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Local and statewide nonprofit organizations engage in a variety of advocacy efforts, backed by great expertise that would benefit the field. However, these efforts may not reach national advocacy groups or philanthropic organizations. This disconnect may contribute to the latter missing crucial insights on how essential student-centered programs work on the ground level and what bipartisan opportunities may exist to improve them.
To better understand the state and federal advocacy work of local and state nonprofit organizations, we conducted a survey of organizations that work on higher education and basic needs issues, specifically college access and success programs, to shine a light on these advocacy efforts. Our intention was to gain a clearer picture of the types, intensity, and desired outcomes of the advocacy activities of these organizations.
Our survey garnered 29 responses, including a disproportionate number of responses from Michigan, Illinois, Oregon, and Texas. Specifically, the top three issue areas that respondents indicated they focus on are food security, housing, and childcare assistance within the higher education space.
Better understanding the advocacy work of state and local nonprofit organizations is critical at this moment. This is because of the essential role that states, and advocacy organizations play in advancing policies to improve affordability for postsecondary education, tackling basic needs issues, and ensuring protections for students and borrowers when and where possible.
The following sections will delve into these organizations’ advocacy efforts at both the state and federal levels.
State Level Advocacy Takeaways
At the state level, there are a variety of ways organizations can get involved in advocacy, ranging from smaller scale activities like contacting state legislators to larger scale events like an advocacy day at the state capitol.
The survey responses on state advocacy efforts include the following:
- 89 percent of respondents stated they conduct state advocacy, with 76 percent of those respondents stating they engage with all the following activities: working with state legislative offices, executive/governor’s offices, and state agencies, and working alongside established coalition partners.
- A majority of respondents indicated they participate in coalition building and partnership efforts at the state level.
- Other activities identified in the survey include contacting legislative offices, providing testimony on legislation, and participating in or coordinating a Hill Day advocacy event. Twenty-eight percent of respondents that engage in state advocacy indicated that they do all these activities.
Implications for Federal Level Advocacy
Federal advocacy efforts can mirror activities found at the state level, but can sometimes require additional capacity, time, and resources that may not be available. Instead, organizations may rely more on coalitions or joint efforts in order to advance their advocacy goals. There is demonstrable impact in organized advocacy, and recognizing current barriers and limitations can help local and state organizations identify opportunities to improve efforts. The organizations surveyed understand that they can have an influence, with 68 percent of respondents acknowledging that their voice does matter to federal representatives, agencies, and staff.
The survey responses on federal advocacy efforts include the following:
- While 67 percent of respondents indicated that they conduct federal advocacy, only 13 percent of these respondents selected that they engage with their congressional offices, the executive branch, and relevant federal agencies.
- 69 percent of respondents that engage in federal advocacy do so as part of a state or national coalition, rather than on their own.
Conclusion
Our survey suggests that there is more of an appetite for engaging in federal policy than capacity to do so meaningfully. Thirty-eight percent of respondents indicated that they would like to engage in more federal efforts, but over half of them indicated that they would require additional capacity to successfully ramp up efforts.
Given the uncertainty present in the current federal landscape, local and statewide nonprofit advocates will have a more crucial role in this work over the coming years. Once organizations have the resources they need, they should consider participating in the national dialogue during this pivotal moment. They ought to do so: improving advocacy efforts at the federal level can boost local and state best practices that may otherwise go unnoticed. As they do so, organizations should seek to center student voices in integral policy discussions. State and local organizations can play a unique and much-needed role in helping their federal representatives understand the issues that are most prevalent, how federal changes are impacting students, and offer practical anecdotes of current innovative state strategies.
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