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influence through a narrow elite base)? And how often and to what extent do boards use
personal donations to contribute to the political activities of other parts of the structure?
Questions on the public accountability of nonprofits involved in advocacy are also raised
especially in the case of complex organizational structures where component tax-exempt
organizations work in close cooperation with one another. How does money used for advocacy
move into and through structures formally and informally? Specifically, how autonomous or
dependent are financial relationships between various components and what does that mean for
advocacy efforts and organizational transparency? What is the incidence of the illegal transfer
of funds between components of these structures? Are current regulations and their
enforcement achieving an appropriate degree of accountability to the public?
Tax law, federal election law, and rules around reporting and disclosure provide
incentives and disincentives for politically active nonprofit organizations to structure
themselves in separate, but related organizations. By coordinating their activities in complex
organizational structures toward common political ends, limited advocacy activities engaged in
at the greatest tax benefit can be combined with the most aggressive advocacy activities to
obtain overall the broadest range of advocacy influence in policy making and elections.
Unfortunately, public data related to the political finances and activities of nonprofit
organizations is limited and not well organized, depriving policy makers and the public of an
easily accessible empirical picture of how private money circulates through nonprofit
organizations active into the political system. As a consequence, analysis of financial data that
is accessible needs to be supported with organizational interviews to more fully understand the
impact of regulation on political practice, a next step in this research.
Convention