Mission

We bring communities together to share the resources needed to deliver efficient impact and build a just and flourishing society.

We are building the first national network and community of practice advancing management commons as a model of equitable and inclusive resource sharing for the nonprofit sector—a next-generation approach to fiscal sponsorship.

Vision

Everyone with the will to create social good has access to the resources they need for their vision and purpose to flourish.

There is a management commons in every community, supporting people working to build a better world.

Theory of Change

Through our Research & Advocacy work we shift the narrative of our sector.

We aim to shift the mindset and paradigm of the nonprofit sector away from the assumption that stand-alone formation and operations are the only or more valorized approach to doing social sector work. Fiscal sponsorship, in particular “Model A” comprehensive fiscal sponsorship, reimagined through commoning values, or management commons, offers a model for sustained, shared nonprofit infrastructure. 

Through our Tools & Services we build the capacity of the field.

We seek to build more and stronger fiscal sponsors guided by best practices and commoning principles so that our field can manage growing demand for resource sharing. Fiscal sponsors guided by management commons ideas offer powerful platforms for building the solidarity economy, intentional community, and more equitable access to nonprofit resources.

Together, both of the above program streams support fiscal sponsors of all models and life stages, as well as philanthropies and philanthropy serving organizations with knowledge and insights into the field and individualized capacity building services.

A Commoning Approach

Management commons, a next generation approach to fiscal sponsorship, is a powerful way to share nonprofit resources that centers equity, inclusion, and diversity. It is “Model A” Comprehensive Fiscal Sponsorship, designed and operated according to commoning principles and values. Commoning is one of the oldest forms of resource sharing, found in practically every culture around the globe. Our approach has been inspired by and gently adapted from the work of David Bollier and Silke Helfrich.

Commoning is not just about the resources you share, but more critically how you share them. While there are many ways to engage in commoning, but certain central tenets are essential: bottom-up, peer-led governance, a commitment to ongoing learning, intentional community building, and practices rooted in mutuality.

The problems our sector faces with regard to equity, diversity, inclusion, and access cannot be addressed by programmatic “fixes” alone—issuing statements, adopting new policies, hiring diversity managers, etc. The urgent needs of our sector will only be addressed through the intentional design of equitable systems. Commoning provides an adaptable framework for managing together that focuses on equity and just relationships.

Commons Management

History & Motivations

Social Impact Commons is the country’s first incubator and shared resource provider supporting the fiscal sponsorship, or commons management community. We’re here to support the creation of new fiscal sponsors, and to support the growth of emerging and established fiscal sponsors. 

Our approach is designed to build the capacity of the field through shared knowledge, language, impact measures, tools, technology platforms, and expertise targeting the immediate needs of fiscal sponsors.

The many social and economic challenges we face today mandate that the fiscal sponsorship ecosystem grow—especially with fiscal sponsors of, by, and for communities of color and other marginalized groups. Local community stewardship and field expertise are everything. So growth is not about making bigger fiscal sponsors, but rather more fiscal sponsors able to reach beyond urban centers, cross language and cultural barriers, and leverage trust and knowledge already in abundance.

We believe commons management can make the work of our sector more equitable, inclusive, resilient, and impactful. Fiscal sponsorship is not a solution just for start-up or temporary projects. It is a way to share essential nonprofit infrastructure for the long term: staff, technology, systems, policies, practices, risk, and even formation and tax status. Most critically, it can be a solution for repositioning and sharing resources among the many struggling small nonprofits that make up the majority of our sector.

Our journey began in 2018-19 with support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. We focused initially on creating a model to replicate the work of our Founding Organization Member, CultureWorks Greater Philadelphia, in other communities. We quickly realized that the model we were building could benefit a much broader ecosystem of social good work, and thus Social Impact Commons was born.