Depending on the strategy adopted, affecting public policy can be either high-cost or low-cost. The most typical engagement strategies used to impact public policy include:

Building coalitions: Coalitions can foster the development of new ideas and inform and shape public policies. Through coalitions and networks, individuals and organizations can share resources, knowledge, and skills. Coalitions are often key players during the problem definition, agenda setting, policy adoption, and implementation phases.

Community organizing: Community organizing around policy issues needn't address specific legislation. It is often a powerful strategy used to raise the profile of the issue among community members and decision makers. Community organizing can influence the agenda setting and policy adoption phases.

Convening stakeholders: Encouraging stakeholders to get together and discuss public policy issues is often an effective strategy during the problem definition, agenda setting, and policy adoption phases.

Funding demonstration projects: Demonstration or pilot projects can often be an important way to test out new policies or programs. Successful demonstration projects can be persuasive to policymakers. However, while support for pilot programs is often a good way to demonstrate new innovations, foundations need to come to a different understanding of what sustainability entails. Often, foundations support startup projects but do not sustain funding past the first few years because of an expectation that local government or another entity will take over support of the program. This is often not the case, as local governments do not have enough flexibility in funding to take on such projects. Funding demonstration projects is often an effective strategy in the the policy adoption and implementation phases.

Issue advocacy: Advocacy can be broken down into two categories: lobbying and nonlobbying activities.

Lobbying involves directly communicating with legislators or voters in order to influence legislation; grassroots lobbying means communicating with the public to encourage them to make their voices heard on a particular piece of legislation or issue. Lobbying is not limited to politically driven groups. Except for private foundations, all 501(c)(3) organizations can lobby, although there are legal limitations on lobbying and its funding. Private foundations are strictly prohibited from lobbying directly; however, they are able to support organizations that lobby.

Nonlobbying advocacy does not focus on a particular legislation or action. There are no legal limitations on general advocacy activities.

Both types of issue advocacy, lobbying and nonlobbying, are often used during the phases of agenda setting, policy adoption, and implementation.

Leadership development: Encouraging your grantees to lead public policy efforts can be an effective way to support long-term public policy engagement. Strong nonprofit leaders are instrumental during the problem definition, agenda setting, and policy adoption phases.

Litigation: Foundations can provide key support for litigation about current law. Litigation is often an effective strategy during the implementation and evaluation phases.

Media and communications: Foundations and public charities can contextualize public policy issues through general advocacy using paid and unpaid media and communications. Polling and focus groups can be used to home in on effective communications strategies and messages. These vehicles are often important during the problem definition, agenda setting, and policy adoption phases.

Policy research and analysis: Foundations and public charities may provide nonpartisan analysis and research to legislators and other decision makers, and to the public. Solid, unbiased research and analysis can enhance the reputations of foundations and public charities as credible, reliable policy activists. Policy research and analysis is often useful during the problem definition, agenda setting, and evaluation phases.

Public education: Public education, including framing and messaging, is a key role that foundations and public charities can play during the agenda setting phase. Given the complexities of many public policies, the public at large may not understand the nuances of proposed or actual policies that may affect them. Foundations and nonprofit organizations can play an important role in translating complex policy information. Foundations can also support programs which educate particular groups about policy issues. There are no legal restrictions on public education as long as it does not include lobbying (a call for action on a specific piece of legislation or a particular vote). Polling and focus groups can be used to develop effective public education messages.

Public/private partnerships: Public/private partnerships are effective ways to leverage foundation and public charity resources, most notably during the policy adoption and implementation phases.

Regulatory advocacy: Regulatory advocacy occurs after the passage of legislation, to ensure fair and proper implementation of public policies. This area of public policy engagement is an often ignored, yet critical
strategy.

Voter engagement: Public and private foundations and their grantees can engage in a number of nonpartisan activities such as registering and educating voters, and getting out the vote. These activities can lead to short-term policy adoption in the case of ballot initiatives, and long-term agenda setting, as policy will likely reflect voters and the issues they care about.

There is no one best way of engaging in public policy development and implementation. In one scenario, it may be necessary to use a number of the above strategies to impact policy. In another situation, one form of action may be sufficient.

Foundations and their grantees can choose to impact a public policy issue broadly, through activities on a number of different phases in the policy process, and a number of different jurisdictions. Or, they may opt to focus their efforts narrowly to support one form of public policy engagement at a particular jurisdiction. Depending on the circumstances, both these strategies can be highly effective.