The Diaspora Institute’s Fiscal Sponsorship Program provides administrative support and guidance to community-based organizations and individuals, working in a variety of educational capacities, so that they may provide community and service-based projects; and ensures funding agencies and contributors that donations and grants received on behalf of the projects are well-managed and funds are disbursed according to the grant proposal and their guidelines.

All projects sponsored by the Institute are required to be within the scope of and aligned with our mission. This requirement being met, prospective projects may receive as much or as little administrative support which may be needed for your project to be successful.

There are two general types of Fiscal Sponsorship:

Comprehensive Fiscal Sponsorship
In a Comprehensive Fiscal Sponsorship relationship, the fiscally-sponsored project becomes a program of the fiscal sponsor, and is a fully integrated part of the fiscal sponsor that maintains all legal and fiduciary responsibility for the sponsored project, including its employees and activities. This model of fiscal sponsorship is particularly valuable when a project has employees.

Pre-Approved Grant Relationship Fiscal Sponsorship
In a Pre-Approved Grant Relationship Sponsorship, the fiscally-sponsored project does not become a program belonging to the sponsor, but is a separate entity responsible for managing its own tax reporting and liability issues. In addition, the sponsor does not necessarily maintain ownership of any part of the results of the project’s work—ownership rights may be addressed in the fiscal sponsor agreement and could potentially result in some form of joint ownership. The sponsor simply assures that the project will use the grant funds received to accomplish the ends described in the grant proposal. This is the model of fiscal sponsorship primarily utilized in the arts.

Although these two types of sponsorship are at opposite ends of the Sponsorship Spectrum, we always provide counsel to the proposed project and provide whatever administrative services which may be required.

Learn about our Fiscal Sponsorship Process here