“Nonprofit leaders perceive lobbying, as it is currently practiced and understood, as corrupt conduct that exerts undue influence to the detriment of fair, impartial, and effective policymaking. The popular imagination associates lobbying with dodgy deals in smoke-filled back rooms,” said Alberto Alemanno for Stanford Social Innovation Review.
“But lobbying can actually be an antidote to such secret bargaining. A right that democracies guarantee, lobbying is about providing ideas and sharing concerns with policy makers to make them—and the whole policy process—more responsive. It enables society to tackle the root causes of the major challenges facing us, not their symptoms. In fact, lobbying is one of the most effective ways to enact political, economic, and social change.”