PPA 503 – The Public Policy Making Process

1. PPA 503 – The Public Policy Making Process Lecture 7c – How to Ask for Action or Propose Policy on Behalf of a Group

2. Introduction • Goal • Knowledge of the functions of nongovernmental organizations in public policy processes, and familiarity with nonprofit organizations active in your area of interest. • Objective • Petitioning or proposing on behalf of an organization or group. • Product • Brief written policy proposal representing a organization’s advocacy. Length varies according to purposes and situation, but a short proposal is preferred (one to three pages). • Scope • Content of group’s charter, purpose, or mission to determine the concerns or issues you will address.

3. Introduction • Strategy: Proposals with this information • Desired outcome: What do you want to accomplish? Can you describe it as if it were already accomplished in a future that you want to achieve? • Today’s situation: What’s wrong with the present? Why is the action your propose needed? What causes the need? • Relevant background: How did the problem arise? What original assumptions are no longer valid? What conditions have changed? • Available options: What are the alternative ways of meeting the need? Advantages and disadvantages of each? Costs (money, other) of each? • Recommended action: What is the best alternative? Can you briefly argue as to why? • Summary: What are the results (referring to the desired future) if requested action is performed? • Action items: Who is asked to do what, when, where, and how?

4. Task #1 • Step one: Identify a need for policy. • If you know the need or option, proceed to step 2. • If you do not know the need or option, step back to focus before you proceed. • Start wherever you need to start: define the problem and pinpoint the issue (discovery), review the history of action and inaction (legislative history), review the arguments (range of positions), or use the method in Chapter 2 to reconsider the policy context as well as the communication situation for your proposal.

5. Task #1 • Step two: Specify the action and the agency. • Determining the needed action – knowing what is possible, knowing whom to ask, and knowing what to ask for – is not easy. “What am I trying to do” and “How can it do it most effectively.”

6. Task #1 • Step two: Specify the action and the agency. • Consider the options for action. • Government action • What do you want government to do? (legislate, spend, regulate and enforce within limits). • What type of action is needed for the problem you are concerned about? • To which level of government – federal, state, local – should you direct your proposal. • Which department or agency can do what you want to accomplish? • Nongovernmental options. • Does the solution require government action at all?

7. Task #2 • Identify the organizations active on your issue. • Check the local phone directory, or ask local volunteer services about local nonprofits or local affiliates of national and international nonprofits. • Ask a librarian for national guides to nonprofit organizations. • Read the transcripts of congressional hearings on your issue to find witnesses who spoke on behalf of advocacy groups. • Search newspaper databases for articles on your issue that might refer to advocacy groups.

8. Task #2 • Identify the organizations active on your issue. • Search WWW portals for nonprofit organizations. • Institute for Nonprofit Management: http://inom.org. • Nonprofit Online News: http://news.gilbert.org. • Nonprofit Nuts & Bolts: http://www.nutsbolts.org. • Internet Nonprofit Center: http://www.nonprofits.org. • Minnesota Council of Nonprofits Find a Nonprofit: http://www.mncn.org/find.htm. • Idealist.org: http://www.idealist.org. • Independent Sector: http://www.independentsector.org. • Nonprofit Pathfinder: http://www.indepsec.org/pathfinder/index.html.

9. Task #2 • Identify the organizations active on your issue. • Try these subscription services for details including tax exempt status and financial information on specific nonprofits. • Associations Unlimited: http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/AU?locID=syra96044. • The Foundation Directory Online: http://lnps.fdncenter.org. • Guidestar: http://www.guidestar.org.

10. Task #2 • You may not need to restrict your search to nonprofits. Private organizations also may have information relevant to your proposal.

11. Task #3 • Write a policy proposal. • Provide only accurate information. To do otherwise destroys your credibility and the credibility of your organization. • Use the method of Chapter 2 to prepare, plan, and produce a written proposal. • The document’s contents should answer the questions listed under Strategy (but should not slavishly follow the format of the questions). • Compare the finished product to the two sets of standards in Chapter 2.

12. Task #3 • No typical format for policy proposals. • If a template is prescribed by the organization, use the template. • Otherwise, use the conventions of professional communication. • Header that provides identifying information. • Overview that summarizes the proposal. • Subheaded sections that provide information. • Document types: letter, memo, a full-page ad in a newspaper, a publication declaration in costume, or whatever form provides the greatest impact.