On July 16, 2026, a new bill, the Fiscal Sponsorship Transparency Act of 2026 (HR 9721), was introduced in the House and referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means. Generally, the Act requires more specific reporting by fiscal sponsors of the principal officers and activities of their projects, including in most cases: I […]
fiscal sponsorship
Fiscally sponsored entities … Model A
With increased government, grantmaker, and media scrutiny of fiscal sponsorship, I find it interesting to read about ‘fiscally sponsored entities.’ From a legal perspective, an entity has separate legal existence from its individual members or owners. Typical entities associated with nonprofits are nonprofit or nonstock corporations and limited liability companies. Unincorporated associations and unincorporated nonprofit […]
A Deeper Examination: Model C Fiscal Sponsorship
Fiscal sponsorship is a term commonly understood to reference one type of relationship – where the fiscally sponsored project is operated within the fiscal sponsor with all project assets, liabilities, revenues, expenses, employees, and volunteers being the fiscal sponsor’s. But this model, commonly referred to as Model A, is only one of several types of […]
Fiscal Sponsorship: Six Ways to Tank Your Organization
I have the pleasure of speaking at the Fiscal Sponsor Conversations forum (“FSC”) on Tuesday, August 12, at 10 am PDT / 1 pm EDT. With inspiration from an old post I wrote, Fiscal Sponsorship: Six Ways to Do It Wrong, FSC organizers Andrew Schulman and Oliver Hack asked me to present on Fiscal Sponsorship: […]
Fiscal Sponsorship Training for Projects
I’m a longtime participant with, and supporter of, the Bar Association of San Francisco’s Community Organization Representation Project (CORP). I’m also a big fan of, and regular writer on, fiscal sponsorship done right. So, it was great to learn about the following free webinar from CORP on Friday, July 18th from 1-2:30 pm (PDT): “Fiscal Sponsorship […]
Fiscal Sponsorship in Challenging Times
Nonprofit leaders historically face and overcome challenges because that’s just what they do. But there are periods of extraordinary challenge that may impact various segments of the sector in different ways. This is one of those periods. And for fiscal sponsors, the unique impacts include: Compliance While many nonprofits are understandably worried about possible threats […]
Fiscal Sponsorship and Donor Intent
Fiscal sponsorship is a complicated relationship to understand because it is not defined by law, it takes on multiple forms, there are nonprofits that have improperly structured fiscal sponsorship relationships (misleading others), and, in one form (comprehensive or Model A fiscal sponsorship) it allows for what may appear to be autonomous projects which engage in […]
Fiscal Sponsorship & Proposed DAF Regs?
A donor advised fund (“DAF”) is generally defined in Section 4966(d)(2)(A) of the Internal Revenue Code as a fund or account On November 13, 2023, the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department released proposed regulations on DAFs (the “Proposed Regs”) which has attracted a number of comments and criticisms, including with respect to how broadly the regulators […]
Fiscal Sponsorship and Board Governance
On July 11, 2023, Fiscal Sponsor Conversations (“the weekly form for fiscal sponsors”) focused its discussion on governance for fiscal sponsors. What role does your Board of Directors play in your organization’s fiscal sponsorship work? How is it working? What could be improved? As with most things in fiscal sponsorship, there isn’t one single “right” […]
Two Vehicles, One Home: Fiscal Sponsorship and Donor Advised Funds
On June 1, Social Impact Commons hosted a great practitioner conversation on the intersectionality between fiscal sponsorship and donor advised funds (“DAFs”). The following is a description of the event: We increasingly see fiscal sponsors accidentally or intentionally developing Donor Advised Fund (DAF) programs and, likewise, organizations running DAFs finding themselves acting as fiscal sponsors. […]