Assessing the influence of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender groups on policy is difficult due to imprecise measures. This research note introduces a novel state-level assessment tool.
Problem: Existing metrics fail adequately to capture advocacy strength and activity.
Solution: We utilize revenue and asset data from the National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS).
Our measure provides better, reproducible annual estimates of LGBT group resources across states. By comparing it with current benchmarks, we demonstrate its effectiveness in tracking these groups' influence over time.
This approach offers broader applicability to other subnational interest groups and issue areas.
