Understanding restrictions for 501(c)(3)s

Under the Internal Revenue Code, 501(c)(3) organizations are “absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Any contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity.”

In other words, 501(c)3 organizations cannot ask people to vote for specific candidates and they cannot donate funds to political candidates or political campaigns.

Nonprofits CAN encourage people to participate in the election process, including voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives, in a non-partisan way and without bias towards a certain candidate(s) or political party.

Learn more here.

Please note when sharing your work sample:

We'll accept both landscape and vertical video files, but we will be cropping to fit a 4:5 or 9:16 format for social media. Our team will take care to frame the work as well as possible, working to avoid cutting off limbs or movement as best we can.

We will not share more than 60 seconds of your work; it's best to give us an excerpt already shortened to 1 minute or less.

If we are unable to use your original sound, we may share your clip in silence.

Note: 501(c)3 organizations cannot ask people to vote for specific candidates and they cannot donate funds to political candidates or political campaigns. But there are still a lot of ways dance organizations can get involved in an election cycle. More information here.

We hope to produce a look book or guide showing different ways artists and organizations in the dance sector encourage their communities to vote.