NONPROFIT ADVOCACY AND SOCIAL CHANGE

Catalog description

Social change activists often form nonprofit organizations in order to help accomplish their goals, while managers of social service nonprofits often desire to create social change as well as help individuals. As a result, nonprofit organizations of all kinds play a large and growing role as policy advocates. This course explores theory and practice relating to nonprofit organizations in their role as political actors, intended for students who are interested in the interface between nonprofit management and social change activism. The course will review both top down and bottom-up approaches to advocacy from the perspective of a nonprofit manager, exploring the benefits, challenges, and implications of each. This course will examine the role advocacy plays in creating public policy changes in this country, particularly from the perspective of nonprofit groups. It will provide an overview of what advocacy encompasses (from organizing to lobbying to coalition building to litigation to research to voter engagement), how nonprofits engage in advocacy to carry out their missions, and strategies for nonprofit leaders interested in advocating for social change. As this course addresses the role of nonprofit organizations in creating social change in a democracy, we will focus on structures, strategies, and tactics that nonprofit organizations can and do use to make change at individual, policy, and societal levels. Theoretical and case study readings focus on the challenges, paradoxes, and successes of a variety of social change initiatives. While this class will focus on nonprofit organizations, a central aim is to provide students who work or plan to work in nonprofits, government agencies, or any other organization that has a public purpose with the opportunity to learn tools of social change.