Advocacy Check Up

For those who caught our most recent podcast on Nonprofit New Year’s Resolutions – Resolution #2 was to conduct an Advocacy Check Up. In this episode, we’re deeper into how to do that. We released new Nonprofit Self-Assessment tool, designed to help nonprofit organizations assess your overall compliance with federal and state advocacy-related tracking and reporting requirements, and to identify opportunities to build your organization’s advocacy capacity.

Attorneys for this Episode

Quyen Tu
Sarah Efthymiou
Susan Finkle Sourlis

 

ü   Governance & Administration: Strengthen your nonprofit’s compliance and operational efficiency

·      Having legal and accounting support from professionals with knowledge of nonprofits can help safeguard against unnecessary risk and prevent costly errors

·      The IRS recommends, and some states require, that certain organizational policies are maintained, such as document retention & destruction and conflict of interest policies.

·      Most states have registration and reporting requirements when nonprofits solicit funds from their state’s residents. Nonprofits should regularly review their fundraising activities (including online) to determine whether they need to register.

 

ü  Funding Sources: Once your legal house is in order, we suggest that you look at your funding sources.

·      The type of funder will help determine what type of funds you are dealing with, e.g., general support vs. project specific grants, single-year vs multi-year grants.

·      Determining the funding source will help you understand how you can spend the funds, whether there are limitations, and how you pay for the day-to-day operational costs for your nonprofit.

 

ü  Advocacy Activities, including lobbying

·      Important to understand if an activity or communication is lobbying or nonlobbying advocacy.

·      Whether your nonprofit has taken the 501(h) election will help you know your lobbying limits as a 501(c)(3), as well as how to define lobbying.

·      Don’t forget that many activities may look like lobbying but fall under an IRS exception. The checklist has you covered there, too.

·      State and federal lobbying disclosure rules may apply to your work, too.

 

ü  Coalition and Affiliate Work

·      The checklist also raises questions to consider when establishing and setting up a coalition and affiliate relationships. For example, Do you have a cost sharing agreement? Do you share staff, how do you keep track of the programs that are distinct to each organization? Are staff aware of the difference between the two orgs? These questions are important to the foundational principles of how c3s and c4s can work together – or in broader coalitions.

·      The basic principle is in regards to the flow of money and assets, we refer this as riding a bike up the hill – money or shared assets (like sharing staff) from the c3 to a c4 is slow deliberate process and you need to have the systems in place to ensure that the c3 is not supplementing or supporting the allowable c4 political activity.

·      Having the appropriate documentation and keeping track are also important principles to follow.

ü  Nonpartisan Election Activities

·      Although one election cycle just ended, another one is underway – there will be many local and state elections in the odd year. Thinking about and preparing for election-season activities should be part of every nonprofit’s check-up.

·      Do staff or volunteers understand the rules around nonpartisan activity? Do staff or volunteers know what hats they are wearing – what can they do in their official organizational capacity or as an individual on their own personal time?

·      In this section, think about your activities your nonprofit might participate in, e.g., will you conduct town halls, candidate questionaries, or voter education?

Resources: The primary resource that we highlighted today is our new Advocacy Check-Up: Nonprofit Self-Assessment. Within the checklist, you’ll find links to Bolder Advocacy and other helpful resources that will help you complete your assessment and be in the best position to advocate for your organization, your mission, and your communities.