March 22, 2001 | Read Time: 1 minute
By NICOLE WALLACE
For several years charities have been using the Internet in their advocacy work on causes like the environment and human rights. Now a coalition of organizations is harnessing the power of the Internet on behalf of policy issues that affect the nonprofit world.
A project of Independent Sector and the National Council of Nonprofit Associations, a new Web site, GiveVoice.org, allows visitors to send fax and e-mail messages to elected officials about state and national public-policy issues that affect the nonprofit world.
“There is more and more exchange back and forth between things that either happen at the federal level or the state level,” explains Peter Shiras, senior vice president for programs at Independent Sector. “So we really needed a comprehensive, integrated way of tracking those issues and working on them in unison.”
Among the campaigns on the site: Independent Sector has posted a call to action encouraging visitors to contact their House representative in support of extending charitable deductions to people who do not itemize on their tax returns.
Mr. Shiras, who says that the site’s target audience is people who work for or are otherwise involved with nonprofit organizations, anticipates that in addition to legislation that affects charitable giving, campaigns on the site might also focus on regulatory issues and protecting charities’ advocacy rights.
Since GiveVoice.org went online January 2, more than 3,200 people have signed up to receive action alerts, and more than 1,000 e-mail messages have been sent to elected officials as part of 10 different campaigns.
The project was financed with a $125,000 grant from the Surdna Foundation, in New York.
To get there: Go http://www.givevoice.org.
