State education finance sets the stage for what is possible in schools. Too many state education finance systems today are inequitable, outdated, and inadequate, and there are often significant political barriers to change. Advocates for educational equity can and should play an essential role in shaping the allocation and structure of state funding for pre-K through grade 12 public schools. For this report, the authors interviewed advocacy leaders in six states -- California, Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, and Nevada -- to learn more about the conditions that enabled and influenced big changes in their education finance systems. Leaders reflected on their policy wins and losses and offered advice to other advocates interested in pushing for funding reform. These conversations revealed five common conditions that emerged in different ways across states and paved the way for state policy changes. In order of frequency, they were: (1) Coalitions; (2) Champions; (3) Research; (4) Economics; and (5) Lawsuits. This playbook is about the contexts and conditions that facilitated those changes.