specifically to economic theories of nonprofit organizations •Based on the underlying
assumption that output improvement (particularly of social service delivery) constitutes the core
rationale for government-nonprofit sector relations
•Refers to NPOs as service providers
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Young: A triangular model
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Screenshot 2017-11-23 00.09.55.png
Young (2000)

Salamon and Anheier: Social Origins
•explains why the embeddedness of NPOs in welfare state arrangements differs from country to
country
•relates to the concept of organizational embeddedness focusing explicitly on broader social and
political relationships
•differences of size and composition are explained by different social origins of the sector
•2 dimensions:
–a) the extent of government social welfare spending
–b) the scale of the nonprofit sector

Social origins model
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Screenshot 2018-11-18 16.32.58.png

Advocacy perspective
•How and to what extent citizens make use of the public sphere by engaging in civic activities
•Investigating whether and how civil society organizations give citizens a voice for political
participation and provide avenues for societal integration •NPOs mediate/facilitate civic
participation – by providing structures and networks •NPOs engage in public-interest advocacy
activities
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Social movement theory argument
•Two sectors are deeply intertwined, but conflictual relationship with government
•A relationship cycle:
–SMO translates private into public concerns
–SMO gives impetus for the creation of NPO
–Succesful NPO influences government policy
–Government responds:
•by directly addressing the issue
•or funds nonprofits
–Nonprofit in turn addresses public concerns
–Tries to influence again
•Examples of such successful movements?
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Public interest advocacy
•NPO’s crucial civic function
•Goal: To influence government decisions; to influence government policy (not to govern); or to
encourage political participation
•Voicing a broader set of public interests
•Ideal vs. Reality
•Why should NPO participate in policies and policy-making? Reasons to advocate?
•Targets of advocacy activities?

What affects advocacy
•Declining civic engagement
•Government regulation
•Growing businnes competition
•External factors in cooperation?

Nonprofit responses
•have had to become more sophisticated
•created more complex organizational structures
•take advantage of new technologies – Internet activism fundamentally altered civic participation
and advocacy
•invested in effective research
•increasingly turned to collaborations, including some with business organizations

Forms: How to advocate?
•Issue identification, research, and analysis
•Education of the public on crucial issues
•Lobbying (direct, grassroots, administrative, for/against): reinfluence a specifiers to activities
that are intended to a piece of legislation
•Voter registration and education
•Litigation, legal advocacy in the courts
•Media advocacy
•Public events and direct action (calls for boycotts and demonstrations)
•Judicial advocacy
•Coalition building
•Expert testimony (testifying before governmental bodies)
•Talks with governments
•Monitoring of government programs
•Drawing up of petition letters, participation in referenda or initiative campaigns
•Grassroots organizing and communication with local leaders
•SOCIAL MEDIA: „Tweeting social change“

Public funding and its impact on nonprofit advocacy
•relationship between public funding and nonprofit engagement in advocacy (Neumayr at al. 2015)
•two main lines of argument:
–resource dependence theory: NPOs that receive public funding will eventually reduce their advocacy
activities or even refrain from them altogether for fear of losing their funding
–the nonprofits who receive public funding will increase their engagement in advocacy
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So does it affect…?
•Empirical studies: mixed results, mostly on US
•Austria (Neumayr at al. 2015):
–no significant relationship between advocacy and the receipt of public funding or the proportion
of an organization’s total revenue coming from public funding
–the degree to which nonprofits engage in advocacy is influenced by the geographic range of
operation and field of activity
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•Citizen Lobbying: How Your Skills Can Fix Democracy
•By Alberto Alemanno (at TEDxBrussels)
•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqNf2OPdu8c

•Going the Digital Route
•By Marci Harris, a former congressional staffer, founded Popvox, a non-partisan platform to engage
digitally with Congress https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aKyYR-iWpc
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•Advocacy Through Social Media: Why Trending Topics Matter
•By Karen McAlister (at TEDxUTA)
•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4sGLLaLq-Q
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•Thank you for participation