Increasingly, foundations are choosing to engage in public policy debates as a way of leveraging their investments and increasing their impact in advancing improvements community-wide, statewide or nationally. For foundations, influencing public policy decisions can happen in different ways: funding policy research and dissemination, building public will, supporting advocacy and educating lawmakers about key policy issues. For its 2005 Education Grantmakers Institute, Grantmakers for Education organized "Foundation Strategies for Influencing Education Policy." The 2005 institute was organized in collaboration with the Communications Network and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Held every two years on a university campus, GFE's institute is designed as a one-of-a-kind learning opportunity for funders to sharpen their practice in an intimate learning environment. It features leading-edge thinking from academia and the field, case study analyses, action planning and peer-to-peer discussions. This paper is divided into five parts including: (1) Why Engage in Policy Change?; (2) Tools and Skills for Education Advocacy; (3) Philanthropy and the Political Process; and (4) Planning and Evaluating Policy Initiatives. [This paper was written with the assistance with Anne Mackinnon.]