Giving the Nonprofit Sector a Political Voice

Has fear of getting in trouble with the IRS kept nonprofits from participating in the political process in ways that would be legitimate?

An article in The Chronicle of Philanthropy (subscription required) suggests that may be the case. The National Council of Nonprofit Associations, in Washington, helped sponsor an attempt to get presidential candidates in New Hampshire on the record about their plans for the nonprofit sector.

The Nonprofit Primary Project tapped nonprofit leaders in New Hampshire to attend candidate forums and ask them how they would work with nonprofits if elected president.

The approach worked, getting Clinton, Obama, and Hucklebee to consider and express their attitudes toward nonprofits. All were supportive and thoughtful in their responses.

Didn't this cross that line between nonprofit and the political arena? The Nonprofit Primary Project took care to not show partisanship. The group also hired a nonprofit lawyer and public policy expert Ann McLane Kuster to set up guidelines for their speakers and the events that the group initially planned to set up that would keep them on the sunny side of the law. Those guidelines included:

• All candidates should receive an equal opportunity to present their views on questions that were prepared and presented in a nonpartisan manner.
• The moderator should not comment on the questions or imply approval or disapproval of the candidates' responses.
• Candidates should not be allowed to use campaign literature or display campaign signs during an event, and no political fund raising should take place.
• All communications should be unbiased and nonpartisan, including invitations, announcements, press releases, and statements.

In reality, the Nonprofit Primary Project found that candidates were not responsive to invitations to appear at Project-sponsored events. So the nonprofit leaders went to the candidates' events and asked their question about nonprofits. This was done respectfully and in a nonpartisan way.

Mary Ellen Jackson, one of the New Hampshire nonprofit leaders who participated in the project, said, "We never wore badges when doing our work, we never uttered a word of support for any candidate....We shaped this project around our educational goal."

The National Council of Nonprofit Associations is speaking out to urge nonprofits to take part in the political process and give a voice to nonprofit concerns.

Here are some resources that will help guide any group who takes up this charge:

• IRS guidelines on political activity by charities.
• A list of "permissible election activities" for charities prepared by the Alliance for Justice, an association of environmental, civil rights, and other advocacy groups.