Posts Tagged ‘lobbying’

Google Diversifies Its Empire…

Wednesday, May 11th, 2011

robot-army.jpg
(credit: Sougent Harrop)

…with robot cars!

We’re always prattling on about the importance of diversification around here. You know, the “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” philosophy, applied to your investment portfolio. (If you don’t believe us that a diverse portfolio is the way to go, take the Timing the Markets Challenge!)

Well the same principle can apply to all areas of life – baskets of eggs, for example, or Internet empires like Google’s. They’ve been branching out from their humble search engine roots for years (email, document sharing, voicemail), but now they’re taking it to the streets. With robot cars.

Robot cars, as you might imagine, are currently illegal on U.S. roads. But if Google does a good job lobbying the Nevada legislature, then Sin City may become the first market for automated overlords vehicles.

Hey, if the Internet implodes some day, at least they’ll have something to fall back on.

Can non-profits legally influence lawmaking?

Friday, June 18th, 2010

When it comes to advocacy, nonprofits are governed by the IRS (Internal Revenue Service), specifically under Code Section 501 (c)(3). This code effects charities in two ways regarding advocacy activities:

(1) it stipulates that charities may neither publicly support nor oppose candidates running for public office, and
(2) it limits a charity’s ability to lobby for certain legislative efforts. The amount of time they’re allowed to lobby depends on the IRS designation the organization selected, but the amount allowable usually ranges from 3% to 20%. Charities can often do a fair amount within these restrictions.

Lobbying is…

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

Lobbying is the practice of trying to persuade some government body or official to support legislation that would help your employer or organization. For example, a member of an environmental group might lobby for Congress’ support in passing a global warming bill.