The political season is heating up. Television and radio waves
have been filled with party conventions, candidate commercials, and pundit
commentary. Dialogue and debate are running rampant in our conversations with
friends, family and colleagues.
These conversations typically revolve around how politics and
election results affect you as an individual, but what about how it will affect
you at an organizational level? As an organization, how do you engage in the
political process, and how do you do that while balancing your tax-exempt
status?
There are clear rules and regulations for non-profits around the
type and amount of political activities in which they can be involved. For
technical details, the IRS’s website is a good resource. For more on standards,
the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits publishes the Principles and Practices for Nonprofit Excellence with a section on civic engagement and public policy.
For some organizations, political activity is part of the
everyday routine, but for many others, this activity follows the ebb and flow
of the political process. How do you integrate political activity in your
organization? Does this happen seamlessly or is it a struggle to find a
balance?
Posted September 11, 2008
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