Education, advocacy, and lobbying represent a spectrum of typical activities done by groups that advocate for historic preservation. If you are involved in a preservation advocacy organization or campaign, it will be important for you to recognize the distinctions among the three activities.

A nonprofit organization's tax status — tax-exempt status (501c3 versus 501c4) determines whether the organization can engage in lobbying without tax penalties.

Education

Education is a natural extension of most nonprofit and advocacy work. Educators provide information to the general public, the press, and public officials without a request for action. Among preservationists, education often takes one of these forms:

• Walking tours
• Classes, workshops, or seminars
• Legislative briefs or fact sheets
• Books
• Web content
• On-site signage

Educational programs can also build a strong foundation for advocacy and lobbying activities. Education builds awareness among decision-makers and their constituents on a given subject or site. For nonprofit organizations, educational programs help identify members who might take part in future advocacy activities.

Advocacy

Advocacy involves taking action. Among preservationists, advocacy may involve:

• Arguing for landmark designation of a significant property
• Planning and executing a campaign to save a building 
• Requesting preservation-friendly public policies

Advocacy includes education, generally in the form of background briefs, histories of an issue or site, web content, relevant statistics, and postmortems on unsuccessful campaigns. This information should be short, to the point, and tailored to the issue at hand.

Lobbying

Lobbying — advocacy directed toward public officials — is a constitutional right.  The First Amendment protects every citizen's right to petition his or her elected officials. Lobbying requires the targeted education of elected officials, generally in the form of information briefs. These briefs are usually delivered at a meeting between a citizen or citizen-group and an elected official or his or her staff.

Citizens who lobby are often called grassroots lobbyists, who volunteer their time to reach out to government for no compensation. This distinguishes them from professionals who make money lobbying. A professional lobbyist is sometimes called a government relations professional because they often work for government relations firms. Some lobbyists are former one-time elected officials or individuals who have served as staff to one or more elected officials. Others are public relations professionals who specialize in government relations. Under certain circumstances, your preservation advocacy group may want to consider hiring a professional lobbyist.

Advocates can lobby any public officials who were voted into their jobs at the federal, state, or local level. These officials include members of Congress, state legislators, and local officials such as mayors, city or county council members, and school board commissioners. Grassroots lobbyists represent their legislator's constituency, because they are voters actively engaged in the legislative process.

If you or a member of your preservation group wishes to lobby an elected official, follow these lobbying tips. Members of your organization might be interested in the annual Historic Preservation Advocacy Week, when grassroots lobbyists from around the country converge on Washington, D.C., to support a common preservation agenda.

Learn More

Historic Preservation Advocacy Guide

Find more how-to articles about historic preservation advocacy.