Strategic Review Report: Program Priorities 2023-2025
by Max Bell Foundation
This report presents the results of our most recent program priority update. It’s based on interviews with 36 people employed in either professional public services across Canada or in civil society organizations that focused on the most pressing public policy issues that matter most to Canada and to Canadians. It includes the method to develop this report and the general trends inferred from the interviews, and outlines specific policy issues in Environment, Health and Wellness, Education, and Democracy.
The Advocacy Strategy Framework (2015)
by Julia Coffman and Tanya Beer
This brief offers a simple one-page tool for thinking about the theories of change that underlie public policy advocacy strategies. It presents the tool and offers six questions that advocates, and funders working with advocates, can work through to better articulate their theories of change.
Five Good Ideas to influence public policy (2022)
By Matthew Mendelsohn
In this Five Good Ideas session, Matthew Mendelsohn, a public policy entrepreneur, researcher, strategic advisor and public sector executive, provides an overview of lessons he has learned during his time in government, advocacy, consulting and policy think tanks on the best ways to influence the decisions governments make.
Method Matters: How To Avoid Common Policy Traps (2011)
By Elizabeth Mulholland
This article looks at what we mean by good policy, some pitfalls that commonly interfere with the development of good policy by nonprofit organizations, and methods that can help organizations to minimize or avoid these pitfalls altogether. These observations are drawn from 20 years of experience working with voluntary organizations on policy—as a voluntary sector policy advocate, as a government official working with advocates, and as a consultant supporting voluntary sector policy efforts.
Intersections and Innovations: Change for Canada's Voluntary and Nonprofit Sector (2021)
Susan D. Phillips and Bob Wyatt (Eds)
This collection is the first comprehensive “book” focused on Canadian charities and nonprofits. It provides an evidence-based analysis of the institutions and operations of Canada’s nonprofit and philanthropic sector, identifying strengths and issues for professionals, policy-makers, and students to deepen their knowledge, inform their work, and provoke new conversations. Drawing on both theory and practice, it identifies some of the risks and opportunities that lie ahead and options for addressing them.