Fiscal Sponsorship
Incubating Community Innovation
Why Sponsorship
Sponsorship is a cost-effective way to catalyze emerging community initiatives and help social entrepreneurs pursue early-stage investment. By providing back-office administration, legal and compliance structures, and organizational development support, sponsorship helps emerging nonprofits focus on programs, partners, and growth.
For many early-stage initiatives, building administrative infrastructure can be both costly and time-consuming. Fiscal sponsorship removes these barriers by allowing projects to operate under an established nonprofit’s legal and financial framework. This enables leaders to focus on program delivery, partnerships, and fundraising instead of compliance and back-office operations. In addition, sponsored projects benefit from increased credibility with funders, access to grant opportunities, and the ability to receive tax-deductible donations—key advantages that can significantly accelerate growth and community impact.
Fiscal Sponsorship (Model A)
Charitable Ventures offers two tiers of Model A fiscal sponsorship designed to meet the needs of emerging initiatives:
Charitable Ventures as Sponsor
Fiscal sponsorship is a legal arrangement where a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (the fiscal sponsor) agrees to provide administrative, financial, and legal support to another entity (the sponsored project) that may not yet have the capacity or structure to operate alone. The sponsor assumes fiscal and program responsibility for the project and provides critical infrastructure to support your mission through accounting, human resources, legal, contract management and general operating services. This arrangement allows sponsored projects to access funding opportunities and enjoy the benefits of being associated with an established nonprofit organization while maintaining their own identity and mission.
The Foundation Tier (Tier 1) is ideal for early-stage projects with straight forward operational needs, no employees and primarily private funding. It is essentially a sponsorship platform offering back-office administration and legal infrastructure. It is perfect for projects focused on program delivery and early partnership development rather than building infrastructure.
Charitable Ventures as Incubator
Incubation offers a more comprehensive level of support, often providing mentorship, training, and resources to help an emerging nonprofit develop its capacity and sustainability. Incubators provide guidance on various aspects of nonprofit management, including strategic planning, fundraising, and program development. They may also offer office space, technology, and networking opportunities.
The Growth Tier (Tier 2) is ideal for projects looking to scale their impact, grow staff, and pursue more complex contracts. It is perfect for developing initiatives and leaders who would benefit from strategic planning, organizational and professional development and building out systems and infrastructure. This is our incubator/accelerator model.
In addition to all the Tier 1 agreements and services, our incubator/accelerator model offers a more comprehensive level of support, providing mentorship, coaching, training, and resources to help emerging nonprofits grow their operations and sustain them. Incubators provide guidance on various aspects of nonprofit management, including strategic planning, fundraising, financial strategy, and program, partnership and other resource development.
Charitable Ventures as Agent (Model C)
When Charitable Ventures serves as a fiscal agent, we are essentially serving as a re-grantor of funding from a donor for a specified project. The grantee may or may not be a nonprofit entity but must use the funds in a way that carries out the donor’s charitable intent. While Charitable Ventures monitors the fiscal accountability of the project, all project activity occurs in the grantee’s organization. Therefore, project activities and project staff and their liability does not live at Charitable Ventures.
What to Expect
Phase 1
Partnership Assessment and Application Invitation
To determine if you’re ready for fiscal sponsorship, ask yourself:
- Will your project provide tangible benefits to your community?
- Is your idea and project plan embraced by a group of committed supporters?
- Do you have the sincere drive and enthusiasm to make your charitable ideas work?
- Can you quantitatively and qualitatively demonstrate the need for the services you intend to deliver?
- Can you identify strong funding prospects to help you move ahead?
- Can you articulate your goals and clearly express your plans to achieve them?
- Do you need strategic support and/or fiscal agency support?
If you can answer yes to these questions, please complete our INTAKE FORM and we’ll initiate a connection to determine fit and alignment with Charitable Ventures’ vision, mission and approach. If a fit is determined, you’ll be invited to apply for fiscal sponsorship.
Phase 2
Application Review and Approval
Once you have been invited to complete an application for sponsorship, Charitable Ventures will review your application.
If there is alignment, your application will be approved, and you will be asked to sign our Fiscal Sponsorship Agreement. The agreement outlines the legal and programmatic responsibilities of being on our platform.
If your application does not seem like an appropriate fit with Charitable Ventures, we’ll be happy to refer you to one of our many partners.
Phase 3
Onboarding and Orientation
Meet your team! Once your application is approved, you will be introduced to your Program Lead and begin the onboarding process. This process includes an introduction to your back-office support teams and how to access our services, a review of our policies and procedures and training on our online project portal.
Once funding has settled in your dedicated checking account and your orientation is complete, you may begin your work as a fiscally sponsored project of Charitable Ventures, accessing the resources, services and support available in your Model A or Model C agreement for your mission success.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I apply for sponsorship?
We ask interested projects to begin by filling out our simple Intake Form. We will contact you, within five business days, to determine if a further conversation is needed or if a referral to a community partner would best fit your needs. At this time, we may ask you to complete our application which will help us (and you) better understand your vision, your business plan, and the support you may need. We also request some attachments that can be uploaded into our system, including budgets, letters of reference, fundraising plan, and name of committee members, if present. For projects who have incorporated in the State of California, but not yet received their federal tax status, we ask for a copy of that paperwork.
If you have a hard time filling out this application, you may not be ready for sponsorship.
Does CV sponsor projects outside of Southern California?
Yes. While CV is headquartered in Santa Ana and supports projects primarily in Southern California, we have the capacity to provide financial, legal and HR support in multiple states. However, it is true that some projects may need more in-person support, in which case we would be happy to refer you to other fiscal sponsors near your base of operation.
Is there a minimum deposit required to open my project account?
Yes. Charitable Ventures requires a minimum initial deposit of $100,000 to launch a project account. In addition, your application asks you to provide a detailed fundraising plan and your anticipated annual budget, critical factors in our review process.
What are the fiscal sponsorship fees?
Charitable Ventures charges a percentage fee on revenue deposited into your account. Those fees range from 8 -12% depending on the Model or tier selected. Fees for managing public contracts are 15% due to additional compliance requirements. Projects raising more than $3M annually can negotiate discounted fees.
Please inquire about our fee schedule. There is a minimum annual fee of $10,000, which can be met by your fiscal fee allocations. If your incoming revenue has not met the minimum annual fee at the end of the year, you will be invoiced for the portion of the minimum annual fee not met.
How does Charitable Ventures handle our funds?
All sponsored project funds are segregated in their own checking account. Project Directors receive monthly financials that provide detail on transactions, bank balances, budget to actual reports, and specific funder or grant financials to track expenditures on restricted funds. Charitable Ventures has a growing team of accountants to support your monthly accounting needs.
Can I apply for sponsorship if I already have my own 501(c)(3)?
It depends. If a funder requires a fiscal agent to direct a grant to your organization, or if you need to set up a separate account for a specific fundraising campaign or event or affiliated collaboration, opening a project fund for sponsorship can be an effective way to segregate and track funding for your mission outside of your existing c3 organization.
However, it is not best practice to operate a mission across multiple IRS determination letters. If you have a 501(c)(3), and need to cease operations for a short time (for example, if you need to reinstate your c3 status, or if you do not have the staff or structures to fully operate your mission), you will need to move all activity to a CV project fund, and let your current nonprofit lie fallow, until such time as you can return to it completely. All tax filings (e.g. 990-N) to ensure the existing c3 continues to be recognized by the IRS as a viable nonprofit is the responsibility of the c3, not Charitable Ventures.
A Full Range of Services
Download a comprehensive list of our sponsorship and incubation services.