NONPROFIT ADVOCACY A N D THE POLICY PROCESS A S E M I N A R S E R I E S V O L U M E 2 Exploring Organizations and Advocacy G O V E R N A N C E A N D A C C O U N T A B I L I T Y I S S U E 2 Edited by Elizabeth J. Reid and Maria D. Montilla The Urban Institute NONPROFIT ADVOCACY A N D THE POLICY PROCESS A S E M I N A R S E R I E S V O L U M E 2 Exploring Organizations and Advocacy G O V E R N A N C E A N D A C C O U N T A B I L I T Y I S S U E 2 Edited by Elizabeth J. Reid and Maria D. Montilla The Urban Institute Acknowledgments We wish to thank the seminar cohosts, Evelyn Brody and Frances Hill, the au- thors, the seminar participants, and many others who contributed valuable insights to the seminars and to this volume. Jeff Krehely and Pho Palmer provided valu- able assistance to the project. We are grateful for the support of the Robert Ster- ling Clark Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and the Surdna Foundation, Inc. Nonprofit Advocacy and the Policy Process: A Seminar Series Advisory Panel Members Audrey Alvarado Debra Minkoff National Council for Yale University Nonprofit Associations Department of Sociology Elizabeth T. Boris John Pomeranz Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy Alliance for Justice The Urban Institute Elizabeth J. Reid Evelyn Brody Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy Chicago-Kent College The Urban Institute Illinois Institute of Technology Peter Shiras School of Law Independent Sector Rosemary E. Fei C. Eugene Steuerle Silk, Adler & Colvin The Urban Institute Frances Hill University of Miami School of Law Leslie Lenkowsky Indiana University Center on Philanthropy (Adviser until September 2001) Copyright © February 2002. The Urban Institute. All rights reserved. Except for short quotes, no part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, in- cluding photocopying, recording, or by information storage, without written permission from the Urban Institute. The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of pub- lic consideration. The views expressed here are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders. Contents About the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy v About the Series vii List of Seminars viii Executive Summary ix 1 Nonprofit Organizations, Political Engagement, and Public Policy 1 by Judith R. Saidel 2 How Do Members Count? Membership, Governance, and Advocacy in the Nonprofit World 19 by Michael W. Foley and Bob Edwards 3 Walking a Political Tightrope: Responsiveness and Internal Accountability in Social Movement Organizations 33 by Debra C. Minkoff 4 What Practitioners Can Tell Us: Critical Lessons from the Advocacy Institute 49 by David Cohen 5 Global Advocacy: The Building of Civil Society through NGOs 67 by Milton Cerny Appendix: Seminar Proceedings 81 List of Seminar Attendees 87 About the Editors 91 About the Contributors 93 About the Cohosts 95 About the The Urban Institute’s Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy (CNP) explores the role and impact of nonprofit organizations and philanthropy in democratic societies. By Center on deepening the understanding of the multiple roles that nonprofits play—as service Nonprofits providers and as avenues of civic participation and public voice—CNP research en- deavors to address the relationships among nonprofits, government, and the market and from a variety of perspectives. Philanthropy The Center strives to build the necessary research tools, contribute to sensible theory, and develop applications that illuminate both policy and practice in the nonprofit sec- tor. CNP’s research projects combine qualitative and quantitative data, the theoreti- cal framework of civil society, and practical public policy considerations. A major component of the Center is the National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS), which serves as the national repository of statistical information on the non- profit sector from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and other sources. NCCS’s mis- sion is to build compatible national, state, and regional databases and to develop uniform standards for reporting on the activities of charitable organizations. These data enable researchers to develop a comprehensive picture of nonprofit-sector trends as well as in-depth analyses of financial data. Together with the IRS and Philanthropic Research, Inc. (PRI), NCCS provides scanned images of IRS Form 990, the financial information report that tax-exempt nonprofit organizations file with the IRS. Information from the scanned images is being digitized to create the most comprehensive and highest-quality database ever available on nonprofit organizations. For information visit our Web site, http://www.urban.org/centers/cnp.html. Dissemination of CNP research findings includes electronic publications on the Inter- net as well as policy briefs, working papers, and monographs. In addition to the Non- profit Advocacy and the Policy Process Seminar Series, CNP holds regular seminars, discussion groups, and conferences to discuss research findings and topics of current interest to the field. Elizabeth T. Borisis the first director of the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute and was the founding director of the Nonprofit Sector Research Fund at the Aspen Institute, where she worked from 1991 to 1996. Prior to 1991, she was vice president for research at the Council on Foundations, where she developed and directed the research program for 12 years. The author of many research publi- cations and articles on philanthropy, including Philanthropic Foundations in the United States: An Introduction, Dr. Boris is also coeditor with Eugene Steuerle of Nonprofits and Government: Collaboration and Conflict (Urban Institute Press, 1999). She is active as a board member and advisor to many nonprofits and is presi- dent of the Association for Research on Nonprofits and Voluntary Action and the Insights editor for Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. v About the The Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy has convened a series of 10 seminars— Nonprofit Advocacy and the Policy Process: A Seminar Series—that examines the Series current regulation of nonprofit advocacy, proposed reforms, and the impact ofreg- ulation on nonprofit contributions to civic and political participation, policymak- ing, and representative democracy. The series began in February 2000 and ended in December 2001. The papers presented during the seminars, as well as summaries of the seminar proceedings, are being disseminated through a series of four edited volumes. Volume I, Structuring the Inquiry into Advocacy, published in October 2000, covered the seminars held during the winter and spring of 2000. It introduced advocacy as a concept, examined the structure of nonprofit regulation under federal tax and election law, and discussed the evolving relationship between nonprofit organizations and money-driven elections. This volume has had considerable resonance with policymakers and leaders in the nonprofit sector. Volume II, Exploring Organizations and Advocacy, includes papers and find- ings from seminars held during the fall and winter of 2000–2001. Because of the diversity of elements that were discussed during the seminar sessions, this second volume is divided into two parts. Issue 1, Strategies and Finances, ex- amines strategies for influencing policy and election outcomes, as well as the ways in which nonprofit organizations fund their advocacy activities. Issue 2, Governance and Accountability, examines the internal operations of nonprofit organizations and how their missions, capacity, governance, and constituen- cies shape their advocacy and their internal and public accountability. Volume III includes the findings and papers from the 2001 fall seminars. This volume focuses on constitutional and theoretical frameworks that shape the law and practice of nonprofit advocacy in America, as well as the role of groups in democratic governance today. Volume IV concludes the series, summarizing findings from the seminars and listing future research questions generated from the seminar papers and par- ticipants’ comments. The Seminar Series’ publications are posted on our Web site, http://www.urban. org/advocacyresearch. The series is made possible by the generous support of the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and the Surdna Foundation, Inc. Elizabeth T. Boris Director of the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy vii SEMINARS IN THE SERIES ON NONPROFIT ADVOCACY AND THE POLICY PROCESS The Spring/Summer 2000 Series: Structuring the Inquiry into Advocacy SEMINAR 1 Nonprofit Advocacy: Practices and Perspectives SEMINAR 2 Regulating Nonprofit Advocacy: The Rules, Rationales, and Practices SEMINAR 3 Politicians, Parties, and Access in the Policy Process The Fall/Winter 2000–2001 Series: Exploring the Organizations SEMINAR 4 Advocacy Strategies and Influence SEMINAR 5 Financing Nonprofit Advocacy SEMINAR 6 Representation, Participation, and Accountability The Spring/Fall 2001 Series: In the States, Across the Nation, and Beyond SEMINAR 7 Nonprofit Advocacy in the States SEMINAR 8 Nonprofit Advocacy in Global Perspective SEMINAR 9 Advocacy and Democracy: Rights, Theories, and Practices SEMINAR 10 Perspectives on Nonprofit Advocacy from Democratic Theory Executive Exploring Organizations and Advocacy, the Fall/Winter 2000–2001 series, examined the operations of nonprofit organizations and their interaction with the regulatory Summary and policy environment, funding sources, and citizens. Three seminars were con- ducted during the series, and the papers presented, as well as summaries of related discussions, are published in two separate issues: Issue 1, Strategies and Finances(re- leased in August 2000), and Issue 2, Governance and Accountability. This issue, Governance and Accountability, contains the complete text of five papers that were presented at Seminars 6 and 8 during the winter and spring of 2001. These papers examine the internal operations of nonprofit organizations and discuss how their mission, capacity, governance, and constituency shape their advocacy and their internal and public accountability. They also examine important aspects of nonprofit advocacy at the international level from a practitioner and legal perspective. We hope that the themes discussed in this volume open new research avenues by which to study and compare advocacy groups at the local, national, and global level. Summary of Chapters Nonprofit Judith Saidel, of the Center for Women in Government and Civil Society at the Uni- Organizations, versity at Albany, reviews and synthesizes significant recent empirical studies written Political Engagement, to answer very different research questions. She offers an integrative framework of and Public Policy political engagement processes to which many nonprofit organizations make impor- tant contributions. Saidel also examines the functions of nonprofits in overlapping phases of political engagement—activation, mobilization, political participation—and analyzes how current public policy trends support or impede each of these en- gagement processes. Volunteers and political engagement, and the growing influence of elites within nonprofit organizations, receive analytical attention. Saidel identifies contradictory findings and gaps in the literature, as well as promising directions for future research. How Do Michael Foley, of the Catholic University, and Bob Edwards, of East Carolina Uni- Members Count? versity, examine the question of how members “count” for their organizations— Membership, how having members affects their start-up and survival, financial stability, tactics, Governance, and credibility, decisionmaking, and governance—with an eye to larger questions about what membership means for democracy. The authors attempt to clarify concepts and Advocacy in the point to ways in which the current debate might be enriched and research enhanced. Nonprofit World They argue that “membership” may be too unstable a concept to yield much ana- lytical purchase and suggest a vocabulary that might better shape future research. In the final part of the paper, Foley and Edwards analyze a unique data set on peace movement organizations in the 1980s to demonstrate that current perceptions of the nonprofit advocacy sector are skewed by a “tyranny of existing data” that overem- phasizes large, national organizations. ix