Leanly staffed foundations and donors have a unique opportunity to influence policy and create meaningful change. The Advocacy Field Guide for Lean Funders provides a practical, step-by-step roadmap to help you navigate advocacy with confidence—leveraging your expertise, relationships, and resources to drive real results.
Why This Guide?
Many funders hesitate to engage in advocacy, worried about complexity, legal constraints, or political risks. This guide breaks down those barriers, showing how foundations with few or no staff can:
- Focus on the right issues and build deep expertise.
- Use cost-effective strategies to maximize influence.
- Engage decision-makers and policymakers at all levels.Mobilize coalitions and amplify community voices.
- Navigate legal considerations with clarity and confidence.
What’s Inside?
- Seven Steps for Success in Advocacy – A proven framework for getting started and sustaining impact.
- Advocacy Approaches for Funders – Find the right strategy for your foundation.
- Making the Case to Your Board – Demonstrate why advocacy is a high-return investment.
- Real-World Case Studies – Learn from funders who are making a difference.
Who Should Read This?
This guide is for donors, trustees, and foundation leaders who want to influence policy, advance equity, and drive long-term change—without expanding their staff or budgets.
Exponent Philanthropy authored this field guide in partnership with Frontera Strategy.