Use Your Voice – Advocacy with Decision Makers

As a longtime nonprofit leader, each year conversations emerge about what kind of lobbying nonprofits can engage in. Anxiety about impacting one’s nonprofit status with the IRS has people refraining from anything that even feels close to lobbying, while other leaders understand that advocacy is not the same as lobbying. Even 501c3s – within defined limits – are not prohibited from lobbying. It is always good to check with your legal counsel or auditors to make sure you have an understanding of what is allowed for you, your team and your organization, but silence is not an option.

Do you need to figure out who your elected officials are? Here is a handy link – (usa.gov/elected-officials). Just put in your physical address and it will populate elected officials at the county, state and federal levels for your street address. 

This year has brought a lot of changes – and stresses – to decision makers at the federal and state level, especially around funding for core programs that serve people in need. 
Here in Washington, state legislators are facing an unprecedented budget deficit, and are constitutionally mandated to pass a balanced budget. They need to hear from you – non only about what you prioritize – so that they proactively pull down every awarded federal dollar that they can, before the opportunity to do so slips away.  Please encourage Washington to provide the authority to state agencies to draw down available and approved federal dollars while they can.

At the federal level every contact with Congress and the Senate matters. This is not about what party you support of how you voted. It is about the community that we want to see for ourselves and loved ones, now and into the future. We stand on the shoulders of our ancestors. I would not be where I am if not for structural investments made by federal and state governments, and sacrifices made my parents and grandparents. Now I am a grandmother and I want to see my children and grandchildren avoid suffering and struggling. 

I’d like to live in a country that does not leave children vulnerable to preventable diseases, where people in need are not abandoned to fend for themselves, where we are thinking about today and tomorrow and next year. We have to be good stewards for each other, and for the planet that we inhabit.  

I urge you – check to see who your elected officials are (usa.gov/elected-officials) and let them know how much your needs are connected to the needs of others in the community. It is the only way forward – together – that we will create a region where we all feel we belong.