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36 Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Q. 5 (2007)

handle is hein.journals/npvolsq36 and id is 1 raw text is: Politics, Policy, and the Motivations for Advocacy in Nonprofit Reproductive Health and Family Planning Providers Jill Nicholson-Crotty University of Missouri-Columbia Despite the important symbolic and substantive benefits of political activity by non- profit organizations, recent evidence suggests that a relatively limited number of char- ities actively advocate. The existing literature on nonprofit advocacy adequately explains why so few charities are actively political; however, it fails to illuminate the reasons why some individual charities choose to advocate despite documented con- straints. This article offers an alternative to existing explanations for nonprofit advo- cacy that focuses on the causes for, and the constraints on, this behavior. It suggests that nonprofit organizations are more likely to be politically active when public policies restrict their ability to deliver core services, and when the probability of success is high- est because of the presence of political allies. Analyses of advocacy behavior in more than 450 501(c)(3) organizations suggest that these factors persist as motivators of political activity even after controlling for the dominant constraints suggested in the literature. Keywords: advocacy; lobbying; reproductive health; family planning; policy Groups classified by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as 501(c)(3) orga- nizations constitute what we traditionally think of as public charities. Contributions to these organizations are tax deductible because these orga- nizations have as their primary mission the delivery of services and support to citizens who are typically underserved by government and the market. In recent years, however, scholars of the voluntary and nonprofit sector have become increasingly interested in the instances when these organizations engage in advocacy, or overt political behavior, on behalf of their clients. The Note: I would like to thank the National Center for Charitable Statistics within the Urban Institute for allowing access to the financial data collected from the IRS Form 990 and digitized by the organization. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, vol. 36, no. 1, March 2007 5-21 DOI: 10.1177/0899764006291778 @ 2007 Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action 5

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