The Nonprofit Support Program at the Greater Hartford Gives Foundation (formerly the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving) engaged Fio Partners to research fiscal sponsorship. This arrangement between an established nonprofit and a charitable project without 501(c)(3) status has been around for a long time, but has recently gained more attention as an alternative to nonprofit status and as a way to support community-led initiatives.  

The Foundation decided that sharing highlights of what we learned would be very helpful to potential fiscal sponsors and projects. At that point, we engaged Adler & Colvin, who literally wrote the book on fiscal sponsorship, for permission to draw from their work and to get their expert review of the content. 

Now, we’re excited to share this resource with you! “Fiscal Sponsorship 101” answers some basic questions and orients readers to common models, approaches, and considerations like:  

• What is fiscal sponsorship? 
• What does fiscal sponsorship look like?
• What kinds of supports do fiscal sponsors provide and how much does it cost? 
• What fiscal sponsorship can sound like—but is not 
• Common models of fiscal sponsorship 
• Ranging approaches to fiscal sponsorship 
• What potential projects and sponsors should consider 

We hope this resource helps more potential fiscal sponsors and projects explore whether the arrangement might be a good fit for them.