NPAction Update
Vol 2, Issue 16
8/3/2004

Welcome to the August edition of the NPAction Update. Since we're entering the lazy days of summer, the next Update will come on September 1st.

You are receiving this newsletter as requested during your registration with NPAction.org. To unsubscribe, send an email to npaction@npaction.org.


In this issue:
*What's New*
*Current Poll- Professional Lobbyists*
*Featured Article- Assessing your Advocacy*
*Featured Resource Links- Capacity Building*
*Hey, You Asked- 527s and inter-nonprofit interaction*


*What's New*

Nonprofit Design Competition.

Is your organization's web site particularly attractive? Have you come up with a game, a DVD, a computer graphic or other multimedia item that gets your organization's message across while looking great? Have you ever designed a really effective poster or ad? Idealist.org is sponsoring a nonprofit design contest to promote excellence in design in the nonprofit sector, and if you've got the goods, you could win a laptop or an iPod. Entries must be received by August 31st.

For more information:
http://www.idealist.org/competitions/design.html



*Current Poll*

The results for last month's poll are in. We asked "Does Your Organization Have a Person (or Persons) Specifically Charged With Advocacy?" 79% of you said yes, 11% said no, and 11% said they don't do any advocacy work.

This month, we ask if you've ever hired a professional lobbyist to do advocacy work for your organization. Vote in this month's poll, continuously displayed on the right hand side of the site (just don't try to vote twice!!)

Here's your chance to ask a question you've wanted to ask other nonprofits, but couldn't figure out how. Send your idea for a poll to npaction@npaction.org.

Past Poll Results
http://www.npaction.org/article/archive/207



*Featured Article*

Since most legislatures and other policymaking bodies are usually not in session over the summer, now might be a good time to assess or evaluate your organization's advocacy work. Perhaps even set some new goals. This issue's featured article will fill you in on some of the groundwork in setting up goals, the objectives to reach them, and assessment and evaluation tools to make sure everything is going in the right direction.

"Goals, Objectives, Assessment, Evaluation: Which One and Why?"


Remember" text="that you can rate and comment on most NPAction articles by clicking the "New Comment" button at the end of an article.




*Featured Resource Links*

The NPAction Resource Links Directory is a human-edited compendium of tools and references, contributed by nonprofits for nonprofits.

We've each developed a vision of what nonprofits and charities are, and how they should go about their work and interact with government and society. Our first featured link, while disguised as a primer, is actually an excellent wide-angle view of how nonprofits can work with society. It allows all of us to take a step back and gain a little new perspective.

"A Primer on Nonprofit Organizations"



Our second resource link is a database of over 300 capacity building programs being carried out by various foundations in the US, assembled by the Human Interaction Research Institute. Programs can be searchd by the type of capacity building program, the geographic area, type of foundation, and several other criteria.

"Philanthropic Capacity Building Resource Database"
http://www.humaninteract.org/pcbrdatabase.htm


More Capacity Building Links:
http://www.npaction.org/link/category/194/

Suggest a Resource Link
http://www.npaction.org/link/suggestlink



*"Hey, You Asked"*

We received this 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 at http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/1215/1/48/ for details.

More useful resources on this topic:

http://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. It is available on the web at http://www.allianceforjustice.org/images/collection_images/eadvocacy.pdf.

To ask a question for the experts behind "Hey, You Asked" go to:
http://www.npaction.org/forum/messagelist/170



*"Steal This Code": Put NPAction on Your Site*

NPAction invites organizations to share our tools on their websites. Choose a logo that best meets your needs, whether you want to link to our site, incorporate our search engine with results from a range of nonprofit sources, add the ability to connect to federal lawmakers and national media, or state-level policymakers and media. Just copy the HTML code from our site, and you're ready to go (but when you steal the code, just let us know!).

"Steal the Code" today
http://www.npaction.org/article/archive/208


*NPAction Update Archives*
http://www.npaction.org/article/archive/210/


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NPAction, an online resource hosted by OMB Watch, provides access to tools and information for nonprofit advocacy from a wide range of organizational partners and sources in order to encourage greater participation by nonprofits in the policy arena. Funding for this project was provided by Atlantic Philanthropies, the Ford Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the Surdna Foundation.

For more information, contact:

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