How does lobbying differ from advocacy?
In the regulations for Title VII of the Rehab Act, advocacy is defined as “pleading an individual’s cause or speaking or writing in support of an individual. . . . Advocacy may be on behalf of a single individual . . . a group or class of individuals . . . or oneself.” Note that in this context, “pleading” is a legal term meaning “a formal statement setting forth the defense of a case” (Random House Dictionary). Advocacy, then, is action taken to convince others of the rightness of your cause and of their need to join you in supporting this cause. Lobbying is a subset of advocacy in that it is a set of activities that plead a cause and set forth the defense of a case in order to influence the voting of legislators. In other words, lobbying is advocacy with a very narrow and specific focus–to convince legislators to vote as you wish them to on specific legislative proposals. Thus, the use of the word “advocacy” does not change the nature of what is or is not permitted as a lobbying act
