About Fiscal Sponsorship
One of the biggest challenges in starting a new nonprofit is a lack of time and resources. Nonprofit leaders often find that the day-to-day tasks of administration and governance take valuable time away from their core mission. Fiscal sponsors provide an alternative to doing everything yourself.
In addition to extending its nonprofit status, fiscal sponsors save you time and money by providing a shared platform of financial, operational and administrative support services. The Trust for Conservation Innovation's fiscal sponsorship services are appropriate for environmentally focused start-ups, established projects, and projects seeking enhanced credibility and visibility with funders.
Benefits of Fiscal Sponsorship with TCI
Fiscal sponsorship can help you meet your project's goals more quickly and efficiently. As a Trust for Conservation Innovation (TCI) project, you also get the benefits of being part of a group of similar projects.
Speed
It can take six months to a year to go through the application process for tax exemption with the IRS. Nonprofit status and tax exemption come as a part of fiscal sponsorship, and donors can start giving you funding (and receive a tax deduction) immediately.
"TCI's unerring handling of the back office details for more than a decade has allowed the rest of our team to focus entirely on our projects and mission." —John Claussen, Co-Founder, CCIF
Cost Savings
Sharing administrative and infrastructure services with other environmental projects is more practical and cost-effective than doing it all yourself. Paying for your own staff, insurance, and other administrative costs can be very expensive. When you share these resources and services with other projects, the money you won’t spend on overhead can go where it is really needed – to your programs.
Convenience
With a fiscal sponsor, you don't have to worry about all of the administrative aspects of running an organization, filling out payroll tax returns, getting through audits, or tracking your budget. You are free to focus on what you do best – carrying out your mission.
Networking
The TCI umbrella includes a large variety of environmental projects (and we're growing every day). As a TCI project, you will have opportunities to collaborate with and learn from other environmental leaders who are at all different stages in fulfilling their visions.
Environmental Expertise
TCI specializes in innovative projects that focus on preserving and sustaining the environment. Because we focus only on environmental issues, our staff shares your passion for environmental sustainability, and possesses a deep level of expertise in this area.
Responsiveness
Because we only accept a select number of projects each year, all of our projects get the time and attention that they need to thrive, without any interference in how you carry out your strategy or vision. We value innovation, and we're up for the challenge of figuring out new ways to do things. We want you to break new ground, and we are flexible and knowledgeable enough to find the right way to support you.
Learn more about TCI and about our fiscal sponsorship services.
Take a look at the Trust for Conservation Innovation Projects Showcase to see what our projects have accomplished under the TCI umbrella.
Read our white paper about fiscal sponsorship (PDF).