Promoting data-driven research and broad-based, non-partisan advocacy

2023, 88th Legislative Session

Throughout 2022, our members have met and developed the 2023 policy priorities, which serve as a signal of where we will prioritize our expertise and capacity to harness the power of philanthropy for systems change through state policy up to and through the next legislative session.

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2021, 87th Legislative Session

Philanthropy Advocates empowers Texas' philanthropic community to invest and engage in public and higher education policy and advocacy. We work to protect, promote, and improve public and higher education so that all Texas students can achieve their educational goals from cradle to career.

Each biennium, we raise pooled funds from our members for our policy work groups that support our research and advocacy efforts leading up to and through each legislative session. The policy recommendations and related advocacy campaigns are the culmination of all of the time, effort and monetary investments of our members over the interim.

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2019, 86th Legislative Session

In 2018-2019, Philanthropy Advocates commissioned, conducted, and shared research on four policy priorities to the Texas Legislature for the 2019 Texas Legislative Session: Early Grade Success, College & Career Pathways, Effective Teaching and School Finance. 

We are particularly proud of our members and partners for their dedicated advocacy leading up to and through the 2019 legislative session. The Texas Legislature passed an historic piece of legislation, “House Bill 3”, that increased Texas school finance funding and made meaningful reforms that will lead to increased student and teacher success. Each of our four policy work groups saw the issues we researched and advocated on reflected in “House Bill 3”.

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2017, 85th Legislative Session

2015, 84th Legislative Session

In 2014, Philanthropy Advocates produced three research reports addressing some of the state’s most pressing and important educational debates. Together with our advocacy partners, we took what we learned from the research to policymakers to help inform policy decisions at the state level. Two of Philanthropy Advocates' four policy priority areas - expansion of quality pre-kindergarten and counselor capacity/implementation of “House Bill 5” - dominated discussions around education policy during the legislative session. The work of the policy work groups on these issues proved to be critical in providing objective data for use by legislators and their staff as they drafted and debated policies on these and other crucial education issues.

Archived Research & Advocacy

Since 2012, Philanthropy Advocates has commissioned timely, relevant research to provide credible, reliable information to Texas legislators, their staff and other advocates and partners.

View our Archived Research & Advocacy pages to view our work to date.