On this episode, our third in our 2022 Election series, we thought we’d look at how nonprofits can further democracy through candidate debates. Since the pandemic, we’ve seen organizations get seriously creative in using technology to engage and keep us safe and socially distanced. If you’re a long-time listener, you might recall that we also hosted an episode on Candidate Debates in 2020, back when we launched during the shutdown.  

Link: 

Attorneys for this episode 

Leslie Barnes, Tim Mooney, Quyen Tu 

Shownotes 

• Public charities can convene candidate debates and forums 
• The safe harbor for (c)(3)s hosting candidate debates 

• Narrowing invitees based on nonpartisan criteria 
• Publicize widely and invite public 

• Neutral moderator 
• Questions: broad and wide-ranging topics 
• Equal treatment of each candidate 
• No pledges 
• Best practices  

• Hosting a debate watch party and commenting on debates 
• Fact checking is ok, supporting/opposing candidates is not 

• Forums 

• Facts & Circumstances analysis 
• Federal university rule 

• Candidate meet and greets 

Resources 

• Hosting Candidate Debates: Public Charities Can Educate the Community Through Candidate Debates  
• Commenting on Candidates and Campaigns: How 501(c)(3)s Can Respond During an Election Year  
• Responding During Election Season and Debates  
• Sample 501(c)(3) Organizational Policy for Election Season  
• Rev. Rul. 2007-41 

On this special edition of the podcast, we respond to the release of the draft decision that suggests the Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, removing the federal constitutional protection to choose an abortion. While Roe and the fundamental right to reproductive autonomy remains as we speak, nonprofits across the country are poised to act, should this draft become reality. Today we’ll cover just some of the things you and your organization can do. 

 

Our Attorneys for this Episode 

• Leslie Barnes
• Tim Mooney
• Quyen Tu 

Resources 

Reproductive Rights, Health, and Justice Resource Guide 

5 Ways Nonprofits Can Respond to Dobbs v. JWHO 

 

Quick Overview 

• The Dobbs opinion is only a draft – it is not law now. Roe is. 
• People who seek an abortion now have a fundamental constitutional right to those medical services 
• That said, should this draft become the majority opinion, Roe will be overturned ending federal protections, returning the question to the states 
• Many states have ghost bans on the books, others have trigger laws that will end abortion rights when Roe is overturned (or the decision is issued). Other states have constitutional or other legal protections for the right to reproductive autonomy. 
• It’s likely that state courts and legislatures will become a major focus 
• There are efforts to legalize abortion and ban it nationally in Congress. 
• Some states are looking to do much more than ban abortion. The draft is breathtaking in its scope, putting marriage equality, the right to contraception, and much more at risk of losing protection under the US Constitution. 

 

What nonprofits can do 

• Organize and protest 
• Provide services to people seeking reproductive healthcare 
• Lobby Congress to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act 
• Lobby your state legislature to protect the right to choose 
• Consider ballot measure options 
• Accountability advocacy 
• Support litigation to block bans 
• Elections – 501(c)(4)s can make this an issue in their support/opposition of candidates  
• Nonpartisan voter education – 501(c)(3)s need to tread carefully as we get closer to primaries and the general election. Reproductive health advocacy can continue, but be mindful that it cannot look like support or opposition to candidates or parties 
• Individuals – you have more flexibility in what you can do. Protesting, organizing, donating, volunteering, voting for the candidates of your choice and more. 

 

Bolder Advocacy is here to help your organization in its efforts. 

Contact us: 866-NP-LOBBY or [email protected] 

On this episode we’ll continue our election series and answer the question: “Now that you’ve registered your community members to vote, how can you convince them to turn out at the polls?” Today, we’ll dissect tax code rules for 501(c)(3)s and 501(c)(4)s so that you can confidently hit the streets and get out that vote (GOTV).

Our Attorneys for this Episode 

• Tim Mooney  
• Natalie Ossenfort   
• Quyen Tu 

 

Show Notes 

• Why do GOTV? Nonprofits can strengthen our democracy and racial equality by encouraging their communities to go vote.  
• GOTV for 501(c)(3)s 

• Must be nonpartisan 
• Can be targeted 

• Okay to express a broad range of issues 
• Avoid mixing issue advocacy with GOTV 

• GOTV for 501(c)(4)s 

• Nonpartisan GOTV is pretty common. This counts as primary purpose activity. 
• Partisan GOTV is allowed but is limited to overall secondary activity. 

• If you use express advocacy, your GOTV might be an independent expenditure and reportable to state or federal agencies. 

• If not, some states regulate partisan activity without express advocacy. 

• GOTV doesn’t have to be hard or take a lot of resources. Every nonprofit should do it. 

 

 

Resources 

• The Rules of the Game: A Guide to Election-Related Activities for 501(c)(3) Organizations  
• Election Checklist for 501(c)(3)s: Ensuring Election Year Advocacy Efforts Remain Nonpartisan 
• Nonprofits Get Out the Vote: Strategies and Messaging (Nonprofit Vote presentation, 2018) 
• America’s Nonprofits Get Out the Vote” report 

On this episode, we’ll start taking a closer look at one activity that your organization may be interested in engaging in during this midterm election season: voter registration! Since voter registration activities take place in an election context, you’ll want to be thinking about multiple areas of the law when designing and implementing voter registration campaigns and drives. That’s why we’ll spend this episode talking about what you need to consider when it comes to nonprofit tax law, federal election law, and of course… state law.

 

Our attorneys for this episode 

Leslie Barnes 

Tim Mooney

Natalie Ossenfort 

 

Tax Law 

• 501(c)(3) Public Charities: Must keep voter registration activities nonpartisan
• Activities designed to encourage voting by all those eligible
• Targeting must be for neutral nonpartisan reason
• Offer services to everyone
• Be careful when tying issue advocacy to voter registration

 

Federal Election Law

• FEC regulations prohibit coordination of VR activities with candidates and parties (no candidate contributions by corporations)
• Post-Citizens United, independent expenditures as voter registration and partisan targeting are legal for (c)(4)s – not (c)(3)s.
• No payments or anything of value (even pizza) to people in exchange for registering to vote

 

State Laws

• Many states permit use of state and federal voter registration form (National Mail Voter Registration Form)
• Texas: Only Volunteer Deputy Registrars can register voters
  • These individuals must meet certain eligibility requirements
  • Must be trained by the county in which they conduct VR activities
  • Rules related to assisting applicants, etc.
• Recent trend in some states to make it harder to assist voter registration - Florida passed limits on nonprofits engaging in voter registration, but a federal district court recently blocked the law (NBC News)

 

Foundations

• Public and private foundations can support (c)(3) grantees that engage in voter registration drives
• Rules prohibit private foundations earmarking grants for nonprofits working on voter registration drives in less than 5 states and in a single election cycle
• Grantees need to meet the detailed requirements of 26 CFR 4945(f)

 

Voter Mobilization, Voter Protection, Candidate Engagement – coming up on other episodes

 

Resources

• Want to Conduct or Fund a Voter Registration Drive?
• The Rules of the Game: A Guide to Election-Related Activities for 501(c)(3) Organizations
• Voter Registration Rules for Private Foundations

 

As the world absorbs the news out of Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan, Myanmar, & the world over, we wanted to devote this episode to the actions nonprofits can take to support international relief efforts and international advocacy. This episode is for foundations and nonprofits working domestically and abroad to deliver equitable relief and advocacy. 

It’s our 50th episode! Thanks for listening and keep sharing with your colleagues that might be interested in what we do around here. 

• Lobbying definitions include international bodies 

• International advocacy that doesn’t (usually) count 
• International lobbying registration and solicitation registration may be necessary 
• Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) 

 

Resources 

• International Advocacy: What Nonprofits Need to Know - Alliance for Justice 
• Responding to the Ukraine Crisis: What Nonprofits and Foundations Need to Know 
• International Center for Not-for-Profit Law 

 

On this episode, we continue our ongoing series on advocacy in action turning to efforts to increase diversity in the federal courts and beyond. With the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings beginning this week on the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to become the next Justice of the Supreme Court, we spoke with two experienced and accomplished attorneys who speak to the importance of the nomination and what that means for Black women, the judiciary, and efforts like Alliance for Justice’s Building the Bench program. 

Attorneys for this episode 

Kimberly Humphrey  Natalie Ossenfort  Tim Mooney 

Shownotes 

• Introducing Kimberly Humphrey 
• Why this topic is important and timely and a brief intro to our Building the bench efforts 
• Introducing our guests 
• Thoughts on lack of representation in the legal profession 
  • The landscape 
  • The courts specifically 
• Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination 
• AFJ/Building the Bench 
• Other efforts 
• Concluding thoughts 
• Links to full interviews 
  • Kisha Brown 
  • Jocelyn Cuttino 

 Resources 

• Jocelyn Cuttino on LinkedIn 
• Kisha Brown on Justis Connection 
• AFJ’s Building the Bench 
• Ketanji Brown Jackson nomination resources 

On this episode, we’ll tackle a question we receive regularly: What can we do to raise funds for our 501(c)(4)? 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations are tax exempt, but they do not receive tax deductible contributions. While this may sometimes seem like a barrier to fundraising, we come to you today bearing excellent news. There are several ways to effectively secure funding for 501(c)(4) activities.  

Our Attorneys for this Episode  

Natalie Ossenfort Tim Mooney   

 

Show Notes 

• Refresher on social welfare organizations 
• Several sources of funding for 501(c)(4)s 
  • Individuals 
  • Community Foundations and other Public Charities 
  • Private Foundations (must use expenditure responsibility otherwise it’s a taxable expenditure) 
    • A pre-grant inquiry 
    • A written grant agreement specifying the purpose of the grant and including certain terms 
    • Reports from the Grantee
    • Report the grant on the grantor’s 990-PF 

Resources  

Investing in Change: A Funder’s Guide to Supporting Advocacy  

How to Fund a 501(c)(4): What nonprofits and foundations need to know  

On this episode, we once again turn to your questions on nonprofit advocacy with another edition of Ask Us Anything. We’ll cover topics like litigation, lobbying grants, state PACs connected to (c)(3)s and more! 

Attorneys for this Podcast 

Natalie Ossenfort 

Leslie Barnes 

Tim Mooney 

 

Questions 

You often mention litigation as something nonprofits can do. What are some examples? 

Someone sent us an email asking us for our last two 990s. Can we just direct them to the IRS site? The one we just filed isn’t up there yet – is it ok for us to tell the person they’ll have to wait til it processes? 

Can we make a lobbying grant from a c3 to a c4 before we file before we file our 2021 Form 990 this May and have it count as a 2021 expenditure? 

We spoke with lawyers who were concerned about us forming a state PAC connected to our c3. The PAC will exclusively work on an upcoming statewide ballot question. They think we need to form a c4 or the c3 could risk its tax status. Is that right? 

We want to purchase cable tv ads telling people to contact both our Senators to support President Biden’s nominee for the Supreme Court. The thing is, our primaries are really early, and one Senator has a challenger. We’d like to do this out of our c3 but aren’t sure if that’s ok... 

Our executive director is running for school board. Can our c3 staff volunteer for the campaign? What are best practices for staff running for office? 

Resources 

Maximize Your Advocacy 

Give Me Your 990! 

8 Tips for Nonprofits with Employees Running for Public Office 

On this episode, we’re taking a deep dive into election season advocacy rules. While you already know from previous episodes that 501(c)(3) public charities are not allowed to support or oppose candidates for public office, you may not know how the tax code defines a “candidate” and which public offices could trigger tax code electioneering rules.  

  

Our Attorneys for this Episode   

Leslie Barnes   Jen Powis  Quyen Tu 

 

Show Notes 

• Who is a candidate? 

• What is a public office? 

• Holding elected officials accountable doesn’t always have to end when they “declare candidacy” 
• Who is NOT a candidate? 

 

Resources 

• Rules of the Game: A Guide to Election Related Activities for 501(c)(3) Organizations 
• Who is a Candidate (BA Blog Post)  
• IRS’s EO CPE Text, 2002 Election Year Issues, Judith E. Kindell and John Francis Reilly 

 

On this special episode... we revisit how nonprofits can make their voice heard when there is a vacancy on the Supreme Court or any appointed judicial seat.  

 

Our attorneys for this episode 

 

Tim Mooney 

Natalie Ossenfort 

Quyen Tu 

 

Opening Thoughts 

 

After the announcement that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will retire pending confirmation of his successor, groups are gearing up to influence President Biden’s nomination and the Senate confirmation vote. But before we talk about our advocacy and the rules of the game for advocacy in this area, we wanted to share the statement of AFJ President Rakim Brooks on Justice Breyer: 

 

Justice Breyer has always been one of the most active members of the bench — drawing as many laughs as any justice in recent history. His jurisprudence, however, has had the quiet dignity of a justice who understood that the proper role of the Court is to defer to the people and their elected representatives to decide our democracy’s most important questions. Time and time again, he has stood up against the wealthy and powerful to protect the fundamental rights and legal protections of millions of Americans.   

 

Read more from the AFJ statement 

 

Shownotes  

• Work supporting or opposing a judicial nomination like SCOTUS counts as lobbying.  
• When does the meter start running for 501(c)(3) public charities?  
• Types of lobbying 
• Do nonprofits have to worry about the rules around elections? 
• AFJ and AFJ Action’s advocacy 

 

Resources 

• Our new home for all of our resources on advocacy for judicial nominations  
• President Biden’s Potential Supreme Court Shortlist (AFJ) 
• Election Checklist for 501(c)(3) Public Charities: Ensuring Election Year Advocacy Efforts Remain Nonpartisan  
• Accountability Advocacy for 501(c)(3)s  

Bolder Advocacy’s TA hotline: 866-NP-LOBBY 

Email us at [email protected]  

Our website is bolderadvocacy.org