CounterPULSE Fiscal Sponsorship Program Overview & Policies
Fiscal Sponsorship Links:
Downloadable
Application
Current Fiscally
Sponsored Projects
Fiscal Sponsorship Forms
Downloadable
Budget Template
1. Overview
a. What is Fiscal Sponsorship?
b. Who does CounterPULSE Sponsor?
c. What does CounterPULSE offer?
i. Basic Fiscal Sponsorship
ii. Expanded Fiscal Sponsorship
iii. Program Benefits
d. How do I apply?
i. Renewal process
ii. Cost
2. Policies
a. How do I raise money?
i. Grants
ii. Individual Donations
b. Payment processing
3. Marketing & Acknowledgement
a. Email Announcements
b. Website
c. Print Materials
OVERVIEW
What is Fiscal Sponsorship?
Fiscal Sponsorship is a financial and legal system by which a legally
recognized 501(c)(3) public charity (such as CounterPULSE) provides
limited financial and legal oversight for a project that does not have
501(c)(3) designation.
CounterPULSE's fiscal sponsorship program exists to:
• Provide managerial support and guidance to dancers and dance
organizations so that they may produce temporary projects or begin
to develop on-going organization; and
• Ensure funding agencies and contributors that funds are well-managed,
spent according to their guidelines, and that the artists deliver
their proposed services or products
While there are several models for Fiscal Sponsorship, CounterPULSE's
fiscal sponsorship program is based on a model of pre-approved grant
relationship. In essence, the project and CounterPULSE (sponsor) are
a grantee and grantor. The sponsored project is a separate legal entity
that is liable for it s own taxes, insurance, and debts. Our sponsored
projects retain intellectual property rights for all the art they create.
CounterPULSE intentionally maintains a small Fiscal Sponsorship program.
We only sponsor 30 projects at a time, so that we can devote significant
support and resources to our projects. For more information about fiscal
sponsorship, please click
here:
Who does CounterPULSE sponsor?
CounterPULSE offers Fiscal Sponsorship services to independent artists
and companies whose work furthers the CounterPULSE mission. Projects
participating in CounterPULSE's fiscal sponsorship program must be:
• Art-related (we sponsor dance, music, theater, visual art
media and literary projects)
• Serving community needs
• Serious in intent and well-planned
• Responsible about proper reporting to funding sources and
to the IRS
• Non-legislative
• Showing potential for future development
We prioritize projects that:
• Blend more than one performance genre or discipline. Collaboration
is strongly encouraged.
• Are community-based and socially aware. We are interested
in work that addresses current social, political or environmental
issues.
• Have a clear vision for how they would like to participate
in CounterPULSE's community and take advantage of our unique organizational
resources.
• Are lead by and based in the experiences of queer artists,
artists of color, and artists with disabilities.
What does CounterPULSE offer?
CounterPULSE offers two levels of service:
• Basic Fiscal Sponsorship service enables
CounterPULSE to receive grants and donations on behalf of projects.
All grant income is remitted to the project in one check, minus an
8% fiscal sponsorship fee. Projects are responsible for maintaining
their own accounts, and remitting payments to other artists and vendors,
according to a pre-approved budget. Projects must submit final reports
on their expenditures, and must maintain detailed accounting of their
expenditures which CounterPULSE may access at any time. Projects are
also responsible for tracking individual donations and issuing donor
acknowledgements using pre-approved language.
• Expanded Fiscal Sponsorship service offers
the basic services, but also includes a check-writing service. CounterPULSE
will hold the project's grant until projects submit invoices for payment.
CounterPULSE will then disburse individual payments to artists, designers,
vendors, as well as reimbursements for purchases. CounterPULSE, will
track and issue 1099’s, and will issue donation acknowledgements
to all individual donors. For this service, CounterPULSE retains a
fiscal sponsorship fee of 10% of all income.
Both programs include the following benefits:
• Sponsorship of grant applications and administration of
grant funds through a pre-approved grant relationship.
• Formal acknowledgement to grantmakers and monitoring of expenditures
to ensure that they are in keeping with the original proposals
• Staff consultation on writing of grants and on final reports
to funders
• Announcements of upcoming workshops and funding opportunities
• General guidance about possible funding sources
• Lliability Insurance Coverage available for specific events ($50 min per certificate)
• Ability to receive credit card donations via our website
• Access to CounterPULSE's non-profit bulk mail indicia
• Promotional assistance including links from our website, inclusion
in CounterPULSE's email announcements, and location for promotional
materials in CounterPULSE's lobby
• Membership discount to all CounterPULSE performances
• Discounted rates for studio rental at CounterPULSE
• Significant discounts to CounterPULSE workshops including
"Boot Camp for Artists" with Jessica Robinson
Which program should I choose?
Most projects choose to begin with our Expanded Fiscal Sponsorship program.
With the Expanded program, CounterPULSE handles your bookkeeping, 1099
forms, and donor acknowledgements, leaving you free to raise money for
your art. Projects should only choose the Basic Fiscal Sponsorship program
if they are prepared to track their money carefully, and are willing
to accept the tax liability for grant payments.
A word about taxes--
Having a Fiscal Sponsor does not prevent you from having to pay taxes!
Any individual who receives $600 or more in payments from CounterPULSE
in a calendar year will receive a 1099 and is required to report that
income to the IRS. CounterPULSE can recommend several workshops for
artists on how to handle tax liability.
How do I apply?
Our application process takes about a month and involves a written application,
in-person meeting, and board approval. Here are the steps you'll take:
1) Read through all of CounterPULSE's Fiscal Sponsorship policies.
2) Complete the application
and budget template,
and submit to:
abby@counterpulse.org,
or mail to:
CounterPULSE, attn: Fiscal Sponsorship, 1310 Mission Street,
San Francisco, CA 94103
3) Once we receive your application, we will give it an initial
review. If we think you might be a good match for our organization,
we will contact you to schedule an interview. This initial review
process usually takes about a week.
4) At the interview, we will ask questions about your project, and
work with you to make any needed corrections to your application.
5) After this meeting, you will re-submit your application for approval
by the CounterPULSE Board of Directors. This approval process takes
1-2 weeks.
6) If your application is approved, you will come in for a second
meeting to sign your contract and receive a welcome and orientation
to the CounterPULSE fiscal sponsorship program. Click here for a sample
contract. At this point, you will also need to become a member of
CounterPULSE and pay the annual membership fee ($45 general or $30
low-income). After this meeting, you'll be ready to raise money!
What is your renewal process?
Your contract with CounterPULSE is effective for one year. At the
end of the year, you'll need to submit a report on your activities,
as well as a renewal form. Assuming that you have fulfilled reporting
requirements throughout the year, you can expect that we will sign a
contract with you for another year.
What does Fiscal Sponsorship cost?
• CounterPULSE will withhold as an administrative fee 8% of
all funds deposited through the Basic Fiscal Sponsorship Program and
10% of all funds deposited through the Expanded Fiscal Sponsorship
Program.
• In addition to this percentage, all members of the CounterPULSE
Fiscal Sponsorship program must also become members of CounterPULSE.
Membership is $45 per year, $30 for low-income individuals.
POLICIES & PROCEDURES
How do I raise money?
CounterPULSE does NOT make grants directly to you, nor do we do your
fundraising for you! We WILL direct you to fundraising resources and
give you lots of advice on how to go about raising money. Here are the
standard procedures for how we deal with grants and individual donations:
Grantwriting
1) At your orientation meeting, we will give you a worksheet for
developing a fundraising timeline. The secret to successful grantwriting
is planning well in advance! Please plan to schedule a time to come
look at our binder of successful grant applications.
2) You must notify CounterPULSE of your intent to apply for a grant
NO LESS THAN TWO WEEKS before the grant is due. At that point, you
should let us know about any supporting materials you need from us
to complete the grant.
3) You are required to submit your grant proposals to CounterPULSE
NO LESS THAN ONE WEEK before they are due. We MUST sign off on all
grant proposals before they are submitted to the funder.
4) Funders typically notify CounterPULSE when you receive a grant.
We'll notify you of the decision, and your funds will be available
one week after we deposit them.
5) YOU are responsible for sending a thank-you letter to your funders,
inviting them to your event, and issuing a final report in a timely
manner. CounterPULSE must receive copies of all final reports to funders.
Individual Donations
1) We recommend that you solicit individual donations at your events
and through a letter to your supporters at least once per year.
2) CounterPULSE must approve letters and any other materials used
for soliciting donations at least ONE WEEK prior to use.
3) Checks for individual donations should be made out to CounterPULSE
with the name of your project in the memo line and sent directly to
YOU. You will collect and submit these checks to CounterPULSE along
with a Fiscal Sponsorship Deposit Form. Be sure to keep copies of
ALL forms and checks submitted to CounterPULSE.
4) Depending on whether you are participating in the Basic or Expanded
program, either you or CounterPULSE will send an acknowledgement letter
to the donor.
How do I get my money from you?
• Projects must comply with all restrictions or requirements
imposed on funds by their donors. Funds are generally available one
week after they are received by CounterPULSE.
• To receive funds, projects must submit the appropriate CounterPULSE
invoice. All invoices must include addresses and Social Security Numbers.
Checks are issued once per week-- requests received on or before Wednesday
will be available the following Wednesday.
Deposit form
(download doc)
In Kind Donation
Form (download doc)
Invoice
Form (download doc)
MARKETING & ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Email Announcements
We will include your event announcements in our monthly email list
if they are in the correct format, and if they are received by the
15th of the month prior to the month of the event (i.e.-- July 15
for an August event). Please send email announcements to Abby.
Listings should follow this format:
“Chemical Imbalance: a comedy of horrors”
March 8 - April 7; Thursdays through Sundays at 8 PM, Fridays-Sundays:
$15-30 Thursdays: Pay-what-you-can; (cash only at the door) The EXIT
Theatre (156 Eddy St. @ Taylor, San Francisco)
Chemical Imbalance: an original play by Lauren Wilson based on Robert
Louis Stevenson’s “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.” In this
comedy of horrors, director Matthew Graham Smith leads a dynamic ensemble
of nine comic actors in the highly stylized conventions of farce and
Grand Guignol (a theatrical genre akin to cinema’s splatter-film).
This manic journey through Dr. Jekyll’s dilemma is an outrageous
comedy that teeters between macabre horror and fast-paced comic slapstick.
For more information and tickets: (415) 563-5085 and www.precarioustheatre.com
Website
To be included on the CounterPULSE website, please send a 50-word
descripton of your company, a logo or image, and a link to your website
or myspace page. We ask that your website: 1) acknowledge CounterPULSE
as your fiscal sponsor, 2) include the CounterPULSE logo, and 3) include
a link to www.counterpulse.org.
Print Materials
• If you have been fiscally sponsored by CounterPULSE FOR
ANY GRANTS or DONATIONS which are being spent on your project, you
must include the following information on your flyer and/or poster.
“(Name of project)” is a fiscally sponsored project of
CounterPULSE.
• You must also include the following information in your program:
This evening’s performance is supported by the CounterPULSE
Fiscal Sponsorship program. CounterPULSE provides support and low
cost resources for emerging artists, serving as an incubator space
to create socially relevant, diverse, community-based art in San Francisco.
CounterPULSE works towards a world that celebrates a diversity of
race, class, ability, gender identity & sexual orientation. CounterPULSE
funders include San Francisco Arts Commission, San Francisco Grants
for the Arts, San Francisco Foundation, Fleishhacker Foundation, Zellerbach
Family Foundation, and National Endowment for the Arts.
• We ask that, where possible, you include the CounterPULSE
logo with this information. Please submit copies of all promotional
materials for our files.
We offer priority placement for your postcards and flyers in our
lobby. Stacks of flyers may be dropped off or mailed, and should be
marked "fiscal sponsee event."
|
