Wall Street Protesters Consider Filing
for Charity Status After Raising Funds
By Lisa Chiu
;;;;;;;;
Occupy Wall Street protesters are proud of their lack of organizational structure. But as
the demonstration approaches
its third month and donations
of cash and goods pour in, the
people gathered in Zuccotti
Park are now trying to figure
out how to sustain momentum
without giving up their anti-es-tablishment spirit.
The protest against the disparity in wealth in the United
States and corporate greed has,
perhaps ironically, become a
fund-raising machine, attracting $454,000 from more than
8,000 donors in its first month.
states where the group is solic-
iting funds,” Mr. Colvin adds.
“Those responsible for handling
Occupy finances must under-
stand the system under which
they are operating, not misrep-
resent it, and pay faithful atten-
tion to the details.”
The legal restrictions that
charities face, not just concern
Perhaps most important,
nonprofits cannot conduct or
encourage illegal activity, and
that includes civil disobedience,
says Mr. Colvin.
“There are a lot
of people in the
movement that are
really resistant to
capitalism.”
‘Not in It for the Money’
Some fund-raising experts say
the protesters might not need to
put much energy into creating
a long-term structure because
the movement itself might not
be around that long.
Karla Williams, a fund-raising consultant in North Carolina, says the spontaneous donations to Occupy Wall Street
are much like the response to a
natural disaster. When the immediate need diminishes, so do
the donations.
Mark Rovner, chief executive of Sea Change Strategies,
a Washington fund-raising consulting company, sees more staying power. He says the protest
reminds him of when hundreds
of thousands of people signed an
e-mail petition asking Congress
to censure Bill Clinton, not im-
EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/GET T Y IMAGES
With bare-bones organization, Occupy Wall Street raised
more than $450,000 from donors in its first month.
Fund-Raising Success
Those large sums may just be
what force the movement down
a more structured path.
For now, the protesters decided to accept an offer from the
Alliance for Global Justice, a
Washington group, to serve as
a “fiscal sponsor” to collect the
money and provide oversight to
ensure it is used in ways that
comply with Internal Revenue
Service rules for organizations
that accept tax-deductible contributions.
But some Occupy Wall Street
organizers are considering
whether it is time to apply to
the IRS for charity status so it
can have direct control over all
aspects of its operations.
One of the organizations that
sprouted in response to Occupy
Wall Street— Occupy Las Vegas—has already received non-profit status at the state level.
But it could take some time, and
a lot of negotiation, before Occupy Wall Street goes the formal
legal route. Many of the people
who have joined the protest did
so to promote civil disobedience
and are distrustful of any form
of structure.
“Establishing a nonprofit is
complex,” said Jo Robin, a jazz
singer in New Orleans who
traveled to New York last month
from a protest in her hometown
“There are a lot of people in the
movement that are really re-
sistant to capitalism. In New
Orleans, we agreed that we
wouldn’t solicit funds. We asked
for donations like warm clothes
or blankets.”
about bureaucracy, could be an-
other reason Occupy Wall Street
and local protest movements de-
cide to stay away from seeking
charity status.
peach him, and “move on.” That
e-mail petition led to the creation of Moveon.org, a nonprofit
advocacy group.
“These are pregnant moments where people are looking
for some way to express their
anger or concern or rage,” Mr.
Rovner said.
The organizers of Occupy
Wall Street could raise sig-
nificant sums if they wanted
to create a more institutional-
ized fund-raising structure, Mr.
Rovner adds.
What Charities Can Learn from Occupy Wall Street’s Story
Many nonprofit groups spend
time developing elaborate advocacy campaigns and crafting fund-raising appeals. But
Occupy Wall Street, which has
raised more than $450,000 in
one month and spawned hundreds of like-minded protests
throughout the country, shows
that clear messages and strong
emotions matter more to donors
than polished appeals.
Occupy Wall Street operates
with “an absolute lack of a fund-raising bureaucracy,” says Nick
Allen, a veteran consultant to
many American nonprofits who
now works in Barcelona, Spain.
“They don’t have a director of
development. People see them
on TV and get excited and want
to help.”
Another reason so many peo-
ple have wanted to support the
Listen to supporters.
“We’re entering a bottom-up
world,” says Mark Rovner, head
of Sea Change Strategies, a
Washington fund-raising consulting group. “If nonprofits are
not listening closely to where
their constituents’ heads and
hearts are, they’re going to be
left behind. Most nonprofits
spend very little time letting
their donors talk back to them.”
React quickly. Nonprof-
its should follow Occupy Wall
Street’s approach of moving fast
to respond to public concerns,
says Madeline Stanionis, chief
executive of Watershed, a online
advocacy and fund-raising con-
sulting firm in San Francisco.
“They don’t have a
director of development. People see
them on TV and get
excited.”
Lobbying Questions
As the protest continues to
spread to other cities, other local groups will probably grapple with their legal structure.
Otherwise, they put themselves
at risk of investigations by the
IRS or a state attorney general’s
office, says Greg Colvin, a non-profit lawyer in San Francisco.
“The very act of soliciting
funds for charitable or pub-
lic-spirited purposes will like-
ly trigger charitable-solicita-
tion registration laws in all the
group, says Phil Radford, ex-
ecutive director of Greenpeace
USA, is that “they have real-
ly clear values, even if they’re
asking for big changes. What’s
more, he adds, “they’ve creat-
ed a brand that resonates with
99 percent of Americans. How
many nonprofits have succeed-
ed at that?”
Among the other lessons
charities can learn from Occupy
Wall Street, say nonprofit lead-
ers and consultants:
sm4nonprofits
