Key Takeaways:
- 501(c)(3) organizations can participate in some political activity, including voter registration, issue advocacy, but face strict limits around what kind and how much lobbying they can do.
- Tracking is key when it comes to nonprofits that want to engage in lobbying and there are two ways to do it right.
- 501(c)(3) organizations cannot engage in partisan activities like endorsing certain candidates or political parties.
- 501(c)(4) organizations can endorse candidates, take positions on specific bills, and make independent expenditures, offering significantly more political flexibility.
- You can operate a 501(c)(3) and a 501(c)(4) simultaneously, but doing it right requires careful compliance, separate tracking, and clear boundaries between the two.
2026 is a midterm election year, and if you lead a nonprofit, political questions are probably already coming up in your board meetings, staff conversations, or donor calls. What can we say? Who can we support? Can we register voters or invite a candidate to our fundraiser?
The rules around nonprofit political activity are more nuanced than most people realize, and the consequences of getting it wrong can put your tax-exempt status at risk. In a recent episode of the 501(c) Suite podcast, nonprofit attorney Katie Buckner broke down exactly what nonprofits can and can’t do depending on their tax-exempt status. Here’s what you need to know.
Can a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Participate in Political Activity at All?
Yes, and this surprises a lot of people.
The common assumption is that political activity is completely off-limits for nonprofits. That’s not accurate. A 501(c)(3) does have meaningful ability to engage with the important controversial issues of the day. The key is understanding which activities are permitted and which cross the line.
What 501(c)(3)s Are Allowed to Do
Educate Voters on Issues and Bills
A 501(c)(3) can talk to voters about what’s happening in the legislature. If you run a youth-serving nonprofit and there’s a bill coming up that would increase education funding, you can tell people about it, explain why it matters to your mission, and encourage them to contact their representatives. Encouraging civic engagement around issues you care about is entirely permissible.
Register Voters
Nonprofits can conduct voter registration drives. This is one of the clearest forms of permitted political activity for a 501(c)(3). You can go door to door, set up a table, and help people get registered.
One important caveat: you cannot register voters of only one party. If you’re asking people whether they’re Republican or Democrat before deciding to help them, that’s partisan political activity, which is off-limits. Political parties and specific candidates should not be mentioned. Setting up in a neighborhood where you suspect residents might lean a certain way is generally permissible, but directly screening by party affiliation is not permitted.
Lobby Within Limits
501(c)(3)s are allowed to lobby to some extent, which means talking to legislators and voters about issues. But the rules here are more specific than many nonprofit leaders realize.
When talking to a voter, you can discuss specific bills, explain what’s in them, and encourage people to take action. When talking to a legislator, the person who actually votes on the bill, you cannot discuss that specific bill. You can share your organization’s broad policy goals and the types of outcomes you’d like to see. But naming the bill, or making it clear you’re advocating for or against a specific piece of legislation, moves into direct lobbying territory, which is restricted for 501(c)(3)s.
Think of it this way: broad strokes with lawmakers, specifics with voters.
What 501(c)(3)s Cannot Do
Endorse Candidates or Political Parties
A 501(c)(3) cannot tell people to vote for or against a specific candidate or party. This includes indirect endorsement, like presenting a candidate’s voting record on a single issue without including comparable information about other candidates. You can talk about policy. You cannot tell people which candidate to support.
Directly Lobby on Specific Bills
As noted above, talking to a legislator about a specific bill crosses into direct lobbying. 501(c)(3)s are not permitted to do this without registering and tracking it carefully and staying within either the “substantial” lobbying test or the clearer 501(h) election threshold (more on those below).
Invite Candidates to Events Without Risk
This one gets complicated fast. You can invite a politician to your event, but once they’re there as a candidate rather than just as an officeholder, the risk increases significantly. If your event becomes a platform for their campaign in any way, the entire event could be counted as political activity.
The safest approach: if you want a candidate at your event, invite someone from both sides. Give them equal time and frame it as a discussion or debate. That way, you’re presenting multiple perspectives rather than endorsing one.
Understanding Lobbying Rules: Two Tests You Should Know
If your nonprofit is doing any lobbying, you need to be tracking it, and you need to know which compliance framework you’re operating under.
The Substantial Lobbying Test: By default, a 501(c)(3) simply cannot do a “substantial” amount of lobbying. Unfortunately, the IRS has never drawn a bright line on what “substantial” means and their resources reflect that. Case law and regulations don’t give a specific percentage, which creates real uncertainty. You’ll need to track how much is spent on lobbying, both money and the time of volunteers and staff. Work with legal counsel to determine your nonprofit’s appetite for risk when it comes to the amount of lobbying you want to do.
The 501(h) Election: A 501(c)(3) can opt into the 501(h) election by checking a box on its tax return. This gives you a clearer framework, generally around 20% of exempt purpose expenditures, with a hard cap of $1 million in lobbying spending regardless of organization size. For many nonprofits, the certainty this provides is worth the explicit cap. You’ll need to file Form 5768 with the IRS, but it allows your nonprofit to have clarity around how much lobbying you can do in a given year.
Which approach makes sense for your organization depends on how much lobbying you’re doing, your budget, and your risk tolerance. This is one area where legal counsel is especially valuable.
Separately from these IRS thresholds, lobbying registration and reporting requirements apply at both the federal and state levels. What makes someone a “lobbyist” varies by state; in some states, a single conversation with a legislator about a bill qualifies; in others, you’d need to be compensated above a certain threshold. Most states require registered lobbyists to report regularly on the bills they’re lobbying about and the money they’re spending on related activities, including things like printed materials, presentations, or even food. So if your nonprofit is engaging in lobbying, no matter which IRS test you use for compliance, you’ll likely need to register in the states you are lobbying within.
What a 501(c)(4) Can Do That a 501(c)(3) Cannot
A 501(c)(4) is designed for social welfare and advocacy, and it comes with significantly more political flexibility.
Endorse candidates. A 501(c)(4) can publicly say it supports a specific candidate. That’s not permitted for a 501(c)(3) under any circumstances.
Take positions on specific bills. A 501(c)(4) can advocate directly for or against named legislation.
Present the candidate’s voting records on your issue. A 501(c)(3) can’t publish a side-by-side comparison of two candidates’ voting records on education, but a 501(c)(4) can. As long as it’s presented in a neutral way, giving voters the information they need to draw their own conclusions.
Make independent expenditures. A 501(c)(4) can spend money in support of a candidate, as long as there’s no coordination with the campaign. You can’t work with the campaign to plan the mailer. But you can decide independently to send one.
One rule applies to both entity types: neither can give money directly to a candidate or campaign.
Can You Operate Both a 501(c)(3) and a 501(c)(4)?
Yes, and many advocacy-minded nonprofits do exactly this. You’ll often see an organization called something like Community Partners alongside a related entity called Community Partners Action.
The first is the 501(c)(3). The second is the 501(c)(4).
Running both isn’t simple. It requires:
- Separate governance. Each entity needs its own board, governing documents, and filings.
- Clear staff tracking. If staff work for both organizations, their time needs to be allocated and compensated accordingly from the correct entity’s budget.
- Distinct communications. Any outreach (a mailer, a door knock, a social media post) should make clear which entity it’s coming from and in what capacity.
- Separate finances. 501(c)(3) funds cannot be used for 501(c)(4) activities, especially political ones.
The compliance overhead is real, but for organizations whose mission intersects with policy change, having both structures can be the right long-term investment.
When Should You Talk to a Nonprofit Attorney?
If all you want to do is register voters, you can probably do that without legal advice. But if you’re planning to lobby legislators, advocate for policy change in multiple states, invite candidates to events, or explore setting up a 501(c)(4) alongside your 501(c)(3), getting legal guidance before you act is worthwhile.
Lobbying rules vary significantly by state. Organizations operating in multiple states face a layered compliance landscape: federal rules plus each state’s registration and reporting requirements. Mistakes in this area don’t just carry financial penalties; they can threaten your tax-exempt status.
The rules are publicly available. But knowing which rules apply to your organization, in your state, at your level of activity, and with your risk profile, that’s where the complexity lives.
The Bottom Line
Nonprofits have more room to engage in the political sphere than most leaders realize, but that room has real boundaries, and those boundaries shift depending on your tax status, who you’re talking to, and what you’re saying.
If you’re a 501(c)(3), you can educate, advocate broadly, register voters, and lobby within limits. You cannot endorse candidates, name specific bills in conversations with legislators, or register voters by party.
If you’re a 501(c)(4), you have significantly more flexibility, including the ability to endorse candidates, take positions on specific legislation, and make independent expenditures.
And if you need to do both, that’s possible with the right structure and compliance practices in place.
Learn More and Stay Connected
If you’re looking for reliable answers to your nonprofit’s most important legal questions, visit charitableallies.org for free resources, guides, and case studies designed to support nonprofit sustainability.
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CEO at Charitable Allies
As the CEO, Olivia Froedge (Cloer) leads the Charitable Allies team in serving over 2,000 nonprofit organizations nationwide. With previous experience as the COO and the Director of Marketing and Operations, Olivia led marketing, operations and automation efforts that led to the organization doubling in size within 3 years. Olivia joined the Charitable Allies team in 2020 after her last role serving as the Director of Development for a nonprofit. She has a passion for bringing business savvy to the nonprofit sector so they can serve great causes more effectively. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in English and Communications from DePauw University. She is also a Mitch Daniels Leadership Fellow and a Certified Salesforce Administrator.
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