Nonprofits: Stop Pretending Elections Don’t Affect Your Legislative Work

bethany6152
4 days ago
3 min read

I recently spent a few energizing days with a national coalition fighting for immigrant and refugee rights. We covered strategy, messaging, coalition coordination, and state-by-state landscapes. But as we dug into planning for the 2026 legislative sessions, I realized something was missing.

So I asked what felt like an obvious question: “How will the 2026 elections shape your upcoming legislative session?”

And the room visibly recoiled. Someone even whispered, “We don’t talk about elections-that’s C4 stuff.”

Cue me trying very hard not to let my face betray my internal monologue.

Because here’s the truth: Avoiding this conversation isn’t just unnecessary - it’s a strategic liability.

C3s Can Talk About Elections

Let’s clear this up for every nonprofit leader who has been unintentionally spooked by misinterpretations of IRS guidance:

C3 organizations absolutely can - and should - consider how upcoming elections will impact their issue strategy.

This is not electoral activity. This is not endorsing candidates. This is not telling people how to vote.

This is situational awareness, which is the foundation of good advocacy planning.

Every legislative strategy - no matter how policy-oriented - lives inside a political environment. And election cycles are one of the biggest environmental factors out there.

Ignoring that doesn’t make you compliant. It makes you unprepared.

Why Elections Shape Legislative Sessions

You don’t need to touch electoral work to ask smart, strategic questions like:

Will lawmakers show up differently in a session preceding an election year? (Spoiler: Yes. They always do.)
Will they be more hesitant—or more eager—to take up controversial bills?
Will our issue be part of the election conversation? If so, how do we leverage it? If not, how do we insert it?
How will the media landscape shift? What narratives should we anticipate or prepare to counter?
Will new legislative leaders emerge based on primary outcomes or campaign positioning?

All of these matter. All of them influence your advocacy.None of them violate nonprofit rules.

This Isn’t Electioneering. This Is Smart Planning

If you’re a C3, here’s what you can (and must) do:

Prep Your Advocates

Election years heighten public attention, partisanship, and media noise. Advocates need:

tighter message discipline
more support navigating narratives
Information on how to talk to candidates about your issues

This is not electoral training. This is inoculation.

Identify Opportunities in the Zeitgeist

If your issue suddenly becomes part of the local, state, or national conversation, you need a plan to:

respond quickly (do you have a rapid response plan?)
correct misinformation
amplify lived experiences
generate demand for policy action

Moments like these can’t be seized if you’re too scared to talk about them and plan for them!

Mitigate Risks Before They Hit

Election-year politics can bring:

surprise bills
escalated rhetoric
misinformation campaigns
lawmakers testing messages on your community

You can’t mitigate risks you refuse to name. Plan for how you'll respond to each of these.

If You’re Not Thinking About the 2026 Elections, You’re Starting 10 Steps Behind

You can adhere to every rule of nonpartisanship and still incorporate election dynamics into your advocacy plan. In fact, not doing so puts your mission, your community, and your policy goals at a disadvantage.

This isn’t about endorsing candidates. It’s about understanding the environment you’re operating in.

And heading into 2026, that environment is about to get loud.

So before you finalize your legislative planning for 2026, pause and ask:

“How will the 2026 elections shape our issue, our lawmakers, and our path through session?”

If the answer is “We haven’t talked about that,” then you’ve just identified your biggest blind spot - and your biggest opportunity.

Snyder Strategies Can Help

If you need help facilitating these conversations or integrating election-year strategy into a C3-safe plan, I can help. This is what I do every day with coalitions, boards, and advocacy teams across the country.

Let’s get strategic—long before the campaign ads start rolling (too late, lol). Let's chat.

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