[Noisebridge-discuss] Emergency Hack Politics Session (TODAY [Tuesday] 8:00 PM PDT)

[Danny O'Brien]

On Tue, May 24, 2011 at 3:37 PM, Andy Isaacson <adi at hexapodia.org> wrote:

> On Tue, May 24, 2011 at 03:20:22PM -0700, Ronald Cotoni wrote:
> > I do not think this should be held at noisebridge.  Earlier on the
> > list it was mentioned that political things could jeopardize our non
> > profit status.
>
> Noisebridge as a 501(c)3 cannot lobby or advocate political positions,
> or we risk losing our tax-exempt status.
>
> OTOH, I as an individual definitely *can* make political statements in a
> space provided by a 501(c)3.  I can even do so at events sponsored by
> the 501(c)3, subject (I think) to certain constraints.
>
> AFAIK a group of people meeting at the space does not rise to the level
> of "lobbying or advocacy".  We should probably check with someone who
> knows more detail as to when we need to be careful.


FWIW, as someone who was job was the political activist at a 501(c)3
organization(tm), I'd concur with Andy. You'd have to be throwing
substantial percentage of our precious income, or organizing for or against
a specific candidate, before we'd even catch a raised spock-brow on the
501(c)3 Elders.

Even if we were seen as somehow being more than just a host for someone
else's meeting, legislative advocacy such as against the PATRIOT Act is
lobbying, and we're allowed to do that as long as it's not a "substantial
part" of our activities.

If you want to be super-paranoid, we could file a 501(h) form, which would
explicitly allow us to spend 20% of our budget on such things, rather than
depend on the substantiality test which is a little vague for some. But
unless we're buying a couple of laser cutters specifically for Shepard
Fairey mash-ups, we're cool.

I too am very confident you can have your meeting.

d.



> I am quite confident that tonight's meeting can go ahead without
> endangering our 501(c)3 status.  Hopefully we can do more research to
> learn what guidelines we should follow in the future.
>
> Thanks,
> -andy
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>
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