從問題界定的觀點，政策議題的形成有二大觀點，「自然演化說」（evolution）與「社會建構說」（social construction）。自然演化論者認為，當社會進化到某一個階段，隨著環境條件的演變，會引發某些集體需求和公共問題，政策問題就會自然浮現，成為政府採取行動解決的標的；社會建構論者指出，政策問題不是自然發生的，而是人為建構的產物，不同的行動者依據其價值理念與利益需求而創造問題，遊說政府採取必要的行動。後者的主張在議程設定研究中較受到支持，因為多數的行動者相信他們在議程設定過程中可以採取行動， 進而創造問題的「意象」（images）和倡議解決方案，以影響政府的決策。無論如何，由於非營利組織在近年來在政治過程已經成為重要的參與者，分析他們在公共政策上的作為是十分具有價值的。 有關非營利組織政策倡議的研究大多是理論層次的討論居多，較少針對非營利組織本身的議程設定過程及其倡議策略進行實務層面的檢視。因之，本研究乃採取深度訪談的方法，訪問非營利組織的執行長或資深幹部，將分析焦點置於非營利組織的議題形成過程及其對外的倡議策略。透過本研究的分析結果發現，非營利組織的議題來源、議題形成、及倡議策略等相當地多元，不同的策略在各個政策領域中各有其效果，不過，不少受訪者認為在政策制定過程中，以民選政治人物和民意代表為遊說對象的倡議策略，是相當有效的作法。

Based on problem definition perspectives, there have two kinds of arguments about the framing of policy issues: evolution and social construction. The evolutionists argue that, social problems are the product of social development and environment change. Therefore, the problem will be dealt with by government while it was natural matured. On the other hand, social constructionists think social problems are rarely self-evidencely problems as such. Most policy actors have to define the reality of problems according their ideas and interests and convince the government to adopt action for it. The latter are more popular in agenda setting because of most actors believe that they can create image of problem and advocacy solutions in the process of agenda setting. However, due to nonprofit organizations becoming an important player and participant in the public policy and political processes, it is valuable to analyze what they do and how they do it. There has been much theoretical discussion about nonprofit organization advocacy. But only a few empirical studies explored the process of agenda setting and the different strategies of advocacy they taken in practice. In this article, we have tried to provide a more precise portrait of the formulation of issues within nonprofit organizations and advocacy activities in which they participate. We conducted in-depth interviews with chief of executive or senior directors in organizations to obtain more detailed information on their activities regarding the processes of agenda setting and the strategies of organization’s policy advocacy. Analysis of the findings indicates that there have various types of agenda setting and a lot of strategies of policy advocacy in nonprofit organizations. Although the effectiveness of strategies used to influence government and public also depended on different field. But on formulating public policy, many respondents believe that it was seemed to be the most effective to exert pressure on elected political leaders or congressmen in most cases.