A Call to Advocacy for Nonprofits

Convincing charities of that, however, will not be a snap.

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McCain's D.C. Connections

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is not just a presidential candidate. He is also a veteran lawmaker and, as a consequence, his volunteer advisers include some big names on K Street.

Charles R. Black Jr., chairman of BKSH & Associates, serves as McCain's senior adviser. He assists with debate preparation, consults on the campaign's message and is a regular presence at McCain's side.

Former congressman and now lobbyist Tom Loeffler (R-Tex.) of the Loeffler Group is a finance chairman and is helping McCain keep his campaign's spending thrifty (for a change). Wayne L. Berman, managing director of Ogilvy Government Relations, is a finance vice chairman and talks to lawmakers on McCain's behalf (a.k.a. congressional outreach).

Other occasional McCain advisers include Timothy P. McKone of AT&T, Robert S. Aiken of Phoenix-based Pinnacle West Capital, John W. Timmons of the Cormac Group, and John Green, who works with Berman at Ogilvy.

Suffice it to say that all of them have a stake in the legislation that McCain will work on, even if he continues to be merely a senior senator on Capitol Hill.

The Too-Goody Bag

The Organization for International Investment represents foreign companies with U.S. subsidiaries as divergent as Michelin and Nestle. Last week it held its 13th annual dinner with Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez as its keynote speaker.

But Gutierrez was not the big draw; the goody bag was. Dinner guests famously receive a generous bag filled with products made by OFII members. This year the goodies included Theraflu from Novartis, a wine accessory kit from Thales and whiskey from Pernod Ricard, among other items.

Congressional staffers, however, could not partake. After extensive discussions with congressional ethics committees (and $10,000 worth of legal advice), the group decided not to put the bags at the tables, as had been previous practice, but to hand out laminated tickets that could be used to claim the bags later.

On each ticket was the following warning: "Members of Congress and staff may NOT accept the OFII member company product bags." It added: "Please contact the appropriate House or Senate ethics officials if you have any questions."

"Short of carding people at the door of the Ritz," said Todd M. Malan, OFII's chief executive, "I think we ensured that nobody would get a bag that is prohibited."

Apparently so. Seventy-five bags were left over and donated to Fisher House at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

K Street Contests: Please Apply!

In the coming weeks, as 2007 draws to a close, I'll look at the year's Winners and Losers on K Street. Please send nominees for each category to kstreet@washpost.com.

For a separate contest, I'd like to name the most outrageous lobbying efforts of the year. I'll take nominees for that as well.

And as part of an annual column, I plan to write during the holidays about the good deeds that lobbyists and lobbying law firms did this year. Please send your pro bono nominees, again, to kstreet@washpost.com.

As they say in my business, file early and often. Thanks!

Hire of the Week

Nels B. Olson, head of the biggest executive search firm in Washington, Korn/Ferry International, has taken on some new responsibilities. He is now also managing director of the eastern region for the well-known headhunter.

The new role gives Olson, 40, dominion over offices in Princeton and Philadelphia, as well as the company's largest office in New York City. He says he will split his time between Washington and the Big Apple as a result.

But he is not giving up his main gig, which is to run the D.C. operation and be the capital's most active executive recruiter for lobbying offices and trade associations. "I want to broaden my practice to include corporate boards and CEOs," he said, "but not to the detriment of what I do down here in Washington."