Shifting the Narrative: From Incubator to Forever Home
Keywords:
incubator, fiscal sponsorship, charitable workAbstract
Though widely known as a temporary measure on the way to stand-alone charitable status for new nonprofits or for one-off projects, fiscal sponsorship is increasingly serving as a permanent shared infrastructure operating solution for nonprofits, presenting a viable alternative to stand- alone nonprofit formation. While the pre-approved grant (Model “C”) or erroneously-named “passthrough” model of fiscal sponsorship is perhaps most widely known, equally widespread is the comprehensive (Model “A”) form, which, true to its name, offers access to full-charge back office management–essentially a cooperatized nonprofit management. Comprehensive sponsors are capable of supporting the entire lifecycle of an organization, including at a significant budget scale. We will explore this approach in practice through the voices of several projects at different stages of development.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Thaddeus Squire, Risa Wilkerson, Noah Stockman (Author)
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