Hi all. I’m reaching out to the fiscal sponsor community for advice and shared wisdom.
Our practice has multiple projects operating in Maine, including Portland. A few of our fiscally sponsored projects are deeply connected to the local BIPOC community and have raised concerns that recent ICE activity in the area may place them at heightened risk of being targeted. As their fiscal sponsor, we’re approaching this with the understanding that any scrutiny of them could extend to us as the sponsoring organization.
We’re steady and clear-eyed about this, but we want to be prepared rather than reactive. I’d deeply appreciate hearing from other fiscal sponsors who have navigated similar situations:
What should we be proactively preparing for as an organization?
Have you developed internal protocols or policies related to ICE or other enforcement actions?
Are there any legal considerations we should address now (e.g., document requests, site visits, subpoenas)?
Do you have recommendations for attorneys or legal orgs with experience supporting nonprofits, fiscal sponsors, or immigrant-serving organizations?
Any insights, lessons learned, sample policies, or contacts would be incredibly helpful. Even a quick “here’s what we wish we’d known sooner” would mean a lot.
Thank you for being such a generous and thoughtful community.