I2M's blog

You’ve heard that you have to “spend money to make money” and that applies to PAC’s as well. But are there benchmarks on PAC operating expenses?

I2M faculty member Brett Kappel of Arent Fox wanted me to pass on to you FEC Advisory Opinion 2010-12. 

The FEC held that Proctor & Gamble could withhold PAC contributions from the quarterly retainer payments made to outside directors on the Proctor & Gamble board.   

This advisory opinion should be read as giving corporate PACs permission to withhold PAC contributions from directors’ fees and should make it easier for corporate PACs to receive support from this important element of a company’s restricted class.

I2M faculty member Brett Kappel of Arent Fox wanted me to pass on to you FEC Advisory Opinion 2010-12. 

The FEC held that Proctor & Gamble could withhold PAC contributions from the quarterly retainer payments made to outside directors on the Proctor & Gamble board.   

This advisory opinion should be read as giving corporate PACs permission to withhold PAC contributions from directors’ fees and should make it easier for corporate PACs to receive support from this important element of a company’s restricted class.

There are numerous advantages to instituting an initial grassroots program. The following are four of the most salient:

Alan Gerber and Donald Green’s book, Get Out the Vote, is a rigorous, research-based approach to validating various voter registration and GOTV (Get Out the Vote) drives. The authors conducted their experiments over several years in federal midterm elections, state and municipal elections, the 2000 presidential election, and various nonpartisan voter mobilization efforts.

After shunning politics for years, Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer, launched a voter registration and education campaign targeted at its 1.3 million employees.

Wal-Mart’s initiative is not without precedent. A growing number of corporations, including Nationwide, ExxonMobil and DaimlerChrysler, have organized in-house voter registration efforts, making it easy for workers to download voter-registration forms and apply for absentee ballots.

After shunning politics for years, Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer, launched a voter registration and education campaign targeted at its 1.3 million employees.

Wal-Mart’s initiative is not without precedent. A growing number of corporations, including Nationwide, ExxonMobil and DaimlerChrysler, have organized in-house voter registration efforts, making it easy for workers to download voter-registration forms and apply for absentee ballots.

After shunning politics for years, Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer, launched a voter registration and education campaign targeted at its 1.3 million employees.

Wal-Mart’s initiative is not without precedent. A growing number of corporations, including Nationwide, ExxonMobil and DaimlerChrysler, have organized in-house voter registration efforts, making it easy for workers to download voter-registration forms and apply for absentee ballots.

Background

It is our interest in excellent government relations programs and “best in class” organizations that inspired our second research project with Fortune magazine’s “Power 25.” The first project focused on how they recruit, retain, and motivate their most productive grassroots advocates.

As the leader of your grassroots program, you must remember that your potential grassroots volunteers, the employees, want to get something out of their association with your program. It’s not just your convincing arguments for the company’s legislative priorities that will garner their participation and loyalty.