Thursday, March 29, 2007

"Donors, Nonprofit Employees Support Lobbying Disclosures"

The Nonprofit Times highlighted the OMB Watch survey on grassroots lobbying disclosure. The article discusses the survey results and responses in some detail. For example, many who took the survey commented that disclosure would help distinguish "between genuine grassroots activism, which tends to be money-poor but people-rich, and 'Astroturf' lobbying, which tends to be money-rich."

In most cases, those at nonprofits supported exclusions from disclosure more than those not working at nonprofits. Nonprofit employees were almost twice as supportive of having $50,000 per quarter spent on grassroots lobbying be a trigger for disclosure as those not in nonprofits, along with excluding communications with members from disclosure requirements.