Advocacy & Policy
Report
Funders seeking to invest in broad social and system change frequently partner with advocacy organizations to advance issues through policy change rather than solely resourcing direct service organizations. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation commissioned TCC Group to conduct research to help funders better understand key considerations in supporting coalitions.
The Walton Family Foundation engaged TCC Group to conduct a study on the concept of policy durability—how policies last and effect change for long periods of time. This report aims to explore policy durability in the context of today’s political climate and to help funders and advocates be more effective in pursuing policies that will be durable in addition to being effective.
Foundations focused on equity have increased their support for Grassroots Advocacy Organizations (GRAOs) in recent years, rethinking how power dynamics play out in relationships and considering how to center the expertise and values of grassroots advocates in grantmaking. The Connecticut Health Foundation partnered with TCC Group to help gain a better understanding of how to build authentic relationships with and effectively support GRAOs.
Insights & Perspectives
As health equity increasingly becomes the framework for advocates, funders are looking for ways to support organizations in being effective and sustainable. Here, we present takeaways for health funders on recent research, and uncover practical ways they can be better partners.
This blog elevates some of the findings from our research with the Connecticut Health Foundation on funding Grassroots Advocacy Organizations that may not be on your radars, and shares how change is best effected when listening to community voices.
Policy advocacy organizations are more important than ever. Our work with the Walton Family Foundation explores Policy Durability, and we are sharing key insights on what elements contribute to durability before, during and after the normal active advocacy period.
TCC Group conducted three research studies over the last year on good practices for supporting or conducting advocacy in modern times, focusing on understanding how funders can best support advocacy coalitions, how funders can best support grassroots organizations, and the best ways to work towards durable policy wins.
Our recent report on effective advocacy coalitions explores many questions related to coalition models, power dynamics, and incorporating diverse stakeholders. This blog focuses on some of our findings on building trust, capacity, and strategy.
TCC Group has been examining how advocacy organizations use legal advocacy as a strategy and how funders can best support that work. Here, we are sharing the results of our work to help inform funders, legal advocates, non-legal advocates, and evaluators about the field of legal advocacy.
Resource
TCC Group conducted an evaluation of a cohort of advocacy organizations to help foundations who want to expand grantmaking to advocacy organizations but feel limited by their ability to understand how to assess potential grantees or their capacity to carry out the proposed activities.
This guide introduces advocates to the concept of legal advocacy, shares implications that legal advocacy can have for other kinds of advocacy work, talks through partnering for legal advocacy, and finally shares what outcomes can be achieved through using legal advocacy as a strategy.
Over eight years, TCC provided formative data to Treatment Action Group (TAG) to help them understand the impact of their global work in TB and HIV. Using our findings, TAG published “Empowering Communities for TB Advocacy,” providing activists, policymakers, and donors with lessons learned when integrating tuberculosis and HIV activities into their advocacy work.
Commissioned by the Rockefeller Foundation, TCC Group’s research examined what motivates foundations to engage in advocacy, the methods they apply, and the results they achieve. This scan examines select examples of what has prompted foundations to invest in federal policy endeavors, what methods they have applied and what results these methods have achieved.
Step into the Fight introduces funders and advocates to the concepts of legal advocacy—that is, using the judicial system to achieve social change. It was created as part of the Atlas Learning Project, generously funded by Atlantic Philanthropies and supported by the Center for Evaluation Innovation.
From 2014 to 2016, TCC Group (TCC) partnered with Pre-K for PA Campaign and Campaign for Fair Education Funding (CFEF) to act as their embedded evaluator. For each advocacy campaign, TCC’s focus was on the quality of strategy, progress on short- and long-term goals, and internal capacity.
This guide introduces funders, advocates, and evaluators to thinking about evaluating legal advocacy work. In addition to legal impact, we explore how to measure the quality of the work and how to measure impact outside of the legal arena.
In an effort to develop frameworks and methodologies to be able to meaningfully evaluate policy change efforts, TCC Group conducted an evaluation of a cohort of advocacy organizations who were receiving general support from The California Endowment.