[Peace-discuss] 501c3

[Robert Naiman]

501C3 organizations are barred from supporting or opposing political
candidates for office, directly or indirectly.

They are not barred from taking positions on issues, nor even from
advocating for or against legislation, including initiatives and
referenda. However, the latter (advocating for or against legislation)
is subject to restrictions on how much of the organization's
activities can be lobbying.

A 501C3 which has not filed IRS Form 5768 for whom lobbying is not a
"substantial" part of the organization's activities is ok. There isn't
an objective definition of what "substantial" is. I would guess that
hosting a billboard would count as not substantial if an organization
was not otherwise engaged in lobbying.
Selling space would not be lobbying, if the deal was fair market value
and available to all comers.

There is another scheme that organizations can elect to follow, which
is to spend no more than a certain percentage of budget on lobbying.
To follow this scheme the organization has to file IRS Form 5768. It's
a sliding scale, for an organization with a budget under $500,000
(which I assume is the case here :) ) the ceiling is 20% of budget on
"direct lobbying" and 5% of budget on grassroots lobbying. Note that
urging the general public to support or oppose a referendum is
considered direct lobbying, since in this case the public are the
legislative body.

Note that this is all tied to expenditure. For an organization which
has filed IRS Form 5768, volunteer time does not count.

See the very helpful web pages of the Center for Lobbying in the
Public Interest:
"Promoting, supporting and protecting nonprofit advocacy and lobbying."

http://clpi.org/index.html
http://clpi.org/lobby_law_hm.html
http://clpi.org/FAQ.html

On 6/29/06, John W. <jbw292002 at gmail.com> wrote:
> At 02:37 PM 6/29/2006, Bob Illyes wrote:
>
> >The IMC is prohibited from taking sides in elections as a part of its
> >tax-exempt status. The billboard will address the November election,
> >which would be out-of-bounds for the IMC. We could put up just an
> >anti-war billboard, but since this is directly tied to a November vote
> >this is really pushing the envelope. I'll ask at Steering next week,
> >but I think the answer will be "no", and I think the billboard folks
> >know this.
> >
> >What's the standard cost of a billboard?
> >
> >Bob
>
>
> For what it's worth, Bob, I think the IMC as a 501(c)(3) can take a
> position on "issues" but not on political candidates.  "Troops out of Iraq"
> is clearly an issue.  "Impeach Bush" is a close call.  It's not clear to me
> whether the fact that an "issue" is on a referendum ballot is relevant.
>
> John Wason
>
>
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-- 
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org