Nonprofit Organizations Urged to Be Cautious When Getting Involved in Election-Year Politics

By Suzanne Perry

Nonprofit groups that want to ask candidates in the 2008 elections questions about their positions on

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social issues, or about how they would strengthen the nonprofit world as a whole, must navigate Internal Revenue Service rules barring charities from engaging in partisan politics.

Fear of those rules — and publicity about charities that have been accused by the IRS of crossing the line — have deterred many organizations from getting involved in political campaigns, even though they could do so in a legal way, nonprofit leaders say.

"We read things in the paper about nonprofits doing something illegal and that sort of silences people," says Audrey Alvarado, executive director of the National Council of Nonprofit Associations, in Washington. Her group co-sponsored the Nonprofit Primary Project, which tapped nonprofit leaders in New Hampshire to ask candidates in the state's primary election how they would work with charities if they won the presidency.

"It really should be part of our DNA in this sector to engage in this type of work," Ms. Alvarado says.

Vague Guidelines

Gary Bass, executive director of OMB Watch, a government-watchdog group in Washington, says organizations are right to be wary because the IRS rules governing political activity by groups that have charity status under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code are vague.

The agency judges whether a group has violated the law by considering the "relevant facts and circumstances" instead of providing a "bright-line" test, or clear definition of what is illegal, he notes.

"All c3's that engage in some form of voter engagement are at risk," Mr. Bass says. OMB Watch and several other advocacy groups plan to solicit recommendations from nonprofit leaders and forward them to the next president — as they did four years ago — but his group will not engage in activities such as candidate questionnaires because it could raise questions with the IRS, he says.

But other experts say the IRS rules clearly permit charities to get involved in elections as long as they do not directly or indirectly endorse or oppose specific candidates.

For example, the Alliance for Justice, an association of environmental, civil-rights, and other advocacy groups, has prepared a list of "permissible election activities" for charities that includes educating candidates on public-interest issues, sponsoring some kinds of candidate debates, and conducting nonpartisan get-out-the-vote drives.

Federal law says that 501(c)(3) organizations may not "participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office."

IRS guidelines give a variety of examples of permitted activities. For example, a charity may not distribute ratings of candidates, but it may sponsor "educational" events, such as forums, panels, and lectures — as long as they do not involve "distorted facts" or "inflammatory and disparaging terms."

Equal Opportunity

The New Hampshire Center for Nonprofits, which ran the Primary Project, hired a nonprofit lawyer and public-policy expert in Concord, Ann McLane Kuster, to coordinate its efforts.

Among her guidelines for sponsoring public forums or inviting candidates to speak:

• All candidates should receive an equal opportunity to present their views on questions prepared and presented in a nonpartisan manner.

• The moderator should not comment on the questions or imply approval or disapproval of the candidates' responses.

• Candidates should not be allowed to distribute campaign literature or display campaign signs during the event. No political fund raising should take place at any Primary Project event.

• All communications should be unbiased and nonpartisan, including invitations, announcements, press releases, and statements.

Some of the Primary Project participants, including Ms. Kuster, support particular candidates in their private lives; Ms. Kuster has campaigned for the Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama.

Mary Ellen Jackson, executive director of the New Hampshire Center for Nonprofits, said every qualified consultant the group considered was active in one campaign or another. But the nonprofit leaders took pains to separate their personal preferences from the project's nonpartisan work, she says. "We never wore badges when doing our work, we never uttered a word of support for any candidate," she adds. "We shaped this project around our educational goal."

A copy of the IRS guidelines on political activity by charities is available at http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/pub/irstege/eotopici02.pdf.