For Funders, PSOs, Peer Nonprofits, & Service Providers
Interest is growing in fiscal sponsorship as a nonprofit resource sharing platform for a more efficient, sustainable, equitable, and inclusive sector. Funders, philanthropy-serving organizations, nonprofit associations, other stakeholder nonprofits, and service providers increasingly want to better understand the ins and outs of fiscal sponsorship and to engage with fiscal sponsors and their projects. Our Ally Membership broadens the circle of the fiscal sponsorship community.
Ally
Member Benefits
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We routinely provide workshops and trainings for the boards, staff, and stakeholders of our Ally Organizations. Our custom workshops and trainings can cover, among other areas, FS101, field trends, case making, and field and position specific trainings (e.g. program managers)
Included in Membership is ONE 60-minute, virtual orientation or workshop session of your choosing or design. Any further workshops and trainings are billed at our hourly rate. (See below.)
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We provide a variety of services to our Ally Members including:
Policy and procedure review and development for philanthropies to accommodate fiscal sponsorship relationships.
Professional development training for your program, grants, and finance managers.
Guidance on structuring grantor-grantee relationships when using fiscal sponsors.
Orientation and fiscal sponsor basics for management consultants, attorneys, accountants and other professionals.
Feedback and design guidance for software companies on how to make products fiscal sponsor friendly.
On-call support for any other matters relating to fiscal sponsorship.
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Social Impact Commons values ongoing learning with, among, and for our Ally Members. Through our bi-weekly Member Conversation Series we provide space to step back from the daily grind and dive into topics large and small that concern fiscal sponsorship, commoning, social justice, and other aspects of our field. We also engage in ongoing knowledge creation and sharing with our Member community through special research and learning initiatives.
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Building on our 2023 fiscal sponsor field scan, the first such large scale survey on the field since 2006, Social Impact Commons will research and analyze the fiscal sponsor ecosystem in your focus area(s) to build your awareness and help you make informed decisions.
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For our Ally Members, we frequently are called upon to provide hands on technical assistance to their constituents, whether grantees, association members, or customers. We can provide expert support to such groups through Ally Membership.
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For funders interested in fully building out the capacity of one to several fiscal sponsors in their mission and/or geographic focus area(s), we offer scoped support for building new sponsors and enhancing the capacity of existing sponsors. Learn more about our cohort capacity building model here!
Accessible Pricing
Our pricing model is structured to be hassle free and accessible:
Annual Ally Membership Dues: $1,500/year, pro-rated to a July 1st annual cycle start date - provides access to our community conversations, discounted direct services and workshops.
Direct Support Time: We provide both on-call and scoped work to our organization members at a discounted rate of $300/hour.
Although working together through Ally Membership is our preferred approach, we do occasionally work with non-fiscal sponsors on a grant or contractual basis.
Some Ways We Support
A regional Philanthropy Serving Organization asks us to conduct a Fiscal Sponsorship 101 workshop for its members to learn about the models and trends in the field.
A private foundation engages us to develop fiscal sponsor/project-friendly grantmaking policies and practices and to orient its staff and board to fiscal sponsorship models and trends.
A community foundation commissions a landscape study of the fiscal sponsorship ecosystem in its area, as well as constituent nonprofit needs that could be addressed through building local fiscal sponsor capacity.
A management consulting practice engages us for a training session on fiscal sponsorship to build its knowledge base in the field and better serve its clients.
We partner with a management consulting firm to explore with a client the benefits and risks of become a fiscal sponsor.
A technology provider addressing the nonprofit market hires us to provide feedback on their platform and pricing to ensure that both are well positioned for the fiscal sponsorship marketplace.
An accounting and bookkeeping firm engages us to orient their team to fiscal sponsorship financial best practices and approaches to financial analysis and reporting for sponsors and projects.
Learn More & Join!
A new member intake form is currently in development. If you’re interested in membership, schedule a meeting with us to discuss. If you’re curious about Membership terms, check out our sample agreement below.
“I’m really grateful to the Social Impact Commons team for the information. Touched on big concepts, legal/model stuff, and strategy/big picture considerations for funders. All very helpful. ”