Nonprofit Advocacy and Lobbying

Candidate Forums

Candidate forums and debates provide an opportunity to learn more about where candidates for public office stand on issues important to your community. The law permits 501(c)(3) and (c)(4) nonprofits to sponsor nonpartisan candidate forums with certain restrictions:

• The organization must have a record of concern with public and legislative issues.
• All viable candidates for the specific office(s) must be invited to participate. If one or more of the invitees declines, the sponsor must either cancel the forum or exercise special care
  to avoid favoritism to those candidates who do show up.
• The forum must address a broad range of issues. It can focus on a general topic (e.g., economic policy, education, or the environment), but not on a single issue within that topic (e.g., estate tax, school vouchers, or acid rain).
• Questions must be prepared and presented by a nonpartisan panel of knowledgeable persons who are independent of the sponsoring organization.
• Each candidate must have an equal opportunity to present his or her views, and
  questioning procedures must not favor or hinder any candidate.
• The forum must be run by a nonpartisan moderator who does not act as a spokesperson
  for the sponsoring organization. 

Candidate forums provide a great opportunity to raise the visibility of your nonprofit and to let
candidates know that the issues you care about are important to voters. If you’re not ready to
sponsor a forum alone, consider working in coalition with other area nonprofits – or prepare your
volunteers and supporters with questions they can ask at candidate forums sponsored by other
organizations.

Sample Questions for Candidates
You can raise awareness of your mission and issues of concern through asking candidates to respond to questionnaires or attending debates and posing questions. As you inquire about candidates' views on your particular mission, don't forget to include questions on the broader climate for philanthropy and nonprofit initiative.   See Sample Questions for candidates.

Please share your own organization's activities or any resources, online or otherwise, that would help other nonprofits encourage voter participation and raise the visibility of issues important to them during this election season—email: publicpolicy@IndependentSector.org.

Last updated: September 8, 2004