Tales of Five Advocacy Champions
Speakers on the national webinar on Tax Reform and Charitable Nonprofits and their organizations have proven track records in engaging charitable nonprofits to advocate on behalf of their missions. Here is a sampling of their activities. Register now for the November 27 webinar that begins at 4:00 pm Eastern.
The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, an organization of 15 national, state, and regional Baptist bodies in the United States, is the only faith-based organization devoted solely to religious liberty and the institutional separation of church and state. BJC is to be praised for its efforts with Americans United for Separation of Church and State in generating more than 4,200 signatures by individual religious leaders on the Faith Voices letter in support of keeping houses of worship nonpartisan. As with the Community Letter in Support of Nonpartisanship discussed below, and unlike alleged yet undisclosed individuals promoting the politicizing of churches and nonprofits, the Faith Voices letter fully discloses the names of the people who are willing to take a public stand. The Baptist Joint Committee’s leader, Amanda Tyler, is a respected speaker on the critical issue of preserving the Johnson Amendment, and has published numerous articles in support of the importance of nonpartisanship in houses of worship. She and Tim Delaney of the National Council of Nonprofits wrote, There’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing hiding in the GOP tax bill, which ran in The Hill on November 8.
The Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, one of the oldest and most established state associations of nonprofits, literally wrote the book on nonprofit advocacy. Through its Minnesota Budget Project, MCN is able to crunch complex financial data and communicate the impact of policy decisions on the people of the state. The organizations have championed sign-on letters in opposition to the proposed tax cuts and engaged nonprofits throughout the budget and tax reform process. This past week, the Minneapolis–St. Paul Star Tribune ran the commentary, “No thanks to sleight of hand in the tax bill, all nonprofits could engage in politics,” authored by MCN’s Jon Pratt and Trista Harris of the Minnesota Council on Foundations.
The North Carolina Center for Nonprofits is the largest state association of nonprofits in the South and has a robust public policy program that takes the debates outside of the Capitol in Raleigh by hosting town hall meetings with policymakers around the state. The NC Center has kept its members informed on the developing tax reform legislation through a weekly policy update, blog postings, an analysis, and comparison chart that explains the North Carolina impact of various tax changes. The Center was one of the first organizations to endorse the Universal Charitable Giving Act, H.R. 2988, introduced by Representative Mark Walker (R-NC).
United Way Worldwide is one of the nation’s largest charitable nonprofits with active operations in every congressional district. In recent weeks, it has mobilized its entire network in an effort to improve the tax reform legislation in the areas of the charitable giving, earned income tax credits, and other issues. A recent call to action encourages local United Way leaders to work to get Senators or their Chiefs of Staff on the phone to deliver key points on behalf of the nonprofit community. The Action Alert reiterates the good advice that board members can be the best advocates. United Way also has prepared sign-on letters for the individual states and encourages their leaders to reach out to their local media to counter the misleading congressional talking point that “the charitable deduction has been preserved.” Check out their recent examples of media outreach in Bakersfield, CA and Tuscaloosa, AL.
Utah Nonprofits Association takes the challenge to the Johnson Amendment seriously, as have charitable nonprofits and many others in the state. UNA earned the noble distinction of generating the largest number of signers on the Community Letter in Support of Nonpartisanship on a per capita basis: 217 nonprofits, foundations, and other supporters of the community. The state association achieved this by sending out targeted action alerts, communicating with local media, and keeping the issue before the vibrant nonprofit community in the Beehive State.
