GCV - The Cycle of Accountability

THE CYCLE OF ACCOUNTABILITY

Georgia Conservation Voters believes that most Georgians consider protecting our state's beautiful natural environment to be a top priority.

Those of us who work for the environment know that Georgians want a clean environment -- but we also know that, when it comes to the environment, our elected officials have not always kept pace with what Georgia wants.

There are many wonderful non-profit organizations in Georgia that seek to improve the way our natural resources are managed. The staff, board members, and many volunteers of the various non-profit conservation groups in Georgia constitute an informal community of dedicated folks who care about their environment, and who devote their time and energy to making the state a better place to live. What fuels their work is their conviction that they speak for more than themselves and their groups' members -- they speak for the vast majority of Georgia's citizens, who want a clean environment for themselves and their children.

However, the IRS places strict limits on the amount of lobbying most non-profit groups can do, and groups can't get involved in political elections in any way. Under chapter 501(c)(3) of the U.S. internal revenue code, the organizations that can accept tax-deductible contributions cannot spend a "substantial part" of their budget on lobbying, and can do no campaigning and can make no endorsements of candidates for elected office.

Georgia Conservation Voters is different. We are a non-profit, non-partisan group organized under a different chapter of the internal revenue code, 501(c)(4), which allows us to accept contributions, but does not allow our donors to claim contributions to us as a deduction on their income tax returns. Since we can lobby, endorse candidates, and even make political contributions through an affiliated Action Fund, GCV can help close what we call the "cycle of accountability:"

Here's the way how things have worked in Georgia:

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Throughout the year, the conservation community communicates its various policy goals to legislators

During the Georgia General Assembly’s legislative session, these legislators enact or reject conservation community agenda.

In the primaries and general elections every two years, the public elects or rejects candidates for office.

These three processes -- conservation communication, legislation, and election -- determine how environmental decisions are made in the state of Georgia, but they aren't very well connected. At every step of the way, Georgia's elected officials need to understand what Georgians want, and Georgians need to know how their elected officials voted on the issues that matter to them, but most non-profit groups can only get involved in this vital work in a very limited way.

Georgia Conservation Voters, as a (c)(4) organization, seeks to link the three key processes of conservation communication, legislation, and election by:

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Helping the conservation community to evaluate and to prioritize its goals for an upcoming session;

Training grassroots activists about the state legislative process, and encouraging citizens to get involved;

Letting Georgians know what is happening during a legislative session, and at the end of a session issuing a comprehensive environmental Scorecard -- so that all Georgians can know how their legislators voted on the key environmental issues that came up;

Evaluating candidates for office, and making formal endorsements;

Backing up many of our endorsements with our seperately-administered "Georgia Conservation Voters Political Action Fund," which gives campaign contributions in a non-partisan fashion to pro-environmental candidates, and, in some cases, by running independent expenditure campaigns on behalf of selected candidates.