Advocacy Inequalities among Nonprofits: Do Mission and Tax Status Make Differences

Authors

  • Daniel E. Chand

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15763/issn.2374-7781.2013.34.0.103-126

Abstract

Scholars have long recognized the high levels of participation by organized business in the “pressure system” (Baumgartner and Leech 2001; Schattschneider 1960; Scholzman and Tierney 1986) and have recently begun studying charitable group involvement, or lack thereof, in the policy influence process (Berry and Arons 2003; Berry 2005 and 2006). Few studies, however, have made comparisons of activities across interest group sectors; and none have done so focusing exclusively on nonprofit associations. This study contributes to the recent nonprofit lobbying literature by examining the lobbying activities of membership associations that issue legislator ratings, or “scorecards.” Creating a sample from scorecard-issuing groups limits focus to nonprofits that have an indicated interest in congressional policy. Specifically, this study attempts to determine if business associations spend significantly more and charitable associations significantly less on lobbying activities. Using analysis of variance methods, the author finds that business associations do spend significantly more on lobbying than their charitable and ideological tax-exempt counterparts. Labor unions fall somewhere in between business and charitable and ideological groups. Finally, groups employing “complex organizational structures” (Boris and Krehely 2002; Reid 2001) lobby at higher levels than groups with one tax status, although this finding does not apply to charitable groups.

References

Ainsworth, Scott H. 1993. Regulating Lobbyists and Interest Group Influence. Journal of Politics 55:41-66. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2132227

Ainsworth, Scott H. 2002. Analyzing Interest Groups: Group Influence on People and Policies. New York: Norton & Company.

Baskin, Darryl. 1970. American Pluralism: Theory, Practice, and Ideology. The Journal of Politics 32(1):71-95. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2128865

Baumgartner, Frank R., and Beth L. Leech. 1998. Basic Interest: The Importance of Groups in Politics and in Political Science. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Baumgartner, Frank R., and Beth L. Leech. 2001. Interest Niches and Policy Bandwagons: Patterns of Interest Group Involvement in National Politics. Journal of Politics 63(4):1191-1213. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/0022-3816.00106

Ben-Ner, Avner. 1994. Who Benefits from the Nonprofit Sector? Reforming Law and Public Policy towards Nonprofit Organizations. Yale Law Journal 104(3):731-762. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/797116

Berry, Jeffrey M. 2005. Nonprofits and Civic Engagement. Public Administration Review 65(5):568-578. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2005.00484.x

Berry, Jeffrey M. 2006. Nonprofit Organizations as Interest Groups: The Politics of Passivity. Pp. 235-255 in Interest Group Politics, 7th ed., eds. Allan Cigler and Burdett A. Loomis. Washington, DC: CQ Press.

Berry, Jeffrey M., and David F. Arons. 2003. A Voice for Nonprofits. Arlington, VA: Oakland Street Publishing.

Boris, Elizabeth T., and Jeff Krehely. 2002. Civic Participation and Advocacy. Pp. 299-330 in The State of Nonprofit America, ed. Lester M. Salamon. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.

Borod, Ronald S. 1967. Lobbying for the Public Interest—Federal Tax Policy and Administration. New York University Law Review 42:1087-1117.

Caldeira, Gregory A., and John R. Wright. 1990. Amici Curiae before the Supreme Court: Who Participates, When, and How Much? Journal of Politics 52(3):782-806. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2131827

Child, Curtis D., and Kirsten A. Gronbjerg. 2007 Nonprofit Advocacy Organizations: Their Characteristics and Activities. Social Science Quarterly 88(1):259-281. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2007.00457.x

Denzau, Arthur T., and Michael C. Munger. 1986. Legislators and Interest Groups: How Unorganized Interests Get Represented. American Political Science Review 80(1): 89-106. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1957085

Elizabeth, Kingsley, and John Pomeranz. 2005. A Crash at the Crossroads: Tax and Campaign Finance Laws Collide in Regulation of Political Activities of Tax-Exempt Organizations. William Mitchell Law Review 31:55-118.

Ezell, Mark. 2010. Seen but Not Heard: Strengthening Nonprofit Advocacy, by Gary D. Bass, David F. Arons, Kay Guinane, and Matthew F. Carter. Administration in Social Work 34:213-215. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03643101003609560

Froelich, Karen A., Terry W. Knoepfle, and Thomas H. Pollak. 2000. Financial Measures in Nonprofit Organization Research: Comparing IRS 990 Return and Audited Financial Statement Data. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 29:232-254. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0899764000292002

Gantz, Marie. 1999. Who Do You Trust? Comparing Data on Skilled-nursing Facilities from the Internal Revenue Service and Health Care Financing Administration. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 28(4):476-490. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0899764099284006

Heclo, Hugo. 1978. Issue Networks and the Executive Establishment: Government Growth in an Age of Improvement. Pp. 87-124 in The New American Political System, ed. Anthony King. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute.

Houck, Oliver. 2003. On the Limits of Charity: Lobbying, Litigation, and Electoral Politics by Charitable Organizations Under the Internal Revenue Code and Related Laws. Brooklyn Law Review 69:1-90.

Johnson, E.A.J. 1962. Federalism, Pluralism, and Public Policy. Journal of Economic History 22(4):427-444. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0022050700066663

Jordan, Grant. 1990. The Pluralism of Pluralism: An Anti-theory? Political Studies 38: 286-301. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.1990.tb01494.x

Kern, William Alfred. 1967. Section 501(c)(3) Organizations and Their Non-Section 501(c)(3) Sponsors: An Improved Form of Relationship. American Bar Association Journal 53:765-766.

Kerwin, Cornelius M. 2003. Rulemaking: How Government Agencies Write Law and Make Policy, 3rd ed. Washington, DC: CQ Press.

Kingdon, John W. 2003. Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies, 2nd ed. New York: Longman Publishing Group.

Kingsley, Elizabeth, and John Pomeranz. 2005. A Crash at the Crossroads: Tax and Campaign Finance Laws Collide in Regulation of Political Activities of Tax- Exempt Organizations. William Mitchell Law Review 31:55-118.

Kirk, Roger E. 1995. Experimental Design: Procedures for the Behavioral Sciences, 3rd ed. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing.

Lampkin, Linda M., and Elizabeth T. Boris. 2002. Nonprofit Organization Data: What We Have and What We Need. American Behavioral Scientist 45:1675-1715. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0002764202045011005

Leech, Beth L. 2006. Funding Faction or Buying Silence? Grants, Contracts, and Interest Group Lobbying Behavior. Policy Studies Journal 34(1):17-35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-0072.2006.00143.x

Lipton, Eric, Mike McIntire, and Don Van Natta, Jr. 2010. Top Corporations Aid U.S. Chamber of Commerce. New York Times. October 22, p. A1.

Lowi, Theodore J. 1979. The End of Liberalism: The Second Republic of the United States, 2nd ed. New York: Norton & Company.

Lowi, Theodore J. 1972. Four Systems of Policies, Politics, and Choice. Public Administration Review 32(4):298-310. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/974990

Marwell, Nicole P. 2004. Privatizing the Welfare State: Nonprofit Community Organizations. American Sociological Review 69(2):265-291. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/000312240406900206

McIntire, Mike. 2012. Conservative Nonprofit Acts as a Stealth Business Lobbyist. New York Times, April 21, p. A1.

Minkoff, Debra. 2002. The Emergence of Hybrid Organizational Forms: Combining Identity-based Service Provision and Political Action. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 31(3):377-401. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0899764002313004

Nix, James H. 1978. Limitations on the Lobbying of Section 501(c)(3) Organizations—A Choice for the Public Charities. West Virginia Law Review 81:407-426.

Olson, Mancur. 1965. The Logic of Collective Action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Osborne, Jason. 2002. Notes on the Use of Data Transformations. Practical Assessments, Research & Evaluation 8(6). http://PAREonline.net/getvn.asp?v=8&n=6 (accessed February 25, 2011).

Putnam, Robert. 2000. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/358916.361990

Rasmusen, Eric. 1993. Lobbying When the Decision Maker Can Acquire Independent Information. Public Choice 77:899-913. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01048001

Reid, Elizabeth J. 2006. Advocacy and the Challenges it Presents for Nonprofits. Pp. 343- 372 in Nonprofits and Government: Collaboration and Conflict, 2nd ed., eds. Elizabeth T. Boris and C. Eugene Steuerle. Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press.

Reid, Elizabeth J. 2001. Building a Policy Voice for Children through the Nonprofit Sector. Pp. 105-136 in Who Speaks for America's Children: The Role of Child Advocates in Public Policy, eds. Carol J. De Vita and Rachel Mosher-Williams. Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press.

Ryan, William. 1999. The New Landscape for Nonprofits. Harvard Business Review (January-February):127-136.

Sabatier, Paul A. 1988. An Advocacy Coalition Framework of Policy Change and the Role of Policy-Oriented Learning Therein. Policy Sciences 21:129-168. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00136406

Schattschneider, E.E. 1960. The Semi-Sovereign People. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Schlozman, Kay Lehman, and John T. Tierney. 1986. Organized Interests and American Democracy. New York: Harper & Row.

Shear, Michael D., and Derek Willis. 2012. Dominations to Democratic 'Super PAC' Rise Just as Campaign Steps Up Spending. New York Times, June 21, p. A16.

Simon, John, Harvey Dale, and Laura Chisolm. 2006. The Federal Tax Treatment of Charitable Organizations. Pp. 257-306 in The Nonprofit Sector: A Research Handbook, 2nd ed, eds. Walter W. Powell and Richard Steinberg. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Skelly, Dan, and Eugene Steuerle. 1992. The Nonprofit Sector and Taxes: Invaluable and Largely Untapped Research Bases. Nonprofit Management and Leadership 4:429-438. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/nml.4130020410

Smith, Richard A. 1995. Interest-Group Influence in U.S. Congress. Legislative Studies Quarterly 20(1):89-139. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/440151

Smith, Steven Rathgeb, and Michael Lipsky. 1993. Nonprofits for Hire: The Welfare State in the Age of Contracting. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Suárez, David F. 2009. Nonprofit Advocacy and Civic Engagement on the Internet. Administration & Society 41:267-289. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0095399709332297

Suárez, David F., and Hokyu Hwang. 2008. Civic Engagement and Nonprofit Lobbying in California, 1998-2003. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 37(1):93-112. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0899764007304467

Tatalovich, Raymond, and Byron W. Daynes. 2005. Social Regulations and the Policy Process. Pp. xxv-xxxi in Moral Controversies in American Politics, 3rd ed., eds. Raymond Tatalovich and Byron W. Daynes. Armonk, NY: ME Sharpe.

Truman, David B. 1951. The Governmental Process: Political Interests and Public Opinion. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Weissman, Stephen R., and Kara D. Ryan. 2007. Soft Money in the 2006 Election and Outlook on 2008: The Changing Nonprofits Landscape. The Campaign Finance Institute, http://www.cfinst.org/books_reports/pdf/NP_SoftMoney_0608.pdf (accessed July 17, 2012).

Whose Welfare? 2012. New York Times. June 4, p. A24.

Wright, John R. 1990. Contributions, Lobbying, and Committee Voting in the U.S. House of Representatives. American Political Science Review 84(2):417-438. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1963527

Downloads

Published

2016-09-08

Issue

Section

Articles