Fiscal sponsorship: Trust, transparency, and visibility 

Early in my career, I was the first staff member at a fiscally sponsored community health organization working to improve access to care for families across California. That experience showed me what’s possible when you have a strong fiscal sponsor by your side. I could focus fully on making things happen in our community while the complex work of administration was handled by experts I trusted.  

Today, as president and CEO of Community Partners, I carry that same belief: When organizations are well supported behind the scenes, their impact can soar. As a fiscal sponsor and intermediary nonprofit, Community Partners is dedicated to helping leaders and organizations realize their visions for stronger, thriving communities.  

The backbone behind the mission-driven work 

What does fiscal sponsorship look like in practice? And how do trust and transparency drive our relationships with partners? 

A practice that’s been around for decades, fiscal sponsorship has become an increasingly common way for mission-driven causes to start up, scale, and operate with the infrastructure and experience of a larger nonprofit organization.  

At Community Partners, that support includes:  

• managing the “back office,” from HR and finance to grants administration and legal services;  
• helping partners operate more efficiently, reducing overhead costs so more resources can be spent on strengthening communities;  
• handling the rigor of nonprofit administration, making sure that our own work and the work of our sponsored partners is done with proper legal and regulatory compliance; and  
• offering a variety of opportunities for learning, peer support, and connection.  

In short, our role as a fiscal sponsor enables our partners to focus on what they do best: mission-driven work that matters.  

Greater visibility for greater impact 

Like any stand-alone nonprofit, fiscally sponsored projects (FSPs) deliver critical services every day. Their work shapes healthier, safer, and more connected communities—from ensuring the most vulnerable community members receive the care they need to advocating for lasting change. Yet, many of these organizations are not visible to those who want to fund or collaborate with them. 

Why? Historically, most resources people use to research and discover causes have not carved out space for FSPs. In a sector where communicating your vision, building relationships, and demonstrating impact are all vital for causes to attract support and sustain their work over time, visibility matters. 

At Community Partners, we are relentless advocates for our 150 FSPs working across 36 issue areas in 37 states and Washington, DC. And one of the most powerful forms of advocacy we can offer as a fiscal sponsor is helping them to be seen. 

Partnering for transparency, trust, and visibility 

Earlier this year, we joined a pilot program with Candid that gives our fiscally sponsored partners more opportunities to be visible. This initiative allows participating FSPs to provide data to be made available across Candid’s data collections, including Candid search, that are widely used by donors, institutional funders, and the public to better understand the activities of the charitable sector and find the groups they’d like to support more easily.   

FSPs whose sponsors partner with Candid can opt in to claim and publish a Candid profile, where they can showcase their missions, validate their charitable status to donors, share programmatic information, and highlight stories of community impact. They can also earn a Candid Seal of Transparency to boost their visibility, demonstrate transparency, and increase support. The program helps level a playing field that has traditionally favored stand-alone organizations. And it’s a way for FSPs to increase visibility and transparency on their own terms.  

These trust-based and FSP-led opt-in components of the initiative were key to our decision to join as an early adopter. Nothing at Community Partners is one-size-fits-all. Our partners vary in size, structure, and stage—so choice and flexibility are essential. This Candid initiative allows each FSP to decide how they want to show up, tell their story, and share their data. For those who have opted in, we’re already hearing excitement around how this could strengthen funder relationships and spark new collaborations.  

The collective benefits to the sector are noteworthy, too. The information contributes to a larger body of knowledge, one that increases public understanding of what FSPs do and makes the importance of that work more visible. In a time when misinformation and disinformation can cloud public perceptions, this kind of transparency and trust building isn’t just useful; it’s essential.  

We’re proud to be a backbone organization to these partners and continue to find new ways to amplify their impact. Their work benefits us all. And when more people see the good that’s being done, more good becomes possible. 

Photo credit: Jacob Wackerhausen/Getty Images