The President and CEO of a major Nashville nonprofit organization was accused of encouraging her employees of supporting certain candidates running for the Metro Nashville School Board.
Marsha Edwards of the Martha O'Bryan Center, an 501(c)(3) organization, sent out an email on June 23 to everyone on her contact list. The email started out saying there is an urgent need for paid canvassers that would help the campaigns of four candidates.
According to the Internal Revenue Service, 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.
"Nonprofits that are tax deductible should be very careful about how they are involved with political activity," President of Center for Nonprofit Management Lewis Levine told NewsChannel 5.
Nonprofits and its donors are granted tax exemptions but Levine said an IRS investigation could be detrimental.
"The nuclear option would be the removal of the nonprofit status by the IRS," Levine added. "A nonprofit can't exist without a tax exempt status."
Jane Meneely, Miranda Christy, Jackson Miller and Thomas Druffel were all listed in the email as being endorsed by Stand For Children, a political action committee with an office in Nashville.
The committee supports candidates that are friendly to charter schools.
Stand For Children Nashville City Director Daniel O'Donnell asked for help endorsing the candidates through knocking on doors and making phone calls. Anyone willing to help would get paid $10 an hour. He said in the email, "To put it bluntly: we are being outworked by our opponents, putting us on a losing trajectory."
Edwards suggested that the center's college students and grads should participate in the canvassing. She even said that two of the candidates, one of which already works for the nonprofit as an event consultant, would be strong members.
According to its tax form, the center easily gets millions of dollars in contributions.
Metro spends at least 100-thousand dollars each year to support the center.
School board candidates feel the email was unfair including District 5 candidate Christiane Buggs.
"It's becoming harder and harder to run an authentic grassroots campaign," Buggs, a former teacher said. "It would be a great chance to have extra volunteers."
She added that a charter school candidate is being backed is frustrating.
Marsha Edwards released a statement:
