Social Work Commons^™

The availability and accessibility of all kinds of data are changing the landscape of funding, service delivery, and program planning in the human services. For human service organizations to succeed in a quickly changing data landscape, new skills will be required of leaders as well as line staff. This commentary describes the information ecosystem, skills, and training needs of those wishing to thrive in this new world and closes with questions to consider for faculty, students, and administrators in the human services sector.

This article explores the effect of organizational culture on engagement with advocacy activities, both traditional and electronic. The Competing Values Framework offers a model for understanding how organizations’ culture influences behavior. Using a sample of nonprofit providers from across the country, the author hypothesized that organizations that use electronic advocacy tools are more involved with advocacy activities of all types. A paper and pencil survey was used to collect data on organizational culture, advocacy tools and techniques, perceived effectiveness of the advocacy tools, policy goals, organizational sustainability goals as well as barriers and facilitators of electronic advocacy. The study used …