Advocacy and Lobbying by Nonprofit Organisations: Mechanisms, Strategies, and Political Contexts

Advocacy and lobbying are central mechanisms through which nonprofit organisations shape public policy and governance. While lobbying involves structured engagement with policymakers through information, expertise, and access, advocacy encompasses broader strategies of public mobilisation, discourse framing, and coalition-building. This article analyses how nonprofits navigate direct and indirect advocacy across diverse political regimes and legal frameworks. It highlights how democratic, hybrid, and authoritarian contexts shape opportunities and constraints, requiring adaptive strategies from quiet diplomacy to digital activism and transnational campaigning. Digital tools and coalitions amplify influence but also create vulnerabilities such as surveillance and inequality among partners. The discussion underscores that advocacy is both a vehicle of democratic participation and a site of power contestation. For practitioners, the analysis offers guidance on integrating insider and outsider tactics; for scholars, it advances understanding of nonprofit influence as an interplay between power, legitimacy, and context.