Advocacy is the single most effective grant making strategy to achieve social impact and advance a foundation's mission.  Yet there's still a tendency to undervalue and avoid it by a majority of foundations, for a multitude of reasons based on misperceptions, fear and frequently impatience for results.   According to research funded by the Aspen Institute, while more nonprofits report engaging in advocacy over the last decade their participation and engagement are sporadic, narrow, thin and inconsistent, instead of consistent, wide, deep and impactful.   The number one reason cited by nonprofits is a lack of resources, including foundation funding.

In this interactive session we will explore some of the challenges and opportunities behind the gap that exists between the possibilities advocacy affords as a grant making strategy and the hesitation and reluctance of foundations to embrace it.  We will begin with some basic definitions and legal rules to establish what's permissible while also confronting myths and misperceptions.  We will also explore the benefits and possibilities of advocacy for grant making when its focused on mission fulfillment, including most significantly, the role of advocacy as the necessary partner to innovation.  Without advocacy achieving real social transformation is not possible. Advocacy provides both the scale and pathway to implement the solutions foundations fund.  In an age when having impact, going to scale and being innovative have become mantras in the field of philanthropy, understanding, and supporting advocacy is essential to success.