On Mon, 24 Feb 2003 01:54:30 -0800, Pierce Nichols <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>ERPS members are free to contact whomever they feel is appropriate, >>but the organization itself, as a 501(c)(3) is prohibited by law from >>lobbying. > > This is false. 501(c)3 orgs are prohibited from spending more than >10% of their budget on lobbying, not prohibited from lobbying at all. This makes Michael's statement conservative, but I wouldn't call it false. Lobbying really isn't something we want to be doing: one of ERPS' strengths is that we *don't* play the "Oh Mr. Congressman may I please have a million dollars" game. I haven't seen the 10% figure before, but I don't dispute it. IRS says, "In addition, it [the charity] may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate at all in campaign activity for or against political candidates." 10% is probably a good ceiling for "substantial." So we would have to decide if this Senate thing was a substantial part of our activities. If it was, we would have shot our shot for the year. I think we have better things to do with our time and our tax exempt status, like back John Wickman's proposed legislation. Expending our limited ability to influence legislation on a hurry-up campaign to change something that marginally affects something that marginally affects ERPS, does not strike me as wise or effective, for ERPS. I encourage individual ERPS members to follow John Wickman's lead; Dave W posted the URL here recently. I will also note that no *regulatory* activity is limited by 501(c)(3); only legislative activity is so limited. -R -- Every complex, difficult problem has a simple, easy solution - which is wrong. [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ ERPS-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.erps.org/mailman/listinfo/erps-list
