Although the Tax Reform Act of 1969 constrained foundations from direct lobbying, many philanthropists see influencing public policy and the allocation of  the government's enormous financial assets as the best way to leverage their own limited financial resources. The Ford Foundation and The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, for example, are among the pioneers that have made important marks on state and national policy in the last generation.
In 2002, the Council on Foundations established the Paul Ylvisaker Award for Public Policy Engagement to honor organizations that have excelled at influencing public agendas. Recent winners include:
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF), for its role in convening environmental organizations, community groups, industry representatives, and state and federal government officials to discuss brownfields (properties where reuse or redevelopment of the land is complicated by environmental contamination) issues in New York, ultimately helping to shape the state’s most significant environmental law in two decades. In 1998 and 1999, RBF’s Innovative Brownfields Program convened nearly 40 leaders of groups involved in issues related to the cleanup and reuse of environmentally contaminated properties called brownfields for the Roundtable for Consensus on Brownfields at the Fund’s Pocantico Conference Center. Spurred by the discussions, participants formed the Brownfields Coalition, which over the next five years mediated a consensus about cleanup and use of brownfieds that became the basis for the New York State Brownfields Law in 2003.
The Open Society Institute (OSI), for its body of communications and public policy work on drugs, reproductive rights, welfare reform, criminal justice, and civil rights. OSI, for example, was heavily involved in the McCain-Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002, and was one of the first supporters of needle exchange programs to address the spread of HIV among drug users.
And the Rosenberg Foundation, for its engagement in policy work related to immigrants and minority communities over the last 25 years. Since the 1980s, the Foundation has supported important policy work, such as organizing and public education efforts leading to the passage of the U.S. Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, and the legal battle to overturn California Proposition 187, which prohibited state education and health agencies from serving undocumented immigrants.
Alongside the activities of these funders, research and advocacy organizations are also working to analyze and share information about the many ways that funders can support advocacy and public policy interventions.
The USC Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy conducts research on philanthropy, public policy, and the nonprofit sector, and shares its findings with key decision-makers through forums, roundtables, and other convenings. As part of its 2002 conference, the USC Center produced a series of research papers on the intersection between philanthropy and policy that are summarized in the report, Foundations and Public Policymaking: Leveraging Philanthropic Dollars, Knowledge, and Networks.
The Alliance for Justice has been working since 1979 to strengthen public advocacy through its nonprofit and foundation advocacy programs. The Alliance’s Foundation Advocacy Initiative aims to educate grantmakers about their legal rights to support and be involved in public policy issues through a range of workshops, technical assistance, and plain-language guides.
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