Charities Should Capitalize on New Campaign-Finance Law

To the Editor:

The passage by Congress last month of campaign-finance reform opens the way for charities to make their voices heard to a degree that has not existed for over 25 years. Ridding the electoral system of the influence of nearly $500-million in soft money means that the playing field on which charities and special interests compete will be significantly more level — if not level.

Charities should seize this opportunity by starting immediately to educate their volunteer and staff leadership to the fact that it’s a new day for their ability to influence policy makers because the heavy hand of big money is no longer as able to buy access to control the legislative agenda.

Some campaign finance–reform naysayers are already suggesting that the parties and politicians will find ways around the new law, that the power brokers with deep pockets will again come to rule with big money. That might in fact happen or it might not. But even if it does, it won’t happen overnight. That’s why charities should act now.

A number of charities caught on long ago to the fact that while they might be vastly outspent by special interests, they have incredibly important resources that give them a real advantage over those interests. I’m speaking of passion for their causes, literally millions of volunteers to put that passion to work, and sound experience in organizing for action.

Those charities didn’t wait for campaign-finance reform to act.

Fighting against great odds and big money, they have made a huge difference in bringing about major social change. I’m speaking of the protection of women’s rights, requirements for safe drinking water and clean air, child-labor laws, research and funding for Alzheimer’s disease, stricter laws against drunk driving and smoking, civil rights, the rights of disabled people, the cleaning up of toxic waste, and much, much more.

Charities need now to begin to think anew about the opportunities presented by campaign-finance reform. Think what could happen now with the new, more-level playing field. Think of all the major, unmet, or poorly met needs that charities are now in a much stronger position to address — needs such as homelessness, the 20 percent of the nation’s children who live in poverty, the three out of four third graders who read below grade level when it was one in seven 25 years ago, and the 43 million Americans without health insurance.

Charities especially need to think about how the estimated 84 million adults who volunteer each year could help solve those problems. If charities recruited just 5 percent of those volunteers to lobby, they would constitute a force of more than four million volunteer charity lobbyists nationwide.

Some charities are concerned that the campaign finance–reform legislation curtails some grass-roots lobbying by banning broadcasts, including those sponsored by nonprofit groups, that mention federal candidates during election cycles. The law, which is to go into effect the day after Election Day in November of this year, prohibits any organization, including charities, from mentioning the name of a federal candidate in a broadcast within 30 days before a primary or 60 days before a general election.

While the law allows nonprofit groups to air candidate debates and forums, other nonpartisan, non-electoral communications, such as grass-roots lobbying, calls to action, and get-out-the-vote messages, could still be prohibited. The law allows the Federal Election Commission to exempt these activities, but does not require the commission to do so. It’s important to note that charities can still aggressively call on Congress to support their legislation. However, they cannot mention in broadcasts the names of any federal candidates for Congress during the election cycle.

Despite the broadcast ban, the enactment of campaign–finance reform opens a whole new vista for charity lobbying. And fortunately, lobbying is easy. For example, it’s common knowledge in Congress that 10 or 12 well-written letters by a member’s constituents can get an issue on the legislator’s radar screen. Research shows that spontaneous letters from constituents rank high, among 44 methods of communication, in persuading a member of Congress. Almost every charity could recruit 10 or 12 volunteers who would be eager to explain in their own words to a member of Congress their thoughts about why a legislative issue is important to them.

Another persuasive action a charity can take is to organize office visits to members of Congress by their constituents.

The enactment of campaign finance reform has opened great new opportunities to get charities’ concerns onto the legislative agendas in Congress. Charities have huge volunteer resources and organizing skills that could be enormously influential in shaping public policy to aid their communities and causes. Those resources have just become much more powerful as a result of at least a partial leveling of the playing field between the big-money power brokers and charities. Charities, the ball is in your court.

Bob Smucker
Co-Director
Charity Lobbying in the Public Interest
Washington