Alumni nonprofit/Political
Dorris Murdock
Alumni Family,
As we get closer to the political season, many of you will want to start supporting your local politician by attending events, working polls and many other ways to express to others who you think is the best candidate. We would like to take a moment to remind you that our Citizen Police Academy Alumni Associations are a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, and as such- we are restricted against supporting any political candidate. I know none of you wants to be responsible for your organization losing its nonprofit status with the IRS, so we want to remind everyone of policies and rules.
You are absolutely welcome to support, and attend any support function, of any candidate of your choice; however, you need to do that as an individual. Please do not introduce yourself in a way that is construed as your membership in your Citizen Police Academy Alumni Association is endorsing a political candidate. Please do not wear ANY CPAAA apparel while attending any political function, working polls, political fundraisers, or anything else that is specifically to support a political candidate. Do not mix political support items with your alumni apparel- we cannot wear a political hat, patch, pin, shirt, jacket, lanyard, or anything similar while wearing the CPAAA apparel items such as our shirt, jacket, or hat.
In closing, we applaud those of you who are out there sharing the message of support for your political candidate of choice, and who are taking ownership of your City, County, State and Nation by getting involved in the political process. Please continue to do so to help ensure our leaders are those we elect based off the values that are important to us all. Just keep the vulnerability of our modest Citizen Police Academy Alumni Associations in the back of your mind when you are doing this, and please understand we have to be careful not to cross that line where it could be misconstrued that our nonprofit is endorsing a political candidate. Bottom line, we are not allowed to wear a candidates advertisement to promote voting for that person while wearing our clothing.
In closing we remind anyone that is a member of any Alumni as well as a person in politics (i.e. City Council or other political positions) please keep your political connection separate from the Alumni organizations not only at political season but always.
Respectfully,
Texas CPAAA Board of Directors
