the advocacy monitor

Independent Living News & Policy from the National Council on Independent Living

Information for Members About NCIL Advocacy and Lobbying Activities

Like other 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organizations, NCIL is allowed to and does engage in lobbying within the applicable restrictions set by law. We understand that since many of our member organizations receive federal funding, there have been concerns about whether payment of NCIL membership dues may create issues regarding restrictions on members’ use of federal funds for lobbying. We wanted to take a moment to put those fears to rest.

NCIL does NOT use money received through membership dues for lobbying; any funds that NCIL expends on lobbying is paid from other, unrestricted funds. The money we receive through membership dues helps fund the many educational, developmental, and critical non-lobbying advocacy efforts and projects NCIL staff work on day in and day out. We have good basis to believe that the law permits members to pay dues to NCIL in consideration for NCIL’s non-lobbying work such that paying those dues to NCIL does not count as federal funds being used for lobbying.

To learn more about NCIL membership, visit our membership page at ncil.org/ncil-membership.