Stepping Into the Fight: Legal Advocacy for Funders and Nonprofits
Resource type: Research Report
Legal advocacy – also known as advocacy through the courts – uses the judicial system to advance social change goals. This is often done through bringing forward a legal case in court that focuses on improving a situation for a particular group of disadvantaged people.
With support from Atlantic, TCC Group has been conducting a field review into the world of legal advocacy in the nonprofit sector, in partnership with the Center for Evaluation Innovation (CEI), via the Atlas Learning Project.
These publications and a short video are designed to help inform funders, legal advocates, non-legal advocates and evaluators about the field of legal advocacy.
The Funder’s Guide introduces funders to the concept of legal advocacy, suggests questions funders should ask themselves to know if their foundation is ready to fund legal advocacy, and outlines how to best support this work.
> Read the One-Page Summary for Funders (PDF)
> Download the Funder’s Guide (PDF)
The Nonprofits’ Guide introduces advocates to the concept of legal advocacy, shares implications that legal advocacy can have for other kinds of advocacy work, talks through partnering for legal advocacy, and finally shares what outcomes can be achieved through using legal advocacy as a strategy.
> Read the One-Page Summary for Nonprofits (PDF)
> Download the Nonprofits’ Guide (PDF)
This short video, featuring Annmarie Benedict, Atlantic’s Senior Program Executive & Director of Grants Monitoring, and Stephen McConnell of the Civic Participation Action Fund, examines how advocacy organizations use legal advocacy as a strategy and how funders can best support that work.
TCC Group is an Atlantic grantee. Atlantic commissioned these reports.