Resources for Advocacy

It’s more important than ever for nonprofits to be at the table for informed, thoughtful discourse about Maine’s future. MANP provides a variety of training and resources to help nonprofit staff and volunteers to advocate and lobby effectively and legally on issues that advance their mission work.

Training + Information

• MANP's Raise Your Voice toolkit provides an introduction to the rules related to nonprofit advocacy.
• Find an extensive collection of searchable, curated resources available to anyone. (In particular, we recommend the resources of Bolder Advocacy, Nonprofit Vote, and Stand for Your Mission.)
• Our webinar library provides our members exclusive access to on-demand content on Advocacy 101, Nonprofits + Election Season, Advocating through the Media, and more!
• On our blog you can find updates related to current policy issues we're following.

Contacting Policymakers

• Office of the Governor
• Maine Congressional Delegation
  • Representative Jared Golden
  • Representative Chellie Pingree
  • Senator Susan Collins
  • Senator Angus King
• Maine State Legislature
  • Find Your State Representative
  • Find Your State Senator
  • Senators + Representatives listed by Joint Standing Committee
• State Agencies

Navigating Maine's Legislative Process

Explore these hidden gems on the State’s website regarding legislative processes:

• How a bill becomes a law
• Legislative process

Follow the status of bills and committee work from the State’s website.

• Look up a bill
• View public hearing and work session schedules

Nonprofit Communications Guide

Trust in nonprofits is being undermined by leaders at the highest levels of our government, threatening the critical work that nonprofits do in communities across the country. This guide, developed by the National Council of Nonprofits, is intended to help our community tell the value story of the nonprofit community, before it is defined by others. 

Get the Communications Guide

Maine State Budget Primer

Maine’s state government allocates over $13 billion each year from state and federal sources.
Managing this money is a principal responsibility of Maine’s Governor and Legislature. The state 
budget is the document that outlines how that money will be collected and spent.

This primer, produced by Maine Development Foundation, explains the process by which the Governor and Legislature create the budget, and its various categories of revenue and spending. 

Except where noted, the budget statistics presented in this primer are from OFPR’s report of Total Appropriations & Allocations: All Funds, 2026-2027 Biennium released in August 2025 and the Revenue Forecasting Committee’s December 2025 Revenue Forecast.

Get the Budget Primer

Nonprofit and Funder Voter Engagement Guide

Nonprofits and foundations are uniquely positioned to support and enhance democratic participation through nonpartisan voter engagement activities. By encouraging and facilitating voter participation, we can help ensure policy decisions shaping our state are reflective of the will of all its residents.

To help you get started, MANP and Maine Philanthropy Center partnered with Nonprofit VOTE to develop this comprehensive guide with why and how to get involved. We invite you to explore this toolkit and consider actions you can take, whether it's just by sharing information about online voter registration in your next newsletter, or taking a deeper dive.

Get the Voter Engagement Guide

Framing Your Issues

Nonprofits are essential to making Maine a great place to live, work, and visit and together we can can ensure that civic dialogue about Maine’s most pressing issues reflects the vital role that nonprofits play in our state.

MANP created Frames That Work: A Messaging Toolkit for Nonprofits to help Maine nonprofit staff and volunteers:

• understand what messages are effective in improving public understanding of the key role that nonprofits play in Maine’s economy and quality of life, and
• frame messages about their organizations within the broader context of the sector’s value and impact.

The toolkit includes an introduction to the social science of framing, responses to FAQs about Maine's nonprofits, samples/templates for Letters to the Editor, op-eds, social media posts, blog posts, and tips for engaging with legislators. 

Get the Frames That Work Toolkit

In addition to this Maine-specific toolkit, we highly recommend the many resources produced by FrameWorks Institute, which studies how people understand social issues in order to help changemakers develop effective communications.