Politics

The Department of Defense has suspended its Combined Federal Campaign due to the ongoing government shutdown. The campaign, which includes uniformed personnel and DOD civilians, allows for contributions to thousands of charities through payroll deduction. It was stopped after Pentagon officials determined work on the campaign was not approved through the Pay Our Military Act, the measure used to bring back 90 percent of DOD workers furloughed by the shutdown.

United Way executives from across the country gathered near the Capitol on Wednesday morning in an attempt to show Congress how communities as politically different as Georgia and Pennsylvania or Illinois and South Carolina manage to work together to tackle issues.

Nearly 50 United Way leaders then spent the day meeting with elected officials to urge them to end the nine-day government shutdown that this week will begin to cut off food to low-income mothers and their babies when the federal Women, Infants and Children food program runs out of money.

Big swaths of the federal government closed shop at midnight Monday night after Congress failed to reach a deal to keep the money flowing. Following are some reports about how the shutdown is affecting nonprofits.

Candidates come from all walks of life, and it’s not feasible for all of them to enter a campaign with the skill set to know how to ask for money. We as fundraising professionals must teach our candidates how to make the ask. The most important reason a candidate needs to be able to ask for money is that most donors won’t fork over money without a specific request. Specificity kills ambiguity. The more specific the ask, the higher probability for success for getting your financial needs met.

Direct-mail fundraising gets ramped up even more during the political fundraising cycles. Paul Bobnak, research director of DirectMarketingIQ, took a look at "The Best in 2012 Election Mail," last year.

Despite their personal politics, fundraisers in 2009 could not deny the impact that the 2008 presidential campaign had on the face of fundraising. In January of 2009, Jocelyn Harmon asked (and answered) the question, "What Can *YOU* Learn From Obama?"

President Barack Obama is converting the machinery of his re-election campaign into a tax-exempt nonprofit group to push his second-term legislative agenda, a Democratic official confirmed. The new group, Organizing for Action, will be headed by Jim Messina, who served as Obama’s 2012 campaign manager. The group, separate from the Democratic National Committee, will solicit donations from corporations and individuals to augment Obama’s legislative initiatives on such issues as reducing gun violence and overhauling immigration policy.

Election Day marks the end of a political campaign. It also marks the beginning of fundraising for the next campaign. Federal disclosure filings show that plenty of money was flowing through Washington immediately following Nov. 6. The most active political action committee in the weeks after the election belonged to the U.S. subsidiary of Swiss banking giant UBS AG. The company gave $122,000 in the three weeks following Election Day, the latest period for which information is available.

In the U.S., charities and governments have long held a unique and often symbiotic relationship, but some nonprofit executives are increasingly concerned that their longtime allies might be turning out to be a lot less friendly. Municipal, state, and federal officials are struggling to balance dire budgets, and all options are on the table for trimming. Perhaps the greatest threat is to a charity's finances. Government agencies are cutting back on direct funding and both major political parties are seriously considering killing the charitable tax deductions for donors.

CForward, an organization dedicated to promoting candidates who have strong agendas for strengthening nonprofits in their communities, endorsed eight candidates, all but one for a state or local office, and five of them won.

The CForward candidates who won their election bids were: Kate Bolz, Nebraska State Legislature; Andy Dinniman, Pennsylvania State Senate; Ellie Hill, Montana State House of Representatives; Becky Massey, Tennessee State Senate; and Sam Singh, Michigan State House of Representatives.