Heidi K. Abegg

Partner
blank image Heidi K. Abegg

Heidi K. Abegg

Partner
Washington T: 202.836.8458 F: 202.689.3166
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Heidi K. Abegg

Heidi K. Abegg

PARTNER
habegg@whitefordlaw.com
WASHINGTON
T: 202.836.8458
F: 202.689.3166
Biography
BIOGRAPHY
Ms. Abegg has over twenty-two years of legal experience in private practice focusing on all aspects of political law, lobbying compliance, government ethics, campaign finance, and nonprofit law at the state and federal levels.  Her practice focuses on providing tailored legal solutions to a variety of compliance matters, especially in the integration of law and public policy, including the opportunities and challenges nonprofit entities face when engaged in government relations, grassroots advocacy, political campaigns, and strategic communications.
 
Her clients include charities, social welfare organizations, professional societies, trade associations, corporate political action committees, as well as candidate committees, Presidential campaign committees, independent expenditure committees, donors, lobbyists and consultants, and unregistered political organizations.
 
Ms. Abegg has extensive experience in rendering advice and legal opinions regarding the applicability of the Federal Election Campaign Act, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, the Lobbying Disclosure Act, the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, as well as state and local laws regulating lobbying, campaign finance, government ethics, communications, and disclosure.
 
Her work also includes rendering advice with respect to all areas of business, transactional and contract law, as well as privacy issues, including donor, financial, and medical privacy laws, data and security laws, the General Data Protection Regulation, employment and general corporate matters, including governance issues, nonprofit tax law, including obtaining federal, state and local tax-exempt status and group exemption rulings, and other tax matters.
 

Memberships & Activities

  • Vice Chairman: Concordia Publishing House
  • Commission on Handbook, Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

Notable Litigation

  • Perry v. Bartlett, 231 F.3d 155 (4th Cir. 2000) (argued and on brief)
  • Citizens for Responsible Gov’t State PAC v. Davidson, 236 F.3d 1174 (10th Cir. 2000)
  • Anderson v. Spear, 189 F.Supp.2s 644 (E.D. Ky. 2002)
  • California ProLife Council PAC v. Scully, No. S-96-1965 (E.D. Cal. 2000)
  • Federal Election Comm’n v. The Christian Coalition, 52 F. Supp. 2d 45 (D.D.C. 1999)
  • Griset v. Fair Political Practices Comm’n, 23P.3d 43 (Cal. 2001)
  • Gov. Gray Davis v. American Taxpayers Alliance, 102 Cal.App.4th 449 (Cal.App.Ct.2002)
INSIGHTS

Author: Worker Centers: Charities or Labor Organizations Masquerading as Charities, and the Impact of an IRS Decision on the Question, 14 Engage 3 (Oct. 2013).

Co-Author: Hugh K. Webster & Heidi K. Abegg, 613-3rd Tax Management, Lobbying and Political Expenditures (2002).

Co-Author:The Developing Constitutional Standards for “Coordinated Expenditures”:  Has the Federal Election Commission Finally Found a Way to Regulate Issue Advocacy?, 1 Election Law Journal 209 (2002).

Co-Author: Free Speech and the Christian Coalition Case, Free Speech and Election Law News, Summer, 1999.

ARTICLES

September 5, 2025

Client Alert: No CFC! No Federal Funding! How Do We Raise Funds Now? – Avoiding Legal Pitfalls When Beginning New Fundraising Campaigns

Nonprofits are experiencing funding challenges and scrambling to fund their missions. While termination of nonprofits’ federal funding has garnered a lot of attention recently, yet another funding challenge arose this week. Charities participating in the Combined Federal Campaign (“CFC”) now face a new funding shutoff created by the Trump Administration’s pause of the annual charitable fundraising program.
August 20, 2025

Client Alert: Nonprofits and New Foreign Influence Registration and Reporting Schemes: A Growing Trend with Broad Applicability

Florida’s recent amendments to its Charitable Solicitation Act are getting a lot of attention – and for good reason – charitable fundraising just got even harder. But Florida’s efforts to combat foreign influence should attract the nonprofit sector’s attention for another reason. Florida’s unique approach may be a sign of what is to come as state efforts to regulate foreign influence of nonprofits ramp up, creating a national minefield.
May 27, 2025

Client Alert: Nonprofit Charities: A Short Time Frame to Obtain DC Sales and Hotel Tax Refund

As a result of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia’s (Tax Division) recent ruling that a District of Columbia law unconstitutionally denied out-of-state charities a hotel and sales tax exemption, eligible nonprofit organizations are entitled to obtain a refund of the sales and hotel taxes paid for meetings or events held in DC since December 12, 2016, plus interest. With hotel and sales tax rates currently at 14.95% and 6% respectively, the amount of a refund could be significant. However, the deadline to submit a claim to obtain a refund of taxes paid is June 6, 2025.