Fiscal Sponsorship Guidelines for MaineCF’s Competitive Grant Programs
Organizations serving as a fiscal sponsor to a group applying to a MaineCF competitive grant program are not excluded from applying to the same grant program.
MaineCF’s competitive grant programs do not award grants to individuals or for-profit businesses.
MaineCF allows groups that do not already have an assigned tax status to apply to our competitive grant programs with a fiscal sponsor but requires the following conditions be met:
- The applicant group has a clearly articulated mission statement or project goal with a charitable purpose that serves the public, defined as the grant’s purpose falls within the charitable purposes outlined by the IRS in Code section 501(c)3.
- The applicant group has an established oversight committee or advisory board comprised of more than one unrelated individual. The IRS mandates this to demonstrate broad community support. The applicant group is required to upload this information as an attachment to their grant proposal.
- The applicant group has an established relationship with a fiscal sponsor organization that does have this tax-exempt status and the mission statement or project goal for which the applicant group is seeking funding falls within the tax-exempt purposes of the sponsoring organization.
- The applicant group and the fiscal sponsor organization complete a signed copy of MaineCF’s Fiscal Sponsorship Agreement Form summarizing the terms of the relationship and the responsibilities of the applicant group and the fiscal sponsor organization. The applicant group is required to upload MaineCF’s Fiscal Sponsorship Agreement Form as an attachment to their grant proposal. MOUs or other fiscal sponsorship agreements between two organizations are not accepted.
- Awarded grant funds are held and disbursed directly by the fiscal sponsor.
