Mission and Advocacy Structure: A Perspective from Human Service Organizations

Nonprofit organizations are expected to advocate for the needs of their clients. However, advocacy is often not part of organizational structure, which can create reactive rather than proactive responses. To explore this issue, this qualitative study examined the macro advocacy practices of a small group of organizations committed to advocacy. Using a mission-driven perspective, results showed that they had a common perception of advocacy, advocacy was implicit in their mission, and that while structure was elusive, decision making around advocacy was clear and issue selection was broadly informed. Recommendations such as harnessing the value placed on advocacy to create structures that can ensure it takes place and giving the charge to do advocacy to a specific staff person are included.