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Legal Guidelines for Nonprofit Voter Registration & Get-Out-the-Vote Activities
Your center can encourage your community and supporters to register to vote and to vote their values. However, as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, your center may not endorse, support, or oppose any specific candidates or political parties. Your voter registration activities must be strictly nonpartisan. Nonprofit organizations can lose their tax exempt status if the IRS determines that they engaged in prohibited campaign activity.
Our friends at the National Institute of Family Life Advocates (www.nifla.org) compiled a list of prohibited nonprofit campaign activities in past issues of their Legal Tips publication. NIFLA stresses that every aspect of your voter registration program must be scrutinized to ensure that there is no reasonable basis to infer any bias or preference for a candidate or political party. We are pleased to share NIFLA’s findings with you, as well as our suggestions for how your center can participate in our voter registration drive.
Suggested/Permissible Voter Registration Activities for Your Organization
- Encourage all of your staff members and volunteers to register to vote; registering is easy at www.ivotemyvalues.org
- Promote www.ivotemyvalues.org and other registration websites to your supporters and donors in center mailings, newsletters, and by adding a link to the voter registration site from your website.
- Write a letter or e-mail to your supporters specifically about the importance of voting.
- Call supporters and friends in your community urging them to register and to vote on November 4.
Prohibited Political Campaign Activity
- Endorsing or opposing a particular candidate.
- Contributing money or services to a candidate, political action committee, or political party.
- Making expenditures that aid a candidate.
- Donating in-kind help, such as staff time or supplies that aid a candidate.
- Distributing a candidate’s flyers, bumper stickers, or other paraphernalia.
- Using center facilities, supplies, or resources to assist a candidate.
- Lending the center’s mailing list to a candidate.
- Giving a candidate a political forum at a center event.
- Featuring a candidate in a center newsletter.
- Staff or volunteers wearing or displaying candidate or party T-shirts, buttons, posters, or similar items while representing the organization.
- Displaying campaign paraphernalia prominently at the center.
- Mentioning a candidate’s name or a political party in official organizational statements.
- Revealing how you plan to vote while representing your organization.
- Asking the people you are soliciting how they plan to vote or what their political preferences are.
- Displaying political propaganda in the area where you are soliciting registrations.
It is important to remember that these prohibited activities refer only to your 501(c)(3) organization and individuals speaking on behalf of your organization. As a private citizen, you have the right to engage in any political activity of your choosing when you are not working at your center or representing your center in any capacity.
The IRS has released a report to encourage nonprofit organizations to avoid engaging in prohibited political activities. Read the report.
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