Fiscal sponsorship stands at the threshold of a new era of growth and transformative potential for the civil society sector. It is evolving from a means for temporary projects and start-up organisations to access charitable tax exemption, to a model for sustained shared management infrastructure for the sector. Through this evolution, fiscal sponsors are emerging as a vanguard in advancing equity, access and diversity, as well as economic efficiency, sustainability and solidarity.

Fiscal sponsors are emerging as a vanguard in advancing equity, access and diversity, as well as economic efficiency, sustainability and solidarity.

The practice of fiscal sponsorship, a key type of social impact infrastructure organisation, has been in existence since at least 1959. It usually describes a relationship between a US 501(c)(3) non-profit (‘fiscal sponsor’) and a non-profit activity (‘sponsored project’) in which the fiscal sponsor shares its legal formation and operational resources and the project maintains independence of public identity, constituent relationships, and core mission-related decision-making.

Fiscal sponsorship on the rise