According to a press release issued by Charity Lobbying in the Public Interest (CLPI), a D.C.-based nonprofit that works to promote and protect nonprofit advocacy and lobbying, a recent letter of clarification from the Internal Revenue Service to the organization dispels the notion that foundation funding of nonprofits that lobby is illegal or inappropriate.

The IRS letter specifies the circumstances under which private foundations may engage in activities designed to influence public policy and describes the conditions under which a foundation can make a grant to a nonprofit for a specific project that includes lobbying. In addition, the letter makes clear the latitude permitted community foundations both to lobby and to earmark funds for lobbying, giving them greater flexibility than private foundations.

"This letter makes abundantly clear that foundations may fund nonprofits that lobby. It also provides suggested language which foundations may safely use in their grant letters to nonprofits to facilitate that funding," said CLPI chairperson Thomas A. Troyer. "Lobbying is particularly important for small, local, community-based nonprofits because it can greatly expand the impact of their limited resources."

"Private foundations have been cautious about funding groups that engage in lobbying," said Thomas Layton, president of the San Francisco-based Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation and a CLPI board member. "However, our foundation and many other foundations have found that one of the very best ways for a foundation to substantially increase the impact of its grant dollars is to fund groups that engage in public policy."

For the complete text of the letter and/or additional information about the issue, visit: http://clpi.org/lobby_law_hm.html#LOBBYING%20AND%20FUNDING.