Fiscal Sponsor Organizations

  • 1.  DAF Support

    Posted 10-14-2025 13:53

    Hello All, My team at AHA is working on a process to support some of our donors with their DAF administration. We are not housing their DAFs, but instead helping them determine which nonprofits they want to support.

    Our thoughts about the process are as such:

    • We will create an grant application

    • We will vet the organizations needs, 990’s, capacity, and determine a recommended gift amount

    • We will then send a request to the donor to distribute funds directly to that nonprofit. For those that are projects, fiscal sponsors, or individuals, we will administer the funds as a Model C or A where appropriate.

    Our questions are: how much should we charge? Is this a percentage of what is gifted? Is it a set fee per application, annually for a program staff? Do we ask for an upfront fee and then allocate the “charges” as administrative costs when the “job” comes in?

    I would love a conversation with one or more organizations that do this work. We want to develop a program that works for us - so I am looking for thoughts, processes, and conversations.

    Let me know if you are up for it. I can be reached out cheyanne@aha-projects.org



  • 2.  RE: DAF Support

    Posted 10-23-2025 15:24
    Thanks for sharing this — I don’t have specific answers to your questions, but your proposed model raises a few additional questions and considerations that might be useful as you refine the approach.

    I would think an hourly. monthly, or per grant program fee structure would make more sense then a %… your costs are going to be largely “fixed” and the amount awarded wont really change how much work you are doing.

    If it does not already exist - I would suggest thinking through a conflict of interest policy around this work - particularly if any recommended grantees are fiscally sponsored projects within your own organization.

    I’m having a hard time envisioning who the actual contracting parties would be for this arrangement. The DAF sponsor, the donor advisor, someone else?

    I know DAFs have certain restrictions on what qualifies as an appropriate distribution. A DAF can have certain administrative costs to the Sponsoring Org but paying an outside “vendor” for services to advise the DAF on grantmaking may bring up some issues.


    Sorry this asks more questions then provides answers… but hopefully this helps you move forward in some way with structing the costs appropriately!