Fiscal Sponsor Organizations

Some of this probably requires more context, but here’s something to add to the discussion.

NO GO: “Food paid with “food voucher”/“EBT”/”SNAP”/”WIC”/”EWIC”; gasoline for vehicle [we can do mileage reimbursement if related to agreed-upon activities]; vehicle parts; purchases paid for by gift cards; lottery tickets; “cashback” (withdrawing cash from a card account while paying with the same card)”

I’m very interested if anyone okays any of the above expenses and why.

Are these expenses you all won’t cover overhead on or things that the project cannot purchase even using their project budget funds?

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This is the basics we include as NOs in employee policies: Personal expenses not related to work duties

• Expenses for family members or friends

• Fines (e.g., parking or traffic tickets)

• Non-business-related entertainment or leisure expenses

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We also have a document on legal and insurance resources where we break out what our insurances and legal resources do and don’t cover, and whether costs are covered as an administrative overhead expense or from project budgets (eg we cover costs of lobbying registrations out of the org budget V if projects engage in activities that are not c3 compliant and result in legal action costs may be drawn from the project budget).

A lot of our projects are being sponsored in order to accept grant money, so pointing to the grant spending guidelines is usually enough. We say that the expenses must be project-related and request documentation (receipts, work orders, invoices, etc.) along with all disbursement requests. Based on past experience, we have added some examples of ineligible expenses: project leader’s home mortgage payments, repeated payments with little documentation intended only for the project leader and/or their spouse… We try to keep it open by saying that any disbursement request may be reviewed or denied based on its relationship to the project’s “nonprofit purpose.”

Here’s one: Paying contractors without a contract and/or paying contractors with a project credit card or paying contractors out of pocket and then seeking a reimbursement.

Are these expenses you all won’t cover overhead on or things that the project cannot purchase even using their project budget funds?

I was thinking the latter but I’m very appreciative of the information you also shared on the former @Kat Norris

@Christopher Preciado I’ve only done gas reimbursement when it is associated with a hired vehicle (e.g., a Uhaul rental)

Thanks again, everyone!! So helpful.