An Internal Revenue Service ruling may encourage more community foundations to support advocacy efforts, reports the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Federal law bars private foundations from lobbying, except on issues a foundation's existence. Federal regulations, however, allow foundations to make "general support grants" to charities that do lobby -- if the grants are not earmarked for lobbying. Such grants can be made even if some of the money ends up supporting lobbying activities.

In a case involving the nonprofit Alliance for Justice, the IRS concluded that the organization could make "general support grants" to another charity and not count the money as lobbying "even if some or all of the funds are ultimately expended by the recipient charity for lobbying."

In short, the IRS concluded that "the standard for public charities should be no more stringent than that which applies to private foundations."

"We hope this clarification will give more grant makers the confidence they need to fund aggressive advocacy," said Nan Aaron, president of the Alliance for Justice, a Washington charity that advises nonprofit groups about lobbying issues.

On its website, the Alliance illustrates how the clarified IRS ruling might work: The "Farmville Community Foundation" provides $10,000 for general support to the "Children's Alliance of Farmville," a charity that advocates on behalf of disadvantaged children.

The Farmville Community Foundation does not have to count the grant money against its own lobbying limit, even if the Children's Alliance of Farmville uses the money to lobby, as long as the grant was not designated to be used for lobbying.