Navigating a Path: Advocacy Strategies of a Migratory Bird NGO

To achieve their goals, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) frequently interact with public and private stakeholders. Interactions can be either collaborative or confrontational, and each approach has advantages and disadvantages. A collaborative approach may lead to opportunities to share data and access funding; however an NGO may risk their goals becoming compromised. Similarly, a confrontational approach can draw attention to NGO causes and effect change, but at the same time limit opportunities for partnership. This paper considers how a NGO concerned with preventing bird-window collisions has balanced between collaboration and confrontation with municipal government and commercial properties. While the approach of this NGO has been largely collaborative, their experience also demonstrates that confrontational approaches, while less frequent, also have a role in attaining objectives.