No. Arts for LA is not a funder and we do not promote or advertise arts events. We will post advocacy or professional development events in our newsletter, but we cannot help you publicize your arts event, share information on your organization, or cross-link to your blog. We are a small nonprofit organization focused on advocacy and policy and do not provide funding for outside projects. We do not participate in publicity exchanges or cross-promotion unless we are co-producing an advocacy or educational event. Arts for LA receives requests to fund/promote various projects daily, and this is outside of the scope of our mission and organizational capacity.
Probably not, for two reasons.
First, Arts for LA rarely uses petitions as a tactic. In the age of internet/social networking, we believe individual letters, calls to action, and phone campaigns hold more weight. Since each letter/email/postcard is counted separately (unlike a petition, which requires thousands of signatures to garner attention and avoid neglect), we believe hosting action alerts are the most effective and successful method of advocacy.
We encourage you to contact us if you are working on an issue that involves policies or practices that affect arts and/or arts education in Los Angeles County. However, because we want to create lasting relationships between the arts & cultural community and those who represent or fund them, we follow strict guidelines for messaging and campaign planning. Everything we share with our constituents or otherwise engage in must be strategic, targeted, positive, and solutions-based.
Arts for LA does our best to glean and disseminate information promptly. If it is an issue affecting arts and culture and you do not see any mention of the issue on our website we want to hear from you.
Please note that we have limited capacity and may be engaged in other campaigns or issues. Arts for LA focuses on policy issues affecting communities, municipalities, groups of arts & cultural organizations, and school districts. We are rarely able to help individual organizations. Successful campaigns require the participation of local stakeholders such as organizations, parents, and community members. Arts for LA can convene stakeholders and provide the web infrastructure and training for advocacy campaigns, but stakeholder participation helps a campaign “go viral” and be successful.
No. Arts for LA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. We do not endorse candidates. We do sometimes conduct surveys of all candidates for a particular election or link to voting guides created by other 501(c)(3) nonprofits. Nonprofits may, however, endorse bills or pieces of legislation.
Yes, non-profits may engage in advocacy, although there are restrictions. There is also a legal difference between advocacy and lobbying.
Advocacy is voicing support for an issue or cause, such as telling the public about the benefits of arts education on your website. There are no limits to pure advocacy by nonprofits.
Lobbying (sometimes called “direct advocacy”) refers to advocacy efforts intended to influence legislation, such as writing to City Council to oppose a bill that affects arts education. Nonprofits may engage in a limited amount of lobbying; the percentage is dependent on budget size but is usually around 10% of an organization’s annual budget.
Engaging in significant advocacy/lobbying activities? If your organization is spending more than 10% of its expenditures on direct advocacy/lobbying, you should file a 501(h) provision form. The current 501(h) provision allows nonprofit arts organizations to allocate expenditures of up to 20% of the first $500,000 of their annual budget to direct advocacy and lobbying. If the organization exceeds $500,000 in annual income, only 15% of the next $500,000 can go to advocacy expenditures, and so on up to $1 million. To engage the 501(h) provision, an organization must complete the IRS Form 5768.