Question: I heard the North Dakota Ethics Commission recently posted an advisory opinion regarding permitted gifts. How does the advisory opinion affect individuals with lobbying activities in the state?

Answer:  On March 7, 2025, the ethics commission published an advisory opinion dealing with the permissibility of covering a legislator’s meal when attending an educational conference where attendees pay for their meals and the host provides an acrylic plaque for attending the conference to the legislator.
Generally, the North Dakota Constitution prohibits lobbyists from giving gifts to public officials. Public officials include any elected or appointed official of the state’s executive and legislative branch, including members of the ethics commission, members of the governor’s cabinet, or employees of the legislative branch. While North Dakota only requires individuals to register as a lobbyist for legislative lobbying, for purposes of the gift law, the commission reiterated the definition includes attempts to influence public official action or decisions that occur outside the legislative process. Attempts to secure passage, amendment, or defeat of any administrative rule or regulation by any department, agency, or body of the state’s executive branch and attempts to influence public official action or decisions would be considered lobbying.

To be permissible, an annual conference must be a private or public social and educational event designed to inform the attendees about a topic, issue, or problem and provide helpful and thorough review based upon unique knowledge, skills, or research. The difference between these two types of events is whether the event is open to the public or by invitation only. The event must occur in the State of North Dakota and include participants who are non-lobbyists and non-public officials. Finally, the event sponsors must also file an event notice form with the commission prior to the event taking place, preferably no less than a week in advance. The notice form is submitted electronically on the following website: www.ethicscommission.nd.gov/meeting-notice. For a gift or thing of value to be awarded at a private or public social and educational event the gift must not derive independent resale value and be mostly sentimental rather than intrinsic in value.

If you or your organization plan to provide anything of value in North Dakota a permissibility analysis should be done prior to providing the gift. The state gift law may affect individuals even if they are not required to register with the state and must provide notice to the commission in advance of the event.

The information from this response can easily be found on our website in the Lobbying Compliance section of the United States Compliance Laws publication. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have questions.