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Advance Your Mission With Advocacy. CommUnity Pueblo October 20, 2011. When you think about it, all nonprofits are in the advocacy business. Are we putting out hot spots, or preventing wildfires?. Advocacy is not exactly a new trend….
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Advance Your Mission With Advocacy CommUnity Pueblo October 20, 2011
When you think about it, all nonprofits are in the advocacy business
“Ultimately, all high-impact organizations bridge the divide between service and advocacy. They become good at both. And the more they serve and advocate, the more they achieve impact. “
“But I thought it was illegal for nonprofits to lobby…” There’s a subtle and important distinction between advocacy and lobbying. Lobbying is just one type of advocacy.
In fact, there are just a few things 501 (c)(3) organizations can’t do.
We absolutely can lobby Direct Lobbying: taking a position on a specific piece of legislation and working to persuade legislators (and their staff) to adopt your position. Grassroots Lobbying: taking a position on a specific piece of legislation and encouraging members of the general public to persuade legislators to adopt that position.
Ballot measure work is direct lobbying • Endorse or oppose a ballot measure • Propose ballot measures • Draft language for ballot measures • Organize volunteers or send staff to collect signatures on ballot petitions • Contribute money to ballot measure campaigns • Host ballot measure campaign events • Encourage people to vote for or against a ballot measure
How much lobbying can we do? For most of us, lobbying—both direct and grassroots—constitutes an “insubstantial part” of our organizations’ overall activities. Unfortunately, the IRS has never issued much guidance of what “insubstantial” means…and yet requires 501 (c)(3) organizations that lobby and do not file Form 5768 to report their lobbying activities in detail.
What the “h”? The IRS guidelines are much clearer about what the limits under the 501 (h) expenditure test. And, record-keeping and reporting are much easier. The amount you can spend depends on your budget; organizations with annual budgets up to $500,000 can spend up to $75,000 on direct lobbying and $25,000 on grassroots lobbying in any given year. There is no limit on lobbying conducted by volunteers.
