Leveraging the Power of Collective Action with The Nonprofit Vote
The launch of The Nonprofit Vote coincides with municipal elections taking place across the province. Elections provide an opportunity to highlight important issues and increase civic engagement on the specific issues that impact your organization. By raising awareness of these issues, you play a role in helping others to be a part of making their community a better place to live for all.
Advocate with Confidence: A Guide for Nonprofits
The collective expertise and knowledge within the nonprofit sector represent invaluable insight and on-the-ground experience that can help inform policy direction and decisions. Plans to address the pandemic and subsequent economic recovery are likely to be at the forefront of this election cycle. With the increasing demand for services, it is important that this federal election recognizes and supports the role of nonprofits in rebuilding the community and economy. This election represents an opportunity for nonprofits, including those that access the services of and those who work in the sector, to come together to advocate for underrepresented and underserved populations, as well as for the sector as a whole.
Federal Election #nonprofitsvote Campaign Launches Today!
It’s back! CCVO has launched #nonprofitsvote for the federal election coming up on October 21. We received positive feedback on the inaugural #nonprofitsvote campaign from the recent Alberta provincial election, and you all had so much fun participating, that we’ve decided to do it all again for the federal election!
#nonprofitsvote: Tips on Voter Engagement
With the federal election set for October 21, and the campaign period officially underway, nonprofits have an important role to play in voter engagement. As trusted sources of information, nonprofits hold unique positions in communities, and can help inform and empower the people that they serve to exercise their right to vote. This blog post serves as a guide on tips to increase voter engagement.
Make it a Voting Party with #nonprofitsvote Week!
We are very fortunate to live in a place where voting is a right and a privilege that we can enjoy freely. Every chance we get to vote, is a chance to celebrate democracy, and our freedom to mark a ballot. Advance polls are a great opportunity to gather a group of voters; take friends, colleagues, and family members and head to the ballot box.
#nonprofitsvote: Tips for Voter Engagement
With just two weeks to election day, nonprofits have an important role to play in voter engagement. As trusted sources of information, nonprofits hold unique positions in communities, and can help inform and empower the people that they serve to exercise their right to vote. Here are some tips to get you started.
Join the #nonprofitsvote Campaign! Nonprofit Vote Kit Now Available
CCVO has launched #nonprofitsvote, an exciting campaign, to encourage nonprofit staff, board members, volunteers, and people who access the services of nonprofits to engage in the upcoming provincial election. The campaign is a nonpartisan effort to ‘get out the vote’ by increasing nonprofit voter participation in the Alberta 2019 provincial election.
The Alberta Nonprofit Election Toolkit Has Launched!
We’re excited to announce the release of the complete Nonprofit Election Toolkit - a practical guide for nonprofits to engage in advocacy during the 2019 Alberta election. We created this Toolkit to support nonprofits in engaging more deeply in public policy advocacy and to inspire conversations about the crucial role that Alberta nonprofits play in our communities.
Get Out the Vote and Join #nonprofitsvote
With more than 26,000 nonprofits in Alberta, it’s not a stretch to say that nonprofits touch the lives of every single Albertan, whether it be as staff, volunteers, board members, or clients. Nonprofits have a responsibility to speak up about the issues that matter to us and drive us to make positive contributions to our communities. In the final post of our election toolkit, learn how we can use our collective voice to encourage #nonprofitsvote and make a difference.
My Reflections on CCVO’s Policy Lunch and Learn: Nonprofit Advocacy 101
We kickstarted our first lunch and learn with a short presentation, making the case on why advocacy work is critical to our success as a sector. The strength and impact of the nonprofit sector peaked a lot of interest, as several attendees were spotted taking photos of the presentation and jotting down notes around the impressive stats on the sector. I appreciated the overall positive tone of the conversation among participants and during the session, and later reflected on how advocacy can often be a long and difficult journey with road blocks along the way.
After the Election, the Real Work Begins
It’s important for nonprofits to recognize that advocacy efforts need to start well before the advent of an election campaign – and continue afterwards as well. After all, policy advocacy is a journey, not a destination. If a specific policy proposal finds its way into a political party’s election platform, it’s often the result of a lot of hard work in the months, and even years, prior to an election. Here are five critically important ways for nonprofits to follow up after the election.
Tips for Engaging with the Media
If your nonprofit is looking to increase its reach and awareness for your policy asks, you’ll want to consider engaging with media as part of your overall strategy. To help you effectively engage, we asked our trusted contacts in media for their best tips and now we are sharing them with you to help you get started and feel more confident in reaching out to media.
Advocacy is a Journey, Not a Destination
Consider this: advocacy is a journey, not a destination. An election period may be a great time to reinforce policy advocacy for nonprofits, but advocacy is a long-term commitment that requires persistence and dedication to work towards your desired outcome throughout election cycles. Here are some tips to keep you on track and motivated throughout your advocacy journey.
Developing an Engagement Strategy
If your nonprofit has spent time determining a policy agenda, it’s time to develop an action plan. The development and implementation of an engagement strategy is often when the work becomes publicly visible. Choosing to make your policy priorities visible is a significant step for your nonprofit and should be approached in a coordinated and strategic manner.
Setting a Policy Agenda
There are no step-by-step rules or established set of parameters that nonprofits can follow to ensure success when seeking public policy change. What we can do, though, is develop a policy agenda - a set of issues or problems aimed at gaining the attention of policymakers and decision-makers - sometimes known as the “policy ask”.