Almost every aspect of a nonprofit's work is touched by public policy in some way. And sometimes we come to the realization that the way to achieve a particular goal or to solve a particular problem is that we need a new or different public policy around that. 

But here's the thing. The landscape is littered with well-intentioned policy that did not succeed at doing what it was intended to do. Because the language was not crafted in such a way as to generate the desired result. Sometimes that's because the policy is a product of so many cooks in the kitchen and so much compromise that the final [00:01:00] product is unrecognizable relative to the original idea that was behind it. And sometimes it's because the policymakers didn't have enough clarity about how the thing would work on the ground. 

You don't want any of that. You want policy that will actually do what you need it to do. Getting there takes a lot of things from you as an advocate. And the theme of it all is, the devil is in the details.

In this week’s episode, the first of a 2-part series, we take you through the complete process of preparing a policy proposal that will have everything you need to achieve the results you want. 

In this episode, we share:

• The top two reasons many advocate-led policy initiatives wind up yielding disappointing results
• The three sets of policy you need to have on your radar to make sure you get your desired results
• How to triage and prioritize the problems you’re trying to solve through policy change
• The four most important questions to answer as you develop your policy proposal
• Which key details your proposed policy actually needs to contain 
• The most common blind spot that causes nonprofit leaders to miss critical policy details
• The essential skill you need to craft successful public policy, and how to build or increase that skill 

If you found value in this episode, please share it with other progressive nonprofit leaders.  And I’d be grateful if you would leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts, which will help even more people find out about this podcast.

Thanks!