Fiscal Sponsorship Agreement Template

What is a fiscal sponsorship agreement?

Fiscal sponsorship lets a charitable project that is not itself a registered charity or tax-exempt nonprofit work under the umbrella of one that is. The sponsor receives donations and grants for the project, keeps a fee for administration, and makes sure the money is used for charitable purposes. It is a common home for community groups, new initiatives testing an idea, and projects that do not want to set up their own organisation yet.

This template supports the two most common arrangements: the project becomes a programme of the sponsor, which then employs its staff, signs its contracts and has final control (often called Model A); or the project stays independent and the sponsor makes grants to it from the funds it receives (often called Model C). Both cover the project's charitable purpose, how donations are received and acknowledged, a restricted project account, the sponsor's percentage fee, budgets and payments, statements and reports, conduct and compliance, use of the sponsor's name, intellectual property, liability and insurance, and where remaining funds go when the sponsorship ends.

When to Use a fiscal sponsorship agreement

• A neighbourhood group running a community fridge or garden
• An arts or film project raising donations before it has its own nonprofit
• A new initiative testing an idea before deciding whether to incorporate
• A local nonprofit offering fiscal sponsorship to several small projects
• Moving a project to a new sponsor with its remaining funds

What You Fill In

17 blanks, then the name and email of each person who signs: sponsor organisation, project leader.

What the fiscal sponsorship agreement Covers

1. The Project
2. How the sponsorship works
3. Money received for the Project
4. Sponsor's fee
5. Spending, records and reports
6. Conduct and compliance
7. Intellectual property
8. Ending the sponsorship
9. Liability and insurance
10. General

Using the fiscal sponsorship agreement, step by step

1 Describe the sponsor and the project

Enter the sponsor's legal status — for example, its charity number or tax-exempt status — and the project's charitable purpose and activities. The purpose must fall within the sponsor's own charitable purposes.

2 Choose the kind of sponsorship

As a programme, the sponsor has legal and financial control, engages anyone paid to work on the project and signs its contracts. With grants, the project stays independent, runs its own activities and insurance, and reports on how each grant was spent. Add an advisory committee if the project has one.

3 Set the fee and how money moves

Enter the sponsor's fee as a percentage of money received, and anything it does not apply to. Set how quickly approved payments are made and how often the sponsor sends financial statements.

4 Agree how it ends

Set the notice period and choose where remaining funds go — to a successor organisation the sponsor approves, or to the sponsor for purposes as close as possible to the project's. Then send it for signature.

Tips Before You Send It

• The sponsor should approve the project through its own procedures before signing — the agreement says it has.
• Tell donors that gifts are made to the sponsor for the project. Whether they are tax-deductible depends on the sponsor's status and the donor's tax rules, so use wording the sponsor approves.
• Funders sometimes cap administrative fees. The template limits the sponsor's fee on that grant to the funder's cap.
• Plan the exit from the start: if the project may later become its own charity, the successor option lets remaining funds follow it.

Fiscal sponsorship agreement: frequently asked questions

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This template is a general starting point, not legal advice. Laws differ between countries and states — have a lawyer review the agreement for your situation before you rely on it. Page last reviewed 2026-09-29.