NPO Conversation at GMA on September 15

We invite leaders of nonprofit organizations to join us each quarter for a brown-bag lunch discussion about issues, ideas, and concerns in the nonprofit and philanthropic community. The meetings are a time for us to move beyond the usual conversation between foundations and nonprofit organizations. Each session focuses on a particular topic, and reservations are required. Guests will learn a little more about GMA and a lot about their peers’ perspectives on important issues.

Topic for Conversation: Advocacy, Organizing and Influencing Policy

Nonprofits and philanthropic donors seeking to change the world, striving for greater equity and prosperity, have embraced a variety of approaches to bringing about progress. Providing great services or developing new models of action are always important, but can be hard to scale to meet the need.

Seeking change by the truckload rather than the tablespoon, some see policy change as the best course of action. We are aware that effective policy solutions are hard to achieve and that many funders turn away from advocacy, which they incorrectly equate with direct lobbying. Still, when nonprofits win at organizing and advocacy, those triumphs can be big. We are eager for a frank discussion of how we can be better partners in this arena.

Read on for conversation outline and registration details:

For this quarter’s NPO Conversation, we invite leaders of organizations involved in organizing and advocacy to join us for a brown bag lunch. The discussion is open to the Executive Director or Director of a 501 (c)(3) organization that seeks to achieve its goals using organizing and policy advocacy.

Our informal conversation will be organized around a few questions, similar to these:
• What gives your organization credibility to seek policy change?
• How does community organizing relate to advocacy and systemic policy change?
• What are your measures of success; have those changed in the past few years?
• What is the role of media and social media strategy in bringing about policy change?
• Should foundations be worried about funding advocacy? What do you most want funders to understand?

Please bring your experiences, ideas and a brown bag lunch to GMA’s 9th floor conference room, 77 Summer Street in Boston’s Downtown Crossing, on Tuesday September 15 from 12n to 1:30pm. We’ll provide refreshments and dessert.

Registration is required as space is limited. Please call 617-391-3084 or email rsvp@gmafoundations.com by September 9. We look forward to our conversation.