# Charity, politics, blogging and Twittering

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/09/30/charity-politics-blogging-and-twittering/
- Published: 2008-09-30T10:02:55+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

[⌊Barack Obama by 770, on Flickr⌉⌊Barack Obama by 770, on Flickr⌉[

Amid the upcoming election and current economic crisis, it looks like some US nonprofit
bloggers and Twitterers are letting their own personal political views come to the
fore. And that has irked some of their readers.

Jeff Trexler at [unCivilSociety.org](http://uncivilsociety.org/2008/09/twitter-facebook-and-charitabl.html)
points out that “Section 501(c)(3) prohibits charities from intervening in political
campaigns, either for or against a candidate”.

However, “if you pay careful attention to charitable Twitter feeds, Facebook pages,
message boards and other social media, you can find any number of accounts associated
with 501(c)(3) managers also being used to tout Obama, slam Palin, raise funds for
a political party and so forth”.

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While he has no problems with charity staff being actively engaged in politics, 
he recommends that nonprofit staff scrupulously avoid making party political comments
on any website, blog, Twitter feed, Facebook page etc that is in any way an official
charity communication.

He adds: “Particularly if you’re a charity manager (i.e., officer or board member),
you should maintain a firewall between accounts that promote your charity and those
in which you advocate for your personal political preference”.

Now, of course, sometimes this line between personal and official charity can be
hard to define. What if you have a personal Facebook account that you use primarily
to promote and discuss the issues that your charity employer engages with? To some
extent, it doesn’t matter: it is what the IRS and its lawyers conclude, should the
issue come to prosecution.

In England and Wales, charities have the Charity

Commission’s ‘[Speaking Out: Guidance on Campaigning and Political Activity](http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/publications/cc9.asp)‘
to help them. Although updated in March 2008 it makes no mention of Facebook, social
networks, Twitter, and other sites that can blur the personal and the professional.
But the guidance can still be assumed to apply to them.

What could UK charities do? First, be aware of the issue and the risk it presents.
Second, consider adding guidance on the issue to the terms and conditions of employment
that should already cover elements of using digital media.

To put the issues in context though, there is debate about just what US nonprofits
can do. There is the rather extreme [advice from nonprofitrisk](http://nonprofitrisk.org/library/articles/technology020208.shtml)
about even linking to a political candidate’s website: “Charities that have links
from their web sites to other sites need to be vigilant in scanning those links 
to make sure that the content on the linked site does not place the nonprofit at
risk by expressing support or opposition to a particular candidate”. (How can anyone
achieve that?)

At the other end of the spectrum, Michael Gilbert from [Nonprofit Online News](http://news.gilbert.org)
encourages nonprofits to study the Alliance for Justice’s “excellent cheat sheet
on Permissible Nonpartisan 501(c)(3) and Partisan Campaign Contact on Voter Engagement/
Protection Efforts”. He adds “most organisations don’t know just how much they can
do” and encourages nonprofit staff to “find a way to enroll your organization at
this critical juncture in the history of American civil society”.

 * **[The Voluntary Sector Legal Handbook](https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/10/16/amazon-255/)**(
   16 October 2008)
 * **[Canadian site calls for more donations to climate change issues](https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/11/03/canadian-site-calls-more-donations-climate-change-issues/)**(
   3 November 2008)
 * **[Charities' minister to address conference](https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/11/05/charities039-minister-address-conference/)**(
   5 November 2008)

## Comments

### By: johnbaguley

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/09/30/charity-politics-blogging-and-twittering/#comment-3300
- Published: 2008-10-08T20:46:12+01:00

It is strange indeed that the concept that charities should not engage in politics
is so rooted in our concept of what a charity is. Surely the third sector should
actively campaign to keep both the business and the political sectors up to scratch.

Active campaigning for political parties is a key way of doing this, as is campaigning
against companies malpractice. A move in this direction would certainly re-invigorate
politics in the UK, and may even make it interesting.

Of course, charities may lose some support and would therefore need to justify this
activity to their supporters, but would that be so terrible?

John Baguley

### By: Daren Garrett

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/09/30/charity-politics-blogging-and-twittering/#comment-3301
- Published: 2008-10-09T10:07:17+01:00

Maybe a sub-category of charity specifically for campaigning for political parties?

With strict limits about what can and cannot be done maybe.

Politics, as I understand it, is basically about people.
 What are many charities
for? Basically, about people.

Maybe the art of compromise that politics has would be too much for charities. We
are used to getting sidelined though aren’t we? 🙂

Martin