About the Center

Our trainings and tools, including a publicly available curriculum, have been honed over two decades by two organizations, the Institute for Sustainable Communities and the Advocacy Institute, which merged in 2006.

The Center now offers the Advocacy Institute's pioneering advocacy training and expertise as well as ISC's groundbreaking approach to establishing advocacy as a critical tool for encouraging citizen participation.

Pioneering Advocacy Training

Founded in 1985 by former Federal Trade Commission Chairman Michael Pertschuk and former Common Cause President David Cohen, the Advocacy Institute helped social justice leaders in the U.S. and abroad work more effectively for change by building advocacy skills, creating network with other activists, and one-on-one coaching.

The Institute worked with leaders from more than 2,500 nonprofits and NGOs in more than 60 countries, in countries including South Africa, Palestine, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Macedonia, Ukraine, and the former Soviet Union. The Institute was a powerful force in building and sustaining the tobacco control movement within the United States and abroad, and more recently its domestic work included stewardship of the Ford Foundation's flagship Leadership for a Changing World awards program. The Advocacy Institute was absorbed by ISC in 2006.

Groundbreaking Nationwide Advocacy

ISC is an independent nonprofit that gives passionate, committed people the tools, skills, and resources they need to make their communities better places in which to live. Our nationwide advocacy and capacity building projects have strengthened the nonprofit sectors in Bulgaria, Hungary, Macedonia, Poland, Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine.

Our work has empowered nonprofits to play leadership roles in society by enhancing their ability to effectively advocate for their constituents; address policy and regulatory reform and legislation development; increase their financial viability through diversification of donors and fundraising strategies; improve their public image; and work to higher standards of professionalism and ethics. Since our founding in 1991 by former Vermont Governor Madeleine M. Kunin, ISC has managed 67 programs in 18 countries, including the United States.