Advocacy Group Will Seek Nonprofit-Friendly Candidates

Robert Egger, who spearheaded an effort more than two years ago to get nonprofits to seek a greater voice in political campaigns, was hoping that the 2010 elections would be a “pivotal moment.” With 37 states holding gubernatorial races in November, Mr. Egger—the president of D.C. Central Kitchen, in Washington—envisaged that charities could have an impact nationwide by quizzing the candidates about what they would do to strengthen the nonprofit field.

By his own account, his vision never really took off. “There are outposts where nonprofits have banded together to elicit some kind of vision from the candidates,” he says. “But a broad national movement has yet to materialize.”

So now Mr. Egger is trying a new tack. He has just incorporated an advocacy organization, CForward, that will seek out local, state, and federal political candidates “who understand the social and economic role nonprofits play”—and endorse them.

He says the group will be looking for people who have specific ideas for strengthening nonprofits so they can create jobs, provide services, and attract grants to their communities: “It’s not enough to say, I heart nonprofits.”

Focus on Small Donors

The organization is still a work in progress, and Mr. Egger is not sure it will endorse candidates running in the November elections. But he notes that 2011 will bring numerous mayoral races, as well as the first rumblings of the 2012 presidential campaigns.

Among those he has enlisted for his board: Alan J. Cohen, the former mayor of Ithaca, N.Y., and executive director of the Philanthropic Collaborative, a group that highlights the economic contributions of foundations.

CForward does not yet have big money like some other advocacy groups that endorse candidates—say, the National Rifle Association or the Sierra Club. In fact, it does not yet have a budget. But Mr. Egger says it plans to borrow a strategy from Mr. Obama’s presidential campaign and seek out small donors who will be mobilized by Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail.

Mr. Egger started the V3 Campaign (for Voice, Value, Votes) in 2008 with hopes of getting candidates for mayor, state legislature, Congress, and president to explain by 2017 how they would work with nonprofit groups if elected.

Financed by his annual speaking fees of between $80,000 and $100,000, it inspired a few nonprofit efforts in the 2010 elections. The Maine Association of Nonprofits, for example, sent questionnaires under the V3 banner to all candidates for this year’s state and national elections.

The group asked them to describe their personal and professional experiences with nonprofits and to name specific ways they would “partner with and strengthen the nonprofit sector.”

They received answers from four of the five gubernatorial primary candidates and more than 30 candidates for the state legislature.

‘Do It for Us’

However, Mr. Egger says he discovered that many nonprofit groups lack the money and the time to take on efforts like V3, especially those under stress from the economic downturn.

Other nonprofit leaders agree. Electing officials who can create a healthier environment for nonprofits is a good long-term investment, says Patrick McWhortor, president of the Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits. But many charity employees are focused on more immediate needs, such as fund raising to fill budget gaps, he says.

Many are also still misinformed about how involved they can get in electoral politics, he says. While tax law prohibits groups that have charity status under Section 501(c)(3) of the tax code from engaging in any partisan activity, they may speak to candidates, invite them to forums, or send them questionnaires.

Mr. Egger says he decided to create CForward partly because many nonprofit leaders told him they wanted to get involved in such activities but feared alienating their boards, their donors, or the Internal Revenue Service. “What I hear from everybody is, in effect, ‘Do it for us,’” he says. Mr. Egger organized CForward as a 501(c)(4) organization (hence the name), which allows it to endorse candidates.

Such groups face certain restrictions—for example, their “primary activity” must focus mostly on educational, lobbying, or other “social welfare” activities. Mr. Egger says CForward will work to educate politicians as well as elect them.

When nonprofit groups try to get politicians to think about their concerns, it’s often based on their specific mission. Doug Sauer, chief executive of the New York Council of Nonprofits, says charities in his state have found it hard to break down the barriers between groups with different missions, as well as the geographical barriers—upstate versus downstate, for example.

However, he thinks the momentum is shifting toward more unity, thanks to the problems that nonprofits are facing with state government contracts, including late payments and not getting fully reimbursed for their services—a nationwide problem that was highlighted in a new report by the Urban Institute. (See article.)

“One of the spinoff benefits, to our state anyway, is it gives us a rallying issue,” Mr. Sauer says.

His group this year created a new center to track legislation, political candidates, and elected officials—and to teach nonprofits about issues that affect them. Mr. Sauer says it is laying the groundwork for future elections. “Four years from now, we’ll be in a far different place,” he says.

Meanwhile, Mr. Egger hopes to build CForward into a membership organization, starting with people who signed up to help with the V3 Campaign (whose activities, he says, will probably be folded into CForward)—and ask them to tell him about good candidates.

Mary Ellen Jackson, executive director of the New Hampshire Center for Nonprofits, worked with Mr. Egger on a project to get presidential candidates to talk about nonprofit issues during the 2008 primaries in her state.

She says Mr. Egger may face an uphill battle with his new venture, given the fear charities have about appearing partisan. However, she says, “I give him great credit for trying to find a way to give us a voice that’s [legally] okay.”