Hardball Lobbying for Nonprofits: Real Advocacy for Nonprofits in the New Century

222 Pages·2007·0.88 MB·English

by  Barry Hessenius

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Hardball Lobbying for Nonprofits
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Hardball Lobbying for Nonprofits
Real Advocacy for Nonprofits in the New Century
Barry Hessenius
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HARDBALLLOBBYINGFORNONPROFITS
© Barry Hessenius, 2007.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied
in critical articles or reviews.
First published in 2007 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS.
Companies and representatives throughout the world.
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan
division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan®is a
registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries.palgrave
is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries.
ISBN-10: 1-4039-8202-3
ISBN-13: 978-1-4039-8202-5
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hessenius, Barry.
Hardball lobbying for nonprofits : real advocacy for nonprofits in the new century /
Barry Hessenius.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 1-4039-8202-3 (alk.paper)
1. Nonprofit organizations—United States. 2. Lobbying—United States. I. Title. II.
Title: Hardball lobbying for nonprofits.
HD2769.2.U6H45 2007
338.7(cid:2)4—dc22
2007060511
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Design by Macmillan India Ltd.
First edition: June 2007
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America.
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This work is dedicated to all of those principled and compassionate people on the staffs
and boards of directors of America’s nonprofit organizations, as well as the volunteers of
these organizations, in particular those in the arts and culture field, who have so
selflessly and tirelessly given back to our country,
and
to those extraordinarily talented and visionary people at the nation’s foundations, who
have improved and enriched the lives of countless millions of Americans through their
strategic thinking.
And wherever you are Mom and Dad, Warren, and Dexter, I think of you all still.
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Contents
Foreword ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: The Value of Nonprofit Lobbying to Democracy 1
1 Framing the Context for a New Approach 5
2 Toward a New Paradigm for Nonprofit Advocacy/Lobbying 15
3 The Decision-Making Process 21
4 Advocacy, Lobbying, and the Law 53
5 Building an Advocacy Foundation 65
6 Managing the Lobbying Effort/Organization 83
7 Influencing the Decision-Making Process 129
8 Postmortem 201
Bibliography 205
Index 207
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Foreword
Just because you don’t take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politics won’t take
an interest in you.
Pericles
This work is primarily a step-by-step tutorial on building, maintaining, and operat-
ing an effective nonprofit advocacy and/or lobbying effort. It gives details of how lob-
bying really works and explains various parts of the machinery of a lobbying effort
heretofore not discussed in current advocacy manuals, including such topics as how
to pay for it, how to motivate people, and how to organize the structure. Finally, it
examines the background nuances that govern action on the nonprofit stage, and con-
siders the role that nonprofit advocacy and lobbying might play and the impact a
rethinking and retooling of a new approach to advocacy and lobbying might have in
serving and protecting not only the nonprofit sector but democracy itself.
***
Lobbying has been corrupted by money and candidates’ increasing need for money
to get elected. According to the Center for Public Integrity, Washington D.C., in
2003/2004 federal elections, payments of nearly two billion dollarsin fees to lobby-
ists were reported. It is difficult to discern the total contributions by interest groups
or individuals to candidate campaigns motivated by the desire to gain access to deci-
sion makers or directly influence government decision making, but it is important
to note that 96 percent of all people in America don’t contribute anything to candi-
date campaigns, and less than 0.2 percent of the population gave over 86 percent of
all political contributions.
The most flagrant abuses of the system make headlines every decade, but the
resultant cries for reform have thus far failed to “fix” the process. Reform comes
every so often, and there are changes and improvements, but the problem of how to
reconcile the imposition of meaningful restrictions with protection of free speech
makes it virtually impossible to completely overhaul the system as it exists.
It is not the purpose of this work to argue for reform or propose ways to implement
it, but rather to suggest that until real reform is effected, if ever, nonprofits, if they want
to have any chance of competing for access to decision makers and influence decision