By Jason Y. Hall
This article was published in Museum News May/June 2004.
Q: One of our museum board members wants to rent one of our galleries to hold a fund raiser for a congressional candidate. The board member is a close friend and active supporter of the candidate, and he makes his opinion known among senior staff here. This is making a few people – including me, the assistant director – concerned about the museum’s neutrality. Where do we draw the line?
A: A museum’s involvement in the political arena is governed by certain laws and guided by certain decisions that are part of its institutional culture. There is a line, both legal and ethical. In this example, the board member in question appears close to crossing it. The board member should either stay away from the function or make it clear that he is not participating in his official museum capacity. In addition, the museum must charge the going rate for its facility and meet exactly the same terms for the candidate’s opponents.
Politics includes both advocacy (actions for or against issues) and election campaigning (actions for or against candidates for public office). There are clear and simple rules for 501( c ) 3 – i.e., charitable scientific, educational , or religious – organizations, which is what most museums are. If you follow these simple rules, which are easy to learn and apply, you are unlikely to run into trouble when you or your museum get involved in local, state, or national politics. However, if you don’t follow them, your museum may risk losing its non-profit status.
The trickier part is deciding how to direct your advocacy efforts. That’s a judgement call, and, in some cases, you may want to consult with your board. At the easy end of the spectrum are issues that affect the museum’s public funding or other survival issues, such as local taxes or restrictive laws and regulations. At the harder end, which is where each institution’s particular comfort level comes into play, are issues that are important to your community but not specifically tied to your museum’s mission, survival, or growth.
Once you have decided which issues are right for your museum, the rules for political action are straightforward.
The basic rule for 501 ( c) 3 organizations is:
Advocacy is fine. You can talk to your elected local, state, and federal officials and to career civil servants as much as you want about anything related to your museum. That’s advocacy, a euphemism for lobbying. (There are some theoretical lobbying limits, but you won’t surpass them. See below.)
Election involvement is not. You cannot, in your official capacity as an employee of a 501( c)3 charitable or nonprofit organization, take position for or against a candidate for political office, whether at a local, state, or federal level. Neither can your museum. The principle to apply here is evenhandedness.
This has nothing to do with whether your museum receives any local, state, or federal funds. It has to do with your museum’s tax status as a 501(c ) 3 organization under federal tax law. Because the principle purpose of (c )3s is, by definition, charitable activity, only an “insubstantial” part of their funding can go to lobbying.
Details about Advocacy
You can meet with, write or call, and otherwise contact legislators and executive branch officials at the local, state, and federal levels. In fact, Congress and the IRS encourage nonprofit employees, as they do other constituents, to make their views known about issues that affect them.
Your only limitation here is that a (c )3s advocacy must be “insubstantial.” The bad news is that the IRS has never defined “insubstantial.” Case law suggests that any expenditure under 5 percent of the organization’s budget will probably be fine, but that is an uncertain limit. The good news is that unless you do a very great deal of lobbying, you will not hit that limit.
The additional good news is that for those that will do a great deal of lobbying, there is what the tax experts call a “safe harbor” – i.e., a choice that will allow you to calculate precisely how much money your museum will expend on lobbying in a given year, given the size of your budget. This is called a “501(h) election.”
Details About Elections
Don’t take a stand in your official capacity, as noted above.
Facilities rentals: you may rent your facilities, in whole or part, to a political campaign for election activities. The principles here are hands off (museum officials should stay away from the event) and evenhandedness (rent on the same terms to everybody, political or not).
“Have I lost my citizenship rights because I work for a nonprofit?” Nope. In fact, in your capacity a as a private citizen, you can take a stand on political candidates, provide them with campaign contributions, and even work actively for their election. But you should follow three easy-to-remember rules:
- On your own time. Do not engage in any campaign activities – e.g. PAC work, other fund raising, putting up signs, etc. – during your working hours.
- On your own dime. Do not use any museum funds or facilities for any campaign activity.
- Without affiliation of your organization. Never allow your institution’s name or your official museum title to be used for any campaign purpose.
Please be a strong advocate for your museum on the public policy issues that affect it. The museum field needs your voice; Congress and your local and state officials want to hear from you; and the IRS allows you to do a great deal of lobbying. And feel free to be active in political campaigns, as long as you remember to follow the rules above.
For more details on the reasoning behind these rules, and on the 501(h) election, AAM’s Museum Advocacy Team and other ways to enhance your advocacy efforts, facilities rentals, and campaign involvement, see Nonprofits and Government: What You Can and Can’t Do, which is available on the AAM Web site at www.aam-us.org.
Jason Y. Hall is director, Government and Public Affairs, American Association of Museums.
