View Research by Author - Elizabeth Reid

Publications

This report describes the capacity of U.S. nonprofits to mobilize in international development and assistance, promotion of international understanding, and international affairs. It is the first systematic national study of international nonprofits using descriptive statistics and data on charitable nonprofits obtained from the National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS) at the Urban Institute. Findings confirm the central role of international nonprofits in supporting foreign causes and distributing aid around the world. Government's increasing reliance on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to carry out foreign aid programs is also detailed.

Conducting child advocacy involves more than generating good ideas. Nonprofits that engage in advocacy need organizational structures, financial resources, good leadership, and active constituencies to carry out their work. This report examines organizational factors such as mission statements, leadership, and internal communication tools that contribute to policy advocacy. Based on extensive interviews and focus groups with child advocates in three states (Georgia, Massachusetts, and Washington), the study found six types of child advocacy organizations working to change state-level policies. These organizations had different structures, different perspectives on the policy process, and different ways to define "success" in the policy arena. Given this diversity, the report offers a series of lessons for child policy advocates, foundations, and the research community.

Democratic and Constitutional Perspectives on Nonprofit Advocacy is the third and final volume of papers from Seminars 9 and 10 of the Urban Institute's ten-part seminar series entitled "Nonprofit Advocacy and the Policy Process." The papers examine the constitutional and theoretical frameworks that underlie an interpretation of the laws that regulate nonprofits and shape our ideas about the role of groups in American democracy. In this volume, authors discuss the relationship between tax-exempt status and First Amendment rights, whether limitations on political speech constitute unconstitutional burdens on fundamental rights, and how the ideas of early democratic theorists influence our views of groups in democracy and civil society.

Exploring Organizations and Advocacy is the second volume of four reports on the "Nonprofit Advocacy and the Policy Process: A Seminar Series". This issue, Governance and Accountability, contains the complete text of five papers that were presented during the Winter/Spring 2001 series. They examine the internal operations of nonprofit organizations and how their mission, capacity, governance, and constituency shape their advocacy and their internal and public accountability. They also examine important aspects of nonprofit advocacy at the international level from a practitioner and legal perspective.

Exploring the Organizations and Advocacy, the Fall/Winter 2000–2001 series, examined the operations of nonprofit organizations and their interaction with the regulatory and policy environment, funding sources, and citizens. The papers presented during the three seminars that composed the Fall/Winter series, as well as summaries of the seminar proceedings, will be published in two separate issues: Issue 1, Strategies and Finances, and Issue 2, Governance and Accountability.

Structuring the Inquiry into Advocacy, the Spring/Summer 2000 series, introduced advocacy as a concept, highlighted the experiences of different kinds of advocacy organizations, identified structural gaps in current regulation, and examined how groups adapt political practices in the political system. Four papers were presented during the Spring/Summer 2000 series. This volume contains the complete text of each paper and three separate appendixes with summaries of related discussions. Each session brought together persons of diverse experiences and new perspectives around nonprofit advocacy issues. We hope that the themes discussed in this volume will lead toward a multidisciplinary framework for policy analysis and further research.

Return to list of authors