In This Story
Conventional wisdom tells us that large Washington, D.C.-based national organizations, with big budgets and lobbying staff, hold more political power than smaller local organizations. This is not quite the case for the nonprofit world, according to Schar School professor Alan J. Abramson in his recent book, Standing Up for Nonprofits, published by Cambridge University Press. Thanks to project funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the book is available online at no cost.
Abramson and his coauthor, Benjamin Soskis, focus on nonprofit advocacy for broad, sector-wide issues at the federal level, such as the tax break for charitable giving. Through case studies and in-depth interviews with nonprofit leaders and Capitol Hill staffers, they provide a detailed account of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which reduced tax incentives for charitable donations, and recommendations for how the nonprofit sector can impact public policy more successfully. One way that the nonprofit sector can more effectively engage in political advocacy, Abramson says, is by better leveraging ties to locally based nonprofits.
National nonprofit groups face difficulties in reaching out to congressional leaders because these lawmakers are more responsive to groups based in their districts than to Washington-based associations, especially those with limited ties to local leaders.
As detailed in the book, ties between some sector-wide organizations and locally based groups are weak, often lying dormant until a time of crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. While national organizations have the resources to research broadly about issues which might impact the nonprofit sector, they need local nonprofit organizations to lobby effectively for them. Abramson emphasizes the value of strengthening ties between these two ends of the spectrum as a means of developing closer connections to federal lawmakers.
Several sector-wide nonprofit organizations are using Abramson’s findings to plan for the future.
“As was evident in our interviews, these leaders are reflective lifelong learners,” Abramson said. “I’ve discussed the findings with staff from several national nonprofits, and know they are using them in their planning retreats, as a discussion point of how to more effectively advocate for the needs of nonprofits everywhere.”
The book is a further example of how Abramson and the Schar School’s Center on Nonprofits, Philanthropy, and Social Enterprise provide actionable research to inform nonprofit activity in the policy world. For his contributions to the nonprofit field, Abramson was elected as a National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) fellow and served as president of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA), the nation’s major association for nonprofit scholars. He consults broadly with nonprofit groups while concurrently training the next generation of leaders through the school’s nonprofit management concentration in the Schar School’s Master of Public Administration program, and its nonprofit management certificate programs.