Postal Regulations

For the reason that lots of nonprofits depend so heavily on U.S. mail for their fundraising appeals, the postmaster with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) serves as a further resource for regulating them. By way of example, inside the last handful of years, the USPS has definitely stepped up its efforts in enforcing nonprofit postal regulations extra vigorously than ever ahead of. It is primarily concerned with fraudulent or misleading direct-mail pieces and in cracking down on for-profit firms that attempt to send mail applying nonprofit permits. So as to proficiently monitor and regulate nonprofit postal regulations, the USPS is authorized, by federal laws and regulation, to complete the following:
 

• Spot-check bulk mail (for points like drugs and explosives)
• Impose fines if abuses are uncovered, which include mailing illegal substances or applying the mail to run a scam
• Call for alterations inside the content material with the mailing, which include a disclaimer sothat the content material will not be misleading
• Revoke nonprofit mailing permits

The bulk mail coordinator at your neighborhood or regional post workplace is usually valuable in answering queries about getting and adequately applying a nonprofit postal permit.

Federal Election Laws
 

Nonprofit organizations are restricted inside the sort and scope with the political
actions in which they're able to engage as a result of their tax-exempt status beneath
Section 501(c)(3) with the Internal Income Code. The government’s rationale
for this limitation is very simple: It does not make any sense for the government to
subsidize organizations by granting tax-exempt status in order that the nonprofits
can advocate for their very own political interests.
 

The following is a quick rundown of political activities that tax-exempt organizations can do:

• Lobby (within a certain limit) on specific issues
• Conduct nonpartisan public education and training sessions about participation in the political process
• Educate political candidates on issues of public interest
• Publish information about political candidates’ positions on issues
• Rent their mailing lists to political organizations that pay fair market value for the information
• Conduct voter registration and participation drives
• Work with political parties on formulating their platforms

The following is a skull-and-crossbones list of activities that 501(c)(3) tax exempt nonprofit organizations can’t do: 

• Endorse candidates for public office
• Make any campaign contributions
• Restrict the rental of their mailing lists to certain political candidates
• Ask candidates to directly endorse a specific issue in exchange for the organization’s support
• Step up their criticism of the actions of incumbent candidates immediately before an election
• Publish or communicate anything that explicitly or implicitly favors or opposes a candidate

Organizations who engage in these prohibited actions face the loss of their tax-exempt status, and all the unfavorable publicity that is certainly linked with such a loss. Donors may perhaps be prohibited from taking deductions on future returns.