The old adage “anyone can start a nonprofit” seems to be true, with 1.8 million nonprofits today and many more starting each day. But what does it really mean to be “charitable”? Fiscal sponsors are often on the receiving end of this question, as we frequently serve as the cradle of new nonprofit initiatives. Join us for a review of some of the fundamental ideas underpinning our work and sharpen your toolkit for navigating an increasingly complex sector with an uncomfortably close relationship with its counterpart, private enterprise. Understand how some commercial activities can be reimagined for a nonprofit context and how nonprofits can use the tools of the private sector to achieve their missions. We’ll also cover the rules around how assets move back and forth between nonprofit and for-profit hands, and how to navigate lines of authority in our sector, from regulators, to attorneys general. 

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Recruiting and onboarding useful board members is a continual challenge for any nonprofit. These challenges are particularly pronounced for fiscal sponsors. How do you not only educate prospective board members on fiscal sponsorship and get them comfortable with associated risks, but also get them excited about playing a role where, by design, their organization isn’t front and center in the programmatic work? Join us for a conversation with fiscal sponsor practitioners on different approaches to building effective boards.

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The nonprofit sector, as a way to wield resources for social good, is positioned in between the private interests of the for-profit sector and the political vagaries of government. As the forces of capitalism continue to double down on extraction and U.S. democracy faces one of its largest existential crises in over a century, the work of civil society is more and more placed in nonprofit hands. Yet, our sector remains fragmented and our funding systems cannot support the demand for services. Join us for a conversation about the origins and purpose of the nonprofit sector in the U.S. including answers to some burning questions. Is our sector ready to carry more of the water for civil society in the future? What’s the outlook if the country remains so divided? And are fiscal sponsors the hope and future of the sector?

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All fiscal sponsor practitioners know that “how you do it” is just as, if not more important than that “what” kind of fiscal sponsorship practice(s) you’re engaged in. Yet we often see that the “how you do it” question isn’t paid the right attention.  Please join us and special guest Yani Burgos from Movement Sustainability Commons for our first installment of Innovations from the Field. Yani will be discussing how MSC’s internal structures and sharing practices are centered on commoning.

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At its best, fiscal sponsorship is a tool to advance equity; providing community groups with turnkey access to critical nonprofit infrastructure in a responsive trust-building manner.  Yet if not practiced with intentionality and clear understanding of roles, responsibilities and who makes what decisions, trust can erode ultimately dooming the relationship.  We began to explore these often challenging dynamics in early 2024 and we’re now ready to go deeper.  Please join us and conflict resolution/trust building consultant and fiscal sponsor alum Blair Franklin as they lean into this sensitive and timely topic.

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We hear frequently - mostly from nonprofits that aren’t sponsors, the financial services and funding communities - the perception (or conviction) that fiscal sponsorship is somehow more risky than stand-alone nonprofit operations. We hear the fiscal sponsorship field saying the opposite, or at least pointing out the lack of nuanced understanding of fiscal sponsorship behind such an opinion.

Fiscal sponsors, in fact, can be risk mitigators, but under certain circumstances can become risk producing or compounding. As the spectrum of risks that our sector faces grows (environmental disaster, cyber security, political attacks, social unrest, financial and funding fragility, etc.) fiscal sponsors need to be sure that they are strongly leaning toward risk mitigating in all respects. For example, we often hear sponsors tout economies/power of scale and “safety in numbers”, which can mitigate risk, but an extensive portfolio can also produce concentration risk–one major failure can impact many projects. How do we strike a balance?

Finally, as nonprofits face unprecedented times with multiple risk factors we need to talk about collective and participatory risk management, wherein sponsors can lean into intentional, mission-focused risks with their projects and make community decisions. 

We invite you to discuss how fiscal sponsors can provide safety for projects, engage in collective conversations, and mitigate risks.

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Some notable nonprofit closings in recent weeks remind us of the critical importance of governance, both legally and ethically, to the health of our sector. For fiscal sponsors, there is the added layer of complexity in the relationship between project Advisory/Steering Committees and the board of the sponsor, both of which share in the exercise of good stewardship. The 2023 field scan of fiscal sponsors surfaced a mix of approaches when it comes to project advisory bodies, so we feel it’s time to refocus on governance and explore this relationship further. What are the healthy practices for both project advisory and sponsor boards, together and separate? Can fiscal sponsors offer our sector a degree of resiliency through both governance structures? What happens when things go wrong with a sponsor or a project; what are the responsibilities of both governing bodies? Join us for a practical conversation about governance for fiscal sponsors and projects.

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As the field of fiscal sponsorship continues to grow as a model for sharing nonprofit infrastructure, allies and skeptics alike are calling for further research and understanding. There is also recognition of the need to bring greater visibility to the work of fiscally sponsored projects to promote greater equity in philanthropy. The interests of the field are best served by practitioners taking the lead in aligning on core data and metrics. Over the past few months, Impact Commons has partnered with Candid providing input into the design for the collection of data on fiscally sponsored projects. Join us for a conversation with Candid to discuss the urgent data needs for our field, preview their plans to collect data related to this field and provide input into this timely work.

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Fiscal sponsors have important questions about their portfolios: How big should it be? How do we know if the portfolio is balanced and sustainable? How do we organize the portfolio of projects to be supported by different staff members on our team? Is the composition of our portfolio serving our impact goals?

To help answer these (and other) questions in a data-driven manner, we often highlight a need to use Key Performance Indicators and maintain Portfolio Management Dashboards. Use of such tools can inform strategic and ongoing conversations about the size and complexity of the current portfolio, help assess the changes over time, clarify the risk and sustainability of the current portfolio, inform resource planning, capital investments, instill better transparency and accountability across our internal management practices.

For this session, we invite you to bring your key measures and tools you use to understand your portfolio and plan for the future along with ideas on what would be most useful in the future. Impact Commons will also share a simple template that could be a helpful starting point to cover key performance indicators for all fiscal sponsors while leaving room to incorporate essential aspects that a particular fiscal sponsorship program might want to measure further. 

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We are increasingly observing a blurring of ‘Model A’ and ‘Model C’ fiscal sponsorship practices. In a conventional "‘Model A’ arrangement, the sponsor provisions the entire “back office” of the project. With ‘Model C’, the sponsor regrants contributions received to the sponsee carrying out the project. The sponsee in turn manages all expenses. . . Except when that isn’t the arrangement. Join us to discuss operational and compliance considerations when deviating from the standard models. Bring your stories and lived experiences (projects and sponsors alike) so you can share!

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In October 2024, important “nonprofit friendly” changes to OMB Uniform Guidance will take effect. Their goal is to make accessing and administering government awards less burdensome and more equitable. You’re invited to join our own Asta Petkeviciute and government funding expert and fiscal sponsorship veteran Tamira Jones to learn about the forthcoming changes, how they help and what challenges remain. And be sure to check out Asta’s blog on this timely topic.

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As the fiscal sponsorship field continues to grow and expand rapidly, we see a sustained focus on Models “A” and “C”, followed by “L” as a variation of "A" and “B” as a misunderstood cousin of “C”. These four are a subset of the models that have been identified under “fiscal sponsorship” and cataloged over the years, most notably by scholar and attorney Gregory Colvin in his book Fiscal Sponsorship: Six Ways to Do It Right. While all the models identified are ways of affiliating and sharing resources among related but distinct charitable activities, Models "A" and "C" largely continue to define the community of practice.

For this conversation, we want to look beyond just the legal and financial lens at some different ways to organize our thinking around the fiscal sponsorship models and how they relate to values-based practices. Join us as we draw on the findings of the Fiscal Sponsorship Field Scan 2023 to examine some different ways of looking at the relationships between and uses of fiscal sponsorship models to support work in the nonprofit sector.

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Every year, comprehensive fiscal sponsor practitioners enter into dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of legal agreements on behalf of their projects.  Having the right contractual terms in place can be an effective way to balance the interests of protecting the organization and supporting the mission. During this session, our Chief Legal Steward Josh Sattely will provide a brief overview of our Principles for Equitable Contracting followed by a walk through of some contract review guidelines we’ve developed for our member organizations. This session is great for anyone who participates in your organization’s contracting process.

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It’s been a long struggle to establish wider acceptance that a nonprofit’s overhead costs are not excess to be trimmed but rather covering these costs are essential to the mission, outcomes, and staff wellbeing. For fiscal sponsorship relationships, this may mean the sponsor’s and the project’s full costs of carrying out their work, including overhead, must be fully covered to flourish.

As a starting point, in order to craft the right strategy for recovering your costs, you must know what they are. During this hands-on session, we will explore a few different approaches to help you define the full costs of fiscal sponsorship support.

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There are several forms of fiscal sponsorship with important distinctions.  During this session we’ll share a brief overview of commonly used models of fiscal sponsorship and considerations grant managers at funders should keep in mind when grantmaking activity involves a fiscal sponsorship relationship. This will also be a forum for grants managers to ask any questions they have on fiscal sponsorship and for fiscal sponsor practitioners to share their perspectives on how funders might better accommodate sponsors. Should be a lively conversation! 

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The questions of why and when a Model A project should leave a fiscal sponsorship relationship are complex. While financial factors are often assumed to lead the way, we find there other dynamics that both contribute to and often cloud this critical decision making process. We also observe important questions that should be factored into this decision but aren’t. Drawing on data from the 2023 Fiscal Sponsorship Field Scan, we will propose and discuss a framework for mutual analysis and decision making with projects concerning the question of spin out.

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Over the last few years - from the rooftops of institutional funders to workers embedded in communities - calls for nonprofits to develop more equitable structures have echoed across the nonprofit ecosystem.  Yet, while change is easy to talk about, it's extremely hard to accomplish. Organizations working earnestly to develop more equitable ways of being too often get stymied for a variety of reasons at the expense of mission. And identifying and imagining equitable practices is easier than implementing those ideas, in particular where there are conflicting theories of change. Some aspects of these challenges were given treatment in this 2022 Intercept Article and we continue to observe echoes of these dynamics at play within fiscal sponsors and in the sponsor-project relationship.  Join us for an open conversation where practitioners can share their perspectives on these complex matters.

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So you have a rapidly growing portfolio of fiscally sponsored projects and need capital to grow your team and systems to get to your desired state of sustainability and impact. Join this conversation to explore how peer fiscal sponsors have strategically sourced growth capital to meet the moment. We will also look at how a few of the findings in the field scan illuminate possible capital gaps in our ecosystem. How do they (and you!) identify the right funding sources and articulate the value proposition? Join us to find out!

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Does your organization have a clearly articulated theory of change or impact model? If so, does it incorporate your fiscal sponsorship practice? Join us for a conversation on why it’s important for nonprofits maintaining fiscal sponsorship practices to understand how this program fits into the big picture.

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Social Impact Commons embraces all types of fiscal sponsorship and other models for sharing nonprofit infrastructure.  While this remains true, informed by our work and interactions with fiscal sponsors and projects of all different shapes and sizes, Social Impact Commons believes that applying commoning principles to ‘Model A’ fiscal sponsorship holds the potential to transform how social good is supported in the U.S. and beyond. The result, Management Commons, allows social good initiatives everywhere to benefit from turnkey access to shared nonprofit infrastructure informed by their unique needs. Pursuing this vision in earnest requires a recalibration of how nonprofit work is carried out and indeed, what it means to even be a nonprofit. Join us as we release an updated version of our position paper (current summary of vision here) and explore possible futures together!

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This seemingly simple question is sometimes surprisingly difficult to answer. Afterall, fiscal sponsor practitioners are complex nonprofits.  Most operate multiple programs outside of their fiscal sponsorship practice and simultaneously provide several types of fiscal sponsorship. We invite you to join us to review the insights coming out from our recent field scan on current sustainability practices and discuss how the resource sharing model could further evolve to more equitably and holistically resource diverse communities. More specifically, this conversation will focus on the fiscal sponsors’ liquidity (both of sponsor and its portfolio), fund accounting management practices, and whole cost awareness and cost recovery measures.

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Over the past year, Social Impact Commons, in collaboration with the National Network of Fiscal Sponsors, conducted the first in-depth scan of the field of fiscal sponsors in 15 years.  A lot has changed since then and we’re excited to share what we learned. We’ll use this time to discuss key findings, implications and advocacy opportunities for the field as a whole  as well as for individual fiscal sponsor practitioners. This session will offer a sneak peak of the field scan findings report being released later in November.

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It’s been several months since the Supreme Court deviated from long standing precedent and effectively killed the use of affirmative action in college admission decisions. This decision will have far reaching consequences for society that we are only beginning to understand, notably with regard to DEIA values, policies, and practices. For this session we’ll focus on exploring the implications for fiscal sponsors. What should you be thinking about as you go about your work and evolve your strategies? Are there different legal considerations you need to take into account? How are you adjusting and moving forward in this new reality?   Join us and special guest attorney Marla Conley from Conley Law Group as we delve into these and other important and timely questions!

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