Basically a charity in the USA can spend up to 20% of its expenses on "direct lobbying" of related issues. Basically that means they can say "this is good and that's good" - but they can't actually endorse a party or individual. They can educate on that person - "so and so wants to do this" - but they can't then so "so vote for ABC instead" or anything along those lines. It can get a little trick if an org speaks on an issue that is in no way connected to their mission - but SOPA/PIPA and just about any technology related legislation falls within WMF's mission.
Essentially on SOPA/PIPA - this is absolutely within US law and it seems incredibly unlikely given WMF's budget that any of these expenses would ever come close to 20%. :)
-greg aka varnent
On Jan 22, 2012, at 1:00 PM, Gwern Branwen wrote:
On Sun, Jan 22, 2012 at 12:33 PM, Pedro Sanchez pdsanchez@gmail.com wrote:
I'm worried that we may be getting in trouble. I don't know about US laws, but are charitable organizations allowed to meddle in political lobbying?
I'd appreciate if more knowledgeable people could give us some light.
It's perfectly allowed, and we're allowed to take positions on specific bills - it is just that lobbying cannot be a 'substantial part' of the WMF's activities unless it switches its charity type. (Googling around, I was reading http://www.asaecenter.org/Resources/whitepaperdetail.cfm?ItemNumber=12202 and http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/eotopicp97.pdf )
-- gwern http://www.gwern.net/In%20Defense%20Of%20Inclusionism
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