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What Can Fiscal Sponsorship Do for You?
A relatively small number of foundations award grants
directly to individuals. The vast majority limit their funding to nonprofit
organizations. However, if you are seeking support for a project but are not
affiliated with a nonprofit, you may increase your chances of securing foundation
support if you can find a nonprofit organization that will serve as your project's
fiscal sponsor by receiving and administering the funds.
In
searching for a fiscal sponsor, you should seek out organizations that have
a demonstrated interest in programs or projects similar to yours. It will be
easier to find a fiscal sponsor if your project enhances or furthers that organization's
charitable purposes and/or if that organization benefits in some way from being
associated with your project.
In
order to develop a list of potential prospective fiscal sponsors, begin with
your current affiliations. Make a list of the professional societies, educational
associations and institutions, religious organizations, social and recreational
clubs, and other groups with which you are already associated, including employers.
Next,
turn to reference guides such as the Encyclopedia of Associations: National Organizations of the U.S. (Detroit, MI: Gale Research) and the National Directory of Nonprofit Organizations (Farmington Hills, MI: Taft Group) to identify local and regional chapters of national organizations that might serve as a fiscal sponsor for your project. You will find both of these resources in the Foundation Center’s library.
Additionally, a number of Web
sites such as Guidestar
offer directory-type information about nonprofit
organizations. Click
here for a listing of these Web sites.
Once you have a list of potential
fiscal sponsors, you will want to know whether or not
the organizations on your list have a history of support
from foundations or corporate funders. To help you determine
this, refer to FC
Search: The Foundation Center's Database on CD-ROM
, Foundation
Directory Online, or to a Foundation Center
print directory (e.g., a specific title in the Grant
Guide series) that indicates nonprofits
that have or are currently receiving foundation funding.
For
further advice on affiliation, see Fiscal Sponsorship: 6 Ways To Do It Right
by Gregory L. Colvin (San Francisco: Study Center Press, 1993) and Chapter 2
of The Individual's Guide to Grants by Judith B. Margolin (New York:
Plenum Press, 1983).
For other books and articles
on fiscal sponsorship, try searching Catalog of Nonprofit Literature, the Foundation
Center's online bibliographic database. You can start
by searching on the subject "sponsors" with
the keyword "fiscal."
If you would like to see examples
of fiscal sponsorship, policies, procedures and guidelines,
click
here.
To learn more about foundation
funding for individuals, attend Grantseeking Basics
for Individuals, a free one-hour training course. Click
here to find out when the Foundation Center-D.C.
will be offering this course in the next few months.
If you are an artist, you may want to attend the new
course, Grantseeking
Basics for Individuals in the Arts.
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