A well-funded, tax-exempt national leadership smothered the excitement of the early days of the Tea Party. Once they applied for their 501(c)(4) tax status, they had to start following the rules for tax exempt organizations. Their lawyers and accountants would not allow them to campaign for Obama’s removal or be much involved in politics and this has filtered down to many of their local affiliates. Such groups are rewarded by the Government (with your tax dollars) for voluntarily giving up their right to freedom of speech in regard to directly criticizing politicians. This is why few Tea Party groups participate in the impeachment movement directly.
A 501(c)(4) organization is, by law, not allowed to be primarily about politics. It is Government’s way of keeping citizen organizations — and churches with 501(c)(3) status — on a leash. Such an organization cannot campaign for, or against, individual politicians without risk of losing their tax status. The tax status and pleasing the anonymous, big contributors become the priority.
The question for the overpasses movement is how much national management is needed? Organization for Obama’s Impeachment (OFOI) provided a way for people to find a group via a list of state organizations. The state groups kept track of local organizations. So, it was very helpful in starting groups, advertising the effort and recruiting members for local protests.
A big, controlling, well-funded, national umbrella organization is, however, not needed for that purpose, only a few volunteers at the national and state and levels to set up a couple of web/FaceBook pages and maintain a list of organizations at the next lower level.
An impeach Obama movement should be driven from the bottom up, by the state and local organizations, not top down by a single individual. It should be an all-volunteer effort. If you want to make donations, give it to local organizers, whom you know, to help buy banners and to make signs. The movement should be about removing Obama from office and not a retirement plan for the leadership. Independent local groups should be encouraged and supported, not punished.
The organization should not request a special tax status from the Government or pursue anonymous fat-cat donors, which would likely compromise the goal of the movement.
The Brown Berets de Aztlan are not a registered 501(c) or whatever, because they want freedom of speech, free from government control.
I think you can do a lot just with local volunteers by taking up collections to buy specific items. That is not taxable as long as you are just sharing costs and not making a profit. That is how we paid for the sky-banners that we flew a couple of years ago. To really make significant changes in Government, it needs to be all volunteer and self-funded, not funded by anonymous fat-cats and regulated/monitored by Obama’s IRS, as the much more subdued Tea Party national organizations are.