Here is a question about types of nonprofit organizations and how they interact:

"Can you include the definition of the new 527 organizations? What about interaction/cooperation among different types of organization?"

Answer:

Groups whose primary purpose is to influence elections are exempt from taxation under Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code, which states:

"The term "political organization" means a party, committee, association, fund, or other organization (whether or not incorporated) organized and operated primarily for the purpose of directly or indirectly accepting contributions or making expenditures, or both, for an exempt function.
(2) Exempt function.--The term "exempt function" means the function of influencing or attempting to influence the selection, nomination, election, or appointment of any individual to any Federal, State, or local public office or office in a political organization, or the election of Presidential or Vice-Presidential electors, whether or not such individual or electors are selected, nominated, elected, or appointed. Such term includes the making of expenditures relating to an office described in the preceding sentence which, if incurred by the individual, would be allowable as a deduction under section 162(a)."

This category includes a very diverse range of organizations, including political parties, candidate campaign committees, multi-candidate committees, independent political action committees and segregated funds of other exempt groups, such as labor unions. There are no subcategories spelled out in the code.

The McCain-Feingold law did not change the definition of 527s; it only changed soft money rules that make establishing new 527s a more attractive option. This year many new groups have formed. They can accept and spend funds that are not subject to federal campaign finance regulations (soft money) if they are not controlled by a candidate or do not coordinate with a candidate or campaign. There has been a lot of controversy this year over if and/or how these groups should be regulated.

527 groups have a wide variety of interactions with other nonprofits, depending on what type of political committee the 527 is. The closest kind of relationship is an affiliation between a social welfare organization exempt under Section 501(c)(4) of the tax code and its 527 political arm. The primary purpose of a 501(c)(4) cannot be efforts to influence elections, although they are allowed to do some of this work. 501(c)(4)s put funds dedicated for electioneering purposes into a separate, segregated fund in order to avoid paying taxes on them. The tax code treats these funds as 527 organizations.

Groups that want to influence federal elections but do not want to be regulated by federal campaign finance law must avoid coordination with regulated political committees and campaigns. The Federal Election Commission has regulations that define what constitutes coordination. See the OMB Watch website for details.

More useful resources on this topic:

nonprofitadvocacy.org is a website run by five nonprofits that support nonprofit advocacy. It has information on this year's controversies over the scope of regulation of 527 groups.

The Alliance for Justice publication E-Advocacy: The Law of Election Related Activity on the Net includes information about connections between different types of nonprofits.