New local non-profit to become "fiscal sponsor" to assist individuals and groups

I'm involved in co-organizing a new non-profit community resource, called "MOTHER". This purpose of this organization is designed to support individuals and groups that are seeking to respond to unmet needs in the local community, through fiscal sponsorship.

Many of us are doing volunteer work that would benefit from being funded. However, unless we become a non-profit, we lose out on donations that would benefit the donors with a tax write off. Through fiscal sponsorship, we are able to receive contributions that would benefit our work. This eliminates the need for each of us to obtain non-profit status.

We are in the developmental phase. We are listed in Facebook, under MOTHER non-profit.org
Please like us, and ask questions there. We also have a newly developed website under the same name.

If anyone in the community would like to become involved, and has skills that might be useful, please contact us through Facebook.

Those with experience in developing non-profits would be a definite plus. We will be notifying the community when we have a schedule of informational meetings.

As a nonprofit management consultant with extensive personal experience running nonprofits, I'd like to share a few thoughts here.

Your desire to find a way for people to donate to local causes is admirable. However, I don't think what you are trying to do is the right way to go. Not only is there the work of setting up and governing the nonprofit but the biggest issue that comes up with the kind of organization you are discussing is oversight over projects. If a project is sponsored by your new nonprofit, you will be ultimately responsible for what happens with it. That's a huge responsibility to take on without adequate infrastructure in place to monitor projects which costs money taken away from the cause.

I used to be asked all the time to sponsor projects and most of the time I turned them down because of this issue. Those I didn't were ones that closely aligned with our mission and where we had an organizational structure the project could fit under that would allow it to get the support and oversight it needed without having to spend a lot of money to do this. Some examples include a clothing "store" for teenage girls and an organization producing major anti-drug/alcohol events. Both organizations found that they did so much better being part of a larger organization that could provide them with resources they didn't have and have flourished.

One question to ask is what is more important: to be a separate entity or to make sure donated funds go to make the project successful. So my thoughts: try finding a compatable organization that would be willing to sponsor you as a project. I am new to Sonoma County but I know in Mendocino County the community foundation would allow people to set up specialized funds just for this purpose. Good luck to you in whatever you decide. Karin Wandrei, PhD, www.karinwandrei.com

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Posted in reply to the post by Shandi:

I'm involved in co-organizing a new non-profit community resource, called "MOTHER". This purpose of this organization is designed to support individuals and groups that are seeking to respond to unmet needs in the local community, through fiscal sponsorship.

Many of us are doing volunteer work that would benefit from being funded. However, unless we become a non-profit, we lose out on donations that would benefit the donors with a tax write off. Through fiscal sponsorship, we are able to receive contributions that would benefit our work. This eliminates the need for each of us to obtain non-profit status....

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Thank you Karin, I've forwarded your response to our president.

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Posted in reply to the post by Karin:

As a nonprofit management consultant with extensive personal experience running nonprofits, I'd like to share a few thoughts here.

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