From Larry Ottinger, CLPI President

July 20, 2009   

A few months ago, we worked together to pass the historic Serve America Act and to defeat attempts to prohibit nonprofits involved in national service programs from engaging in lobbying and other forms of advocacy even with private funds. Now, we would like to focus your attention on two critical opportunities for dramatically increasing nonprofit civic engagement and effectiveness at this time of crisis.

At CLPI, our goal has been to “make the extraordinary ordinary.” While there is so much going on of importance, we must not lose sight of these opportunities to leverage change for years to come.

 

(1) Please call your Senators and ask them to support removal of the advocacy-related restrictions on Legal Services Corporation grantees’ state, local and private funds by voting for the current Commerce, Justice, and Science FY 2010 appropriations bill which is scheduled to be on the Senate floor within the next two weeks.

  

(2) Please call Sen. Tom Harkin (IA-D) – Chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies – and Sen. Thad Cochran (MS-R), Ranking Member, and urge them to support full funding for the FY 2010 Corporation for National and Community Service budget, including full funding for the Nonprofit Capacity Building program created by the Serve America Act.

 

For more information, go to  CLPI.