What Is Fiscal Sponsorship?

This may occur when the fiscal sponsor acts as a mere conduit for contributions to flow to the individual or company without exercising the required control and oversight. Oftentimes, a bank or trust company fiscal agents are used by nonprofits or charity organizations or generally people who cannot handle certain financial duties themselves. Another accurate definition of a fiscal agent is that it is an established IRS 501 tax-exempt organization that accepts donations on behalf of a group or organization that has no IRS tax exemption.

Necessity– There are some funding sources that will not fund brand-new groups. One way around this restriction is to become part of a group that has some history.

A fiscal sponsor without sufficient capacity may also jeopardize the assets raised for each of its programs by misusing or misdirecting those assets to pay for its general administrative costs or other inappropriate expenses. Fiscal sponsorship is an option that may be available to a person, group, or business to attract charitable funding without starting a nonprofit. It may allow an individual artist to fund the creation of a mural, a group to hold a crowdfunding campaign for pediatric cancer research, or a manufacturer to create and distribute products to regions devastated by a recent natural disaster.

How To Get Seed Money For Startup Nonprofits

However, the activities of the sponsored group must be consistent with those of the sponsor. For example, a group that intends to provide services to homeless people cannot be sponsored by a 501 that is tax-exempt for the purposes of providing classical music concerts. Under Model C fiscal sponsorship, the parties ensure safeguards of fiscal sponsorship by requiring the sponsee to submit a “pre-approved budget” to the sponsor which contains all the proposed expenditures of the charitable project. At the end of the contract period , the sponsee will provide the sponsor with substantiation of the expenditures per the proposed budget.

Often the sponsored project operates from a different physical location than the sponsor so the sponsor may forget to provide proper oversight and support. Conversely, the sponsored project needs to remember that it is part of a larger organization and the sponsee has agreed to give up some of its autonomy.

How Fiscal Agents Work

Accordingly, a project’s founders seeking fiscal sponsorship should be as selective in choosing an appropriate fiscal sponsor as a fiscal sponsor is in choosing a project. But it would be a mistake to use a fiscal sponsor’s administrative fee as the primary selection criteria. More important are the fiscal sponsor’s financial health, key personnel, and understanding of its legal responsibilities as a fiscal sponsor. The National Network of Fiscal Sponsors’ guidelines for both comprehensive and pre-approved grant relationship fiscal sponsorship are outstanding resources to help assess whether a fiscal sponsor’s practices and agreements reflect such proper understanding. In contrast to the fiscal sponsor, the other party to the agreement is not a tax-exempt entity able to directly receive deductible charitable contributions and is likely not properly registered to solicit charitable funds or assets.

It should also have an “out clause” stating under what conditions either party can end the relationship and how remaining funds will be handled should that occur. Oversight of a project’s activities by regulators and, indirectly, by donors, also becomes more challenging if the sponsor consolidates all of its projects in its information returns and other reports.

In What Situations Do Groups Use Fiscal Sponsors? What Types Of Groups Find Them The Most Useful?

Learn about relief funds governments have available to invest in nonprofits and how to advocate for them. Efficiency– Especially for small groups, having someone else provide most of your administrative, or infrastructure functions may be cheaper than doing it yourself. This is especially true if you are a group that is only expecting to be in existence for a short period of time.

Some foundations allow a tax-exempt organization to act as fiscal agent for another organization for various reasons. The fiscal agent agreement is more than an act of kindness from a big nonprofit to a startup. The Pro Bono Partnership of Atlanta reports that a good fiscal agent has a similar mission, its own sufficient resources and staff, a history of support from funders and strong administrative policies and procedures. As well as being able to draw more funding, a nonprofit with a fiscal agent might be provided with access to the capabilities of the fiscal agent’s staff or other services. A sponsored organization might receive human resources and accounting services from the fiscal agent, have access to insurance and benefits packages and receive legal and other advice from a nonprofit with more experience. While the sponsored nonprofit will have greater opportunity to focus attention on its mission rather than spending time on administrative matters, it might not have as much latitude to make its own decisions.

• Sponsorship can be an empowering tool that can help get projects off the ground that otherwise wouldn’t make it.
• Speed– It normally takes four to six months from the time an application for tax exemption is filed with the IRS to receive notice that tax-exempt status has been granted, and that is IF the IRS has no questions about information contained in the application.
• If you have a discernible fiscal sponsorship program or line of work, it will be quite evident.
• Read about different agent types, such as real estate, insurance, and business agents.
• But the fiscal sponsor may delegate management of the funds to specific employees, contractors, or volunteers of the fiscal sponsor .

Many nonprofit organizations do not have the experience needed to manage the administrative matters of a business, hence they require the services of a fiscal agent. Formerly called Public Interest Projects, NEO offers fiscal sponsorship to nonprofits that support its mission “to increase funding for cutting-edge strategies that advance social change.” Depending on whether you’re establishing one or a few individual sponsorships, or a formalized fiscal sponsorship program, your application and approval process will look different. Under all circumstances, though, the process for reviewing sponsorship applications should include an element of board participation. Those board members involved can report back to the full board on any new projects, concerns with the program, or questions that deserve full deliberation. You should also have clear criteria on when and why you would bring on a new project for sponsorship.

What Does Fiscal Sponsorship Look Like For An Organization?

Fiscal Sponsorship can be an effective way to launch a new program, start a nonprofit, or bring instant credibility to a new cause. Located in the mid-Atlantic United States, Elizabeth Layne has covered nonprofits and philanthropy since 1997, and has written articles on an array of topics for small businesses and career-seekers. An award-winning writer, her work has appeared in “The Chronicle of Philanthropy” newspaper and “Worth” magazine. Layne holds a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from The George Washington University. Fiscal sponsorship might be chosen by a newly formed nonprofit that seeks to test-drive its ideas to determine whether there is a market or a desire among the public to fund the end product.

Any good sponsorship agreement will have a mechanism to deal with how to terminate the relationship. There are certain legal restrictions on how the project’s activities and assets are severed from the sponsor but that should be disclosed in the sponsorship agreement. Some sponsors pay projects interest on the money the project has on deposit, some don’t. A full-service professional sponsor will probably cost a group between five and twelve percent of gross receipts. However, under agency law, the agent (tax-exempt organization) acts on behalf of the principal , who has the right and legal duty to direct and control the agent’s activities. And a fiscal agent does not retain the right and control that defines a fiscal sponsorship.

Sponsorship can be an empowering tool that can help get projects off the ground that otherwise wouldn’t make it. Your fiscal sponsor should take care of sending donation receipts on your behalf. A collaborative national project calling on board members to advance their nonprofits’ missions through greater advocacy. The role of a fiscal agent in a nonprofit or charitable orgnization isn’t to be overemphasized. A fiscal agent with experience in these fields will recognize certain expenditures that are vital to complete the group’s mission.

In as much as they have unwavering advantages especially to charity organizations, there are still some downsides in working with fiscal agents. A fiscal agent is a financial organization such as a bank or trust company that acts on your behalf in order to conduct specific financial tasks. In general, a fiscal agent works to administer and protect the agency’s grant funds.

This is because, these groups have profound experience in both issuing and administering of grant funds. Below are some likely disadvantages that comes with working with fiscal agents. Having established the significance of fiscal agents, it is safe to note that its not all rosy. These tasks can include; redeeming bonds or coupons, replacing lost or damaged securities, handling tax issues, and so on.

Most commonly, the fiscal sponsor is a public charity exempt under Section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code and a qualified recipient of charitable contributions that are deductible to the donor. The donations intended to support a particular project are treated as restricted funds dedicated to furthering that project’s charitable purpose. A fiscal sponsorship describes a relationship between a nonprofit organization with 501 tax-exempt status and a project conducted by a separate organization, group, or individual that does not have 501 status. Fiscal sponsorship permits the exempt sponsor to accept funds restricted for the sponsored project on the project’s behalf. The sponsor, in turn, accepts the responsibility to ensure funds are properly spent to achieve the project goals.

A fiscal agent works with a nonprofit or charitable organization by overseeing most of its administrative aspects, which includes grant funds of that agency. Propel Nonprofits strengthens the community by investing capital and expertise in nonprofits. The organization works with nonprofits in all fields of service by offering loans, training, and financial management advice and resources to help organizations address unexpected events, finance new opportunities, and realize strategic goals. Propel Nonprofits is also a leader in the nonprofit sector, with research and reports on issues and topics that impact that sustainability and effectiveness of nonprofit organizations. Mission misalignment – It’s possible that the fiscally sponsored group’s mission will shift. Always be knowledgeable of what activities your sponsored projects are undertaking to ensure ongoing mission alignment. Reputation – By connecting itself to a project over which the sponsoring organization might not have daily oversight, the sponsoring organization could be putting its reputation on the line.

Convenience– Most groups, start-up or otherwise, want to focus their energy on their charitable activities. Having to create and maintain an infrastructure can be distracting from the mission of the group. The proposal should contain why they need a fiscal agent, their goals, objectives, methods, staffing and budget.