Advocacy is a marathon, not a sprint

It feels just like yesterday I was sitting at the dinner table over the holidays, discussing with my friends whether a 2025 Ontario snap election was actually going to happen. Then in the blink of an eye, the snap election came and went. We have the same Ontario government, with a new mandate, and a refreshed cabinet. 

As I reflect on my election advocacy work this year, the biggest takeaway is that when advocacy happens throughout the year, and by all levels of staff at an organization, it won’t feel like a new, seemingly large initiative to take on during an election. 

This snap election served as a great example – despite it being an unexpected election with a compressed timeline, we were prepared because advocacy is core to ONN’s day to day work. By advocating on a regular basis, we are better prepared for advocating during an election year and engaging in power building through collective advocacy. 

Building my skills as a new policy analyst at ONN.

One of the first projects I worked on at ONN was preparing for the 2022 Ontario general election. At the time, election advocacy was completely new to me, and, frankly, I was very nervous about it. However, by the time I was sitting in my third or fourth candidate meeting, I began to feel more confident and comfortable because I had attended multiple government meetings, both for the election and for our general advocacy work. 

What helped was, despite the fact I was junior staff or new to the organization, I was given the opportunity to continuously build my advocacy skills throughout the year. Organizations can better their advocacy strategies and effectiveness when staff of all levels have the chance to develop, practice, and improve their advocacy skills. 

Why it is important to advocate throughout the year.

Whether it is a snap election or general election, federal, provincial, or municipal election, in order to drive public policy that reflects the needs of our sector and the communities we serve, we must engage in advocacy throughout the year, and not just sporadically during an election. Influencing public policy takes time and commitment, it is a marathon, not a sprint. It could take decades of persistent work before we see significant changes or it might be the right time, right place, right people, and right idea to seize a policy window. 

We can’t wait for 2029 to begin advocacy for the next Ontario election. We need to advocate now, especially as the 2025 election is fresh in our minds and we remember all the coulda-shoulda-wouldas.

Here are some more reasons why we need to advocate throughout the year:

• It takes time to build relationships. Public policy change and advocacy rely on relationships. Whether it is relationships with elected officials, public servants, or allies, it takes time to build trust and nurture these relationships. For example, this election we saw some nonprofits quickly mobilize their network, where coalitions of organizations organized candidate debates, launched advocacy campaigns, or participated in meetings with candidates. This did not happen overnight, but rather, these organizations had been powerbuilding way before the election. 
• It takes time to craft and perfect your policy asks. It takes some trial and error to make sure policy asks are clear and resonate with decision-makers and policy-makers. It also takes time to socialize the asks and build momentum for them, whether within your core networks or more broadly with external folks.
• So much can happen between elections. Policy makers don’t stop making new public policies after the election. In fact, after a new government is elected and the legislature returns, new public policies are constantly being proposed, passed, or consulted on, and old ones are being amended, which can impact our work and the communities we serve. We can’t afford to wait until the next election to advocate; changes happen all the time, not just during election season.
• Advocating on a regular basis gives you an opportunity to try out different strategies and tactics. There are various ways to approach policy and advocacy work, and it takes time to figure out which strategy and tactic works the best for your organization and team. Usually, it takes the right combination of tactics and activities to make a difference, and the combination might evolve with time. For example, what is needed to get an issue on the agenda might be different than what is needed to influence the implementation of a specific policy. Advocating on a regular basis allows you to test out different strategies, make adjustments, and figure out what works. Remember, advocacy is a non-linear process!

Here are some actions you can take to ensure advocacy is part of your work and not done on an ad hoc basis:

1. Make advocacy part of your strategic plan. When revisiting or crafting a new strategic plan, make sure advocacy is embedded in it. It might be a pillar, activity, an intended outcome, or a way to reach intended outcomes. What gets put in the strategic plan becomes everyone’s responsibility, connects back to the organization’s mission, and more importantly gets resourced. 
2. Engage in the policy cycle. Engaging in the regular policy cycle means: sending congratulatory letters to new cabinet ministers and requesting a meeting, participating in pre-budget consultations, consulting on government legislation and regulations related to issues your organization cares about, meeting with government officials as announcements and policy ideas are circulated that are connected to your organization’s work, and proactively sharing policy proposals that connect to the mandate of the current government.
3. Continuously build public policy and advocacy capacity within your team. Leadership can set aside a budget for professional development specifically focused on public policy and advocacy skills. Many universities and colleges have short courses. There are also nonprofits that offer training programs with a focus on policy and advocacy.
4. Funders must support advocacy. Funders can either facilitate or hinder nonprofits’ engagement in public policy advocacy, the biggest factor being whether or not the funder supports advocacy. Support might be tangible like funding advocacy portfolios, or intangible such as doing advocacy themselves or amplifying advocacy work of nonprofits and charities.

Nonprofits, as well as the communities we serve, are facing unprecedented challenges. The work ahead requires imagination, tenacity, and persistence. In this marathon to drive systems change, nonprofits need to advocate and we need to advocate together. So, are you ready to join?