Week 8

This week I called a lot of non-profit organizations to talk to them about the Reform Immigration for America campaign and see if they would be willing and able to endorse it. Most of the organizations told me that either they did not know if they could get involved in a political campaign or they had an strict policy that they do not get involved in political campaigns of any kind. When I told my supervisor about this, he told me that non-profits are able to spend a certain amount of money on lobbying each year, so he was surprised that I got that kind of response. That made me wonder what motives non-profits would have to stay away from political action. Not all non-profits work in providing social services, but it seems strange that those who do would have that kind of policy, because the existing laws affect the people that they serve. I think that it only makes sense to combine service with advocacy. This advocacy needs to happen on the local level and on the national political level. I think I need to consider whether I want to be able to involve this kind of political advocacy in my work as I consider my post-college plans or if I would be satisfied working in a non-political, service providing organization.