Compliance Guidance

A guide to what the Ready For 100 campaign can and cannot legally do, based on IRS Compliance regulations.

What is Compliance?

Compliance refers to the rules and guidance we have to follow to ensure our funding types are used correctly. The Sierra Club operates with two kinds of funds, C3 and C4 funds. IRS law requires that each of these funding types be used in different, specific ways. There could be significant consequences if the money allocated to one fund supports actions that aren’t allowed with that funding.

Understanding C3 and C4 funds

What is a C3 fund?

501(c)(3) — aka “C3” funds — come from tax-deductible donations to the organization. This is what most people think of when they think of charities or nonprofits. C3 funds are used for “charitable activities,” and by law can only be used for:

• Public education: We can educate our members or the public about environmental issues “via a full and fair exposition of the facts” – meaning we should present well researched facts and avoid adding our own strong opinions.

• Public interest litigation: We can research, initiate, and prosecute public interest lawsuits to enforce the existing spectrum of the law – meaning we are allowed to propose and start law suits to enforce laws already on the books.

• Administrative advocacy: We can meet and work with government agencies or officials to improve the environment – but only through non-legislative means. This means we can meet and work with government agencies that implement environmental laws (for example, members of the executive branch of the government), but we cannot (as RF100 members) be involved in introducing or supporting pending (yet-to-be-voted on) legislation or voter initiatives. Another example of administrative advocacy is one-on-one meetings with administrative decision-makers to advocate for the implementation of environmental and public health laws.

Boise RF100 team celebrates Pride. | Photo by Marcial Angulo Suarez.

Even if a decision is ultimately made by a legislative body (for example, city council), there may be rounds of recommendations by administrative bodies or committees that come before the voting. So, as long as you do not talk about the ultimate legislative process (in other words, you don’t say exactly the way you want your decision maker to vote on a bill or law), you may be able to use C3 funds to talk with a decision maker or committee in advance as they research their decision. That said, you must first work with Sierra Club Compliance staff to determine if/when such meetings and conversations are possible.

What is a C4 fund?

501(c)(4) — aka “C4” funds — come from non-tax-deductible donations to the organization. This is what most people think of when they donate to political organizations or campaigns. C4 funds can be used for lobbying and influencing laws, so by law they can be used for:

• Legislative lobbying: influencing government decisions, either by directly asking elected officials to take legislative action, or indirectly by advocating for the public to contact their government leaders with legislative asks.

  • Ballot initiatives or measures, and non-binding resolutions

• Member solicitation: soliciting individuals to become members of Sierra Club

• Fundraising for Sierra Club

Legislative action vs. administrative action

Legislative decision-making usually requires a vote in order to create or amend laws for future application. Administrative actions, or decision-making, describes the implementation of passed laws or the process of creating administrative rules, regulations, or regulatory guidance as part of that implementation.

Something is a legislative action, if one or more of the following are true:

• It requires a vote (either by the public or by legislatures, such as a city council)

• The activity is addressed or given to a legislator, an employee of a legislative body, or other government officials participating in the formulation of legislation

• It is regarding or related to new, or pending legislation (bills, measures, etc.)

• It entails expressing a position about a legislative issue

Something is an administrative action if all of the following are true:

• It does not require a vote (either by the public or by legislatures, such as a city council)

• It does not regard or relate to new or pending legislation

• It is related to an action taken by an administrative body or a regulatory agency (such as an EPA ruling or DEP decision)

C3 funds can support administrative actions but can never support legislative actions. C4 funds can support legislative or administrative actions but are typically reserved for legislative actions.

St. Louis 100% clean energy team on steps of City Hall. | Photo by Sara Edgar.

Ready For 100 is a 501(c)(3) Campaign

Our campaign uses C3 funds for approved activities, targets and uses.

Ready For 100 is a C3-funded program to engage in public education and administrative advocacy to build support for a transition to 100% clean, renewable energy. This means Ready For 100 operates exclusively with C3 funds — so we can only engage in strategies and activities that are C3.

Fortunately, the majority of work required to move a city towards a 100% clean energy future falls under the category of C3!

What we can do as a C3 campaign

• Raise public awareness about the need to convert to 100% clean energy, and build public support of the feasibility of doing so

• Engage legislators, such as City Council members, as long as the conversation is purely educational and no legislative asks of them are made

• Make non-legislative asks to legislators, such as signing a letter, publishing an op-ed, or requesting they talk with the mayor

• Advocate for, influence, or request administrative actions (which do not require a vote for approval), as long as the ultimate legislative process is not referenced.

• Hold a public event to demonstrate support for 100% clean, renewable energy as long as it does not:

• Convey a specific message towards legislative bodies (no calls for bills or voting)

• Take place at a political forum, such as a city council meeting

• Include anything that shows support for or opposition to a political candidate

• Use electoral considerations, such as candidacies of elected officials or timing around an election, in choosing targets or planning our work

• Include civil disobedience

Approved activities we can do using C3 funds (RF100 funds):

• Hold house parties, community dialogues, town hall meetings, and strategy calls with community members and community-based organizations to rally the public behind a 100% clean energy transition in your city.

• Meet with City Council members to educate them on past examples of other cities engaging in 100% transition work (with no calls to action, no matter how broad or strict)

• Ask your mayor to establish a 100% clean energy task force run by a sustainability director (or other city staff) with the purpose of engaging community stakeholders to get input on the city’s clean energy plans. This would constitute an administrative ask as long as the mayor has authority to do it without legislative action (meaning, it does not require a vote from the City Council).

• Lobby administratively for city funds to be allocated to specific clean energy actions or processes, as long as no vote is required and the decision or action by your target is purely an administrative one.

• Create an overview of your city’s current renewable energy use and identify opportunities for expanding their renewable energy profile

• Promote equitable access for all citizens to electricity that is safe, reliable, affordable, and sustainable

• Launch or participate in community projects regarding the vision of 100% clean, renewable energy for all, such as a program to assist low-income residents in greater energy efficiency in their homes

Approved people we can target as a C3 campaign:

• Administrative bodies such as:

• Mayors

• Public Utility Commissions

• Planning Commissions

• School Boards

• Zoning Boards

• State DEP

• EPA

• National Park Service

• Bureau of Land Management

• Legislators (city council members, county supervisors, etc.), as long as:

• They are targeted for purely educational reasons — no asks are made of them and they are not currently working on any clean energy legislation.

• OR legislators are a secondary target, of whom a non-legislative ask is being made

• OR our communications meet the IRS definition of technical assistance, which requires that:

• We have received a written invitation from the city council, or a committee of the council that is considering energy policy, to testify; and our testimony will be available to all members of the city council or committee hearing the issue.

• The written invitation must be from someone on behalf of the whole council or committee—a single friendly councilmember will not suffice. However, we may ask a friendly councilmember for a written invitation from the council or committee to testify.

Examples of Approved Activities using C3 Funds:

• Meeting with your City Councilmember to share C3 (educational) talking points and educational materials that we also share with the public, with no asks of any legislators

• Creating an AddUp petition that says, “Tell your city council to take [insert a specific administrative or regulatory action here, or “administration action”] transitioning to 100% clean, renewable energy.”

• Sending an email to your community members that says, “Tell our mayor that our city is ready for [administrative action on] 100% clean, renewable energy.”

Talking about policy victories

As a C3 campaign, Ready For 100 can only take credit for administrative victories. We have to be careful in our messaging to not take credit for any legislative victories (such as a 100% commitment passing).

• We can take credit for specific cities that have committed to 100% clean, renewable energy through administrative processes.

• We can highlight specific cities that have made 100% commitments through legislative processes, but we cannot take credit for those.

• We can use examples of legislative successes to educate the public and officials about what’s possible, but we cannot suggest that any of our C3 work led to those successes. 

• We can celebrate legislative wins, as long as we’re not taking credit for the victory passing, or overly thanking individual legislators.

Dogs in Boise ID with Ready For 100 yard signs. | Photo by Casey Mattoon.

What we can NOT do as a C3 campaign:

• Urge the public to vote a certain way on legislation (including resolutions and ballot measures), or political candidates

• Ask or advocate for legislators, such as city council, to draft, introduce, or pass any kind of legislation

• Suggest we want any kind of legislative outcome in our educational or advocacy work

• Use elections or candidacies as considerations in campaign targeting or planning

• Ask community members to contact their legislative officials about any kind of legislation

• Take credit for legislative victories

• Use Ready For 100 branded (C3) materials for C4 activities

Examples of activities you cannot do as part of RF100:

• We cannot post signs in our communities asking voters to vote yes on a clean energy bill.

• We cannot hold a community meeting and advocate that attendees vote for a particular candidate for office because of their stance on renewable energy.

• We cannot meet with city council members and discuss ideas for 100% legislation.

• We cannot go to a community event and say we want the city to pass a 100% clean energy resolution.

• When a resolution passes through a city council vote (legislative process), we cannot say that Ready For 100 work lead to the victory.

• We cannot bring Ready For 100 signs to a city council vote on a 100% clean energy resolution.

Abita Springs, LA aerial photo of RF100 activists holding signs | Photo by George Long.

Ready For 100 Brand Materials

Most existing Ready For 100 branding and materials (shirts, signs, stickers, etc.) are 100% C3, meaning they were designed and produced using C3 funding. Because of this, any Ready For 100 branded materials may only be used at/during/for C3 activities. This includes use or display of the Ready For 100 campaign graphic and logo.

Any Ready For 100 artwork or materials that you create for your Ready For 100 campaign must first be approved by Compliance, by emailing the design to compliance.review@sierraclub.org.

For more information on Ready For 100 branding and materials, peruse our Style Guide and Campaign Materials.

Following RF100 C3 rules in an Election Year

When doing work in an election year, please keep in mind that Sierra Club’s C3 work to educate the public about environmental issues is entirely separate from our political work and must be conducted as a separate program. C3 projects or activities may never be linked in any manner with our electoral work. Any campaign plan incorporating an election strategy makes it impossible to use charitable funds for any related work.

Additional guidance can be found in the 501(c)(3) Work in an Election Year (2020) Memo or on Compliance’s Campfire page.

As a C3 campaign, Ready For 100 must be careful not to incorporate any election strategy into our work. And we cannot engage in any work that is or may be considered political or could be linked to a political candidate running for office.

Some examples of what Ready For 100 teams may not do:

• Discuss any of the Sierra Club’s electoral work

• Engage in Get Out The Vote work such as registering voters

• Collect signatures or recruit volunteers for an electoral campaign

• Contribute to an endorsement or candidate forum questionnaires

• Conduct organizing activities focused on candidate events

• Attend events sponsored by a candidate or their campaign

• Attend an event that supports a candidate or political party

• Choose targets based on electoral considerations, such as electoral vulnerability, campaign donations, or battleground locations

• Hold elected officials legislatively or electorally accountable

• Coordinate C3 activities with a political candidate, campaign, or political party

• Create or use any C3 materials in connection with electoral activities

• Provide C3 materials to a political candidate, campaign, or political party for the purpose of directly or indirectly supporting their campaign. 

• Give a C3 campaign presentation to a political candidate

• Approach candidates to support your issue, or mention others have done so

• Seek pledges from candidates

• Invite political candidates to participate in C3 campaign work

Depending on the activities conducted by the Sierra Club Political Team Program in 2020, there may be additional scrutiny on our 501(c)3 funded campaign work in certain regions and in certain times. If you are running a Ready For 100 campaign and have questions or need assistance with program planning, please consult Compliance staff (compliance.review@sierraclub.org).

RF100 Action Fund: C4 Funds

Sometimes, legislative advocacy may ultimately be needed to get some cities to reach their renewable energy goals. If your campaign needs to do C4 (influencing legislation) work, you may run a separate and parallel C4 campaign under the Ready For 100 Action brand, using C4 funds.

If you are part of a Ready For 100 campaign that is interested in doing C4 work, contact Compliance (compliance.review@sierraclub.org) (in the Office of General Counsel) for guidance once you reach this step.

Limited C4 artwork and materials (shirts and signs) are available. If you are currently a part of a Ready For 100 campaign and are interested in C4 materials, reach out to the Rf100 Campaign for inquiries after you’ve been approved by Compliance to do C4 work.

Additional Resources

• 501(c)(3) Work in an Election Year (2020)

• Compliance Guidance on Nonpartisan 501(c)(4) Advocacy in an Election Year

• Sierra Club Types of Funding, Explained