Nonprofit staff and the people we serve have expertise and lived experience that lawmakers need to hear in order to make the best possible policy decisions. It's essential to build relationships with lawmakers if for no other reason than to limit the harm they might cause the people you serve.
We extend our heartfelt support to the communities impacted by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina. We'll continue to share resources for nonprofits and how to help.
policy
This webinar will begin with a brief overview of trends in North Carolina’s nonprofit sector and current challenges facing nonprofit organizations. It will also include a discussion of the impact of the 2022 election on nonprofits, of state and federal policy solutions that might help nonprofits and the communities they serve, and of potential legislative challenges for nonprofits in 2023 and beyond.
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The Opportunity Agenda designed the Vision, Values, and Voice: A Communications Toolkit to help organizations "be effective in moving hearts, minds and policy over the long term...[by] integrated messaging and narrative strategies that both mobilize our base and expand our constituencies by bringing those in the middle toward our cause." The toolkit 
Organizations can adapt this sample vaccination policy from the North Carolina Center for Nonprofits for their own personnel policies. Additionally, you may wish to reference the National Council of Nonprofits' COVID-19 Vaccination and Mitigation Policy.
It's through continued effort that policy changes to promote equity are implemented and imbedded into practice. Tracking the progress of equity advocacy is important and does not need to be complex or daunting. Getting Equity Advocacy Results (GEAR) from PolicyLink is a suite of benchmarks, methods, and tools for advocates, organizers, and their allies to track the results of their equity campaigns to:
The Racial Equity Message Guide grew out of a request from advocates to advance both equitable policies and conversations about structural racism with decisionmakers. The guide includes tested messages to secure racial equity language in public policy. (American Heart Association's Voices for Healthy Kids, 2021)
A bipartisan panel of state legislators will discuss state policy priorities in 2021 and give a preview of the process for developing the state budget. The panel will also share tips on effective ways for nonprofits to advocate for their missions and insights on opportunities for nonprofits to engage with elected officials during the pandemic. We will have a moderated Q&A session to allow participants a chance to get input from the legislative panelists.
While written to help nonprofit leaders think strategically about public policy advocacy, these seven steps are useful to follow when developing fundraising asks, internal programmatic or organizational policy proposals, or other kinds of requests. (Shared with permission by Lisa Hazirjian, Ph.D., Win Together Consulting)
Nonprofit gift acceptance policies set forth the what, who, when, how, and where for receiving different types of gifts. Creating and maintaining gift acceptance policies is not only good governance but also allows your organization to think through and outline the advantages and disadvantages of different donor scenarios.
The CHS Alliance's 2015 HR Audit Handbook is "designed to assess the effectiveness of an organization’s human resources and people management policies and practices. Going through a HR audit enables the organization to identify areas for improvement and priority actions.