Sharing as Commoning
Management commons, a next generation approach to fiscal sponsorship, is a powerful way to share nonprofit resources that centers equity, inclusion, and access to nonprofit resources. “Model A” Comprehensive Fiscal Sponsorship, designed and operated according to commoning principles and values yields management commons. 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 about how you share them. While there are many ways to engage in commoning, 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 greater inclusion, equity, and access cannot be addressed by programmatic “fixes” alone—issuing statements, adopting new policies, hiring diversity managers, etc. The urgent needs of communities will only be addressed through the intentional design of just systems. Commoning provides an adaptable framework for managing together that focuses on power sharing and local community values.
