Advocacy, Lobbying, and the Law

This chapter is meant to provide the reader with a general overview of the current legal framework for nonprofit lobbying, and what a coalition of nonprofits would need to do, as a hardball lobbyist, to avail itself of all the tools to influence decision making by public officials. It’s not meant to be relied on as definitive legal advice, and as this area of the law is in a state of flux, nonprofits—both individual organizations, and coalitions of organizations—should seek both legal counsel and accounting advice within their jurisdictions to ensure that they are in complete compliance with the existing state and federal statutes, laws, and applicable governing rules and regulations. The specifics of all the rules and regulations may seem so complex that it’s impossible to decipher all the details, but this is why nonprofits hire lawyers and accountants, and in reality, compliance isn’t that complex at all. In fact, it’s relatively simple to achieve. Nonprofits shouldn’t use the apparent complexity as an excuse to not become effective lobbyists. The playing field will forever be unequal if nonprofits don’t use the same structures that the private sector uses for lobbying.