State Legislator Perceptions of the Political Advocacy Involvement of Nonprofit Human Service Organizations

Background and Purpose: From its inception, the profession of social work has considered itself a vehicle for social change by providing a voice for those who have traditionally been oppressed, marginalized and underrepresented in the decision-making processes that impact their lives. As a result, social workers, the majority of which are employed within nonprofit human service organizations (NHSOs), have a unique opportunity and a professional obligation to leverage their knowledge and skills with the resources and reach of their organizations to advance the interests of the individuals, populations and communities they serve by actively engaging in political advocacy efforts. However, the current body of literature indicates that, despite this coalescence of opportunity and obligation, many social work practitioners are failing to incorporate political advocacy into their practice.

Whereas much of the existing literature on political advocacy involvement relies on survey data and self-reports from those within NHSOs, this paper fills a significant gap in the literature by examining not only the political advocacy participation of NHSOs, but also the impact that these organizations are having in the policymaking process by capturing the perspectives of advocacy targets themselves, in this case state legislators.

Methods: This study employed a pragmatic qualitative design. Snowball sampling resulted in a sample of 13 state legislators with experience working with NHSOs in the policymaking process. A nine-item interview guide was used to elicit the experiences legislators had working with NHSOs in the policymaking process as well as their perceptions regarding the impact these organizations have had on their political decision-making. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and imported into Nvivo for thematic analysis. To do this, a dual coding process was used. First, inductive codes were developed using a two-cycle coding process of holistic coding followed by subcoding. Next, the transcripts were again coded with deductive codes derived from Kingdon’s multiple streams theory. In accordance with the model of thematic analysis, codes were organized into seven preliminary themes that were further refined down to five final themes.

Findings: Analysis of the data yielded five key themes. First, legislators had mixed perceptions about the political advocacy involvement of NHSOs. Second, legislators saw a clear opportunity for NHSOs to impact the policymaking process. Third, legislators indicated that NHSOs often lacked a clear understanding of the political process. Fourth, legislators recognized that many NHSOs interested in political advocacy face challenges doing so because of limited organizational capacity. Finally, legislators universally recognized that personal relationships are the most valuable political currency for NHSOs.

Conclusion and Implications: The findings from this study have important implications for social work practitioners and those within NHSOs. First, and foremost, advocacy must be accepted as practice. Second, organizational leadership needs to become educated on both the political process as well as the guidelines pertaining to permissible advocacy activities. Finally, NHSOs need to enhance their advocacy capacity while putting their organizations in positions to engage in, and ultimately impact, the policymaking process.