Nonprofit Organizations, Bureaucratic Agencies, and Policy: Exploring the Determinants of Administrative Advocacy

Abstract

Scholarly interest in the ways in which nonprofit organizations (NPOs) engage in the policy process has increased markedly in recent years, but one arena of participation about which we still know very little is administrative lobbying. To date, no study has investigated the factors that influence the strategic decision by an NPO to focus their advocacy resources on the bureaucracy. This essay models the decision to engage in administrative advocacy by 501(c)(3) organizations as a function of the state-level political environment in which they deliver services and the organizational resources that they possess. Data on advocacy activities and organizational characteristics of family planning NPOs are drawn from tax records and data compiled by the National Center for Charitable Statistics.