Sample Grant Review Checklist for Fiscal Sponsorship Relationships

• Is there mission alignment between the sponsor and project activity?
• Is there a Fiscal Sponsorship Agreement covering key terms?
• Is the Sponsor financially healthy/stable (however you define that for all grantees)?
• Does the Sponsor and Project collectively have the people and systems to manage money and do the work?
• Does the sponsor have written policies for managing the project-sponsor relationship and are these known to the project?
• Do you feel there is a good relationship of trust between Sponsor and Project?

Pre-grant award meeting. (optional: may be requested before application at Letter of Inquiry stage, after full proposal submission, or after award notification) If new relationship or complex project, meet with both the project lead and fiscal sponsor lead to discuss:

• History and status of the sponsor-project working relationship. Is it a new relationship or renewed/ongoing?
• Communication protocols
• Reporting schedule
• Any outstanding questions

Once Decision Made to Award Grant

• For the grant agreement:
  • The official grantee is the fiscal sponsor and not the project.
  • The Sponsor is a signatory (or co-signatory with the Project leader) to the grant agreement.
  • The grant agreement restricts the award for the purpose of the Project (but not earmark $ to a non-exempt entity). (Unrestricted grants in either a Model “C” or “A” context may be restricted “for general operating expenditures” for the Project, thereby making the use of funds restricted with respect to the Sponsor and unrestricted with respect to the Project.)
  • The grant agreement covers the Sponsor’s cost allocation and/or other costs.
  • If applicable, intellectual property rights provisions align with the structure of the particular fiscal sponsorship relationship.
• Post Grant Award
  • Communications – Should be consistent with any applicable terms of the agreement.. It is recommended that representatives from both the project and sponsor participate in key conversations with the funder. Beyond contractual proscripts, it’s important that the sponsor and project remain in regular communication about the progress, challenges, and other issues affecting the grant.
  • Reporting – Conventions for grant reporting largely assume a division of labor between sponsor and project. The sponsor is responsible for maintaining sound fund-based accounting for the project’s funds and providing financial reports on grant funds in keeping with Foundation-approved budgets. The project is typically responsible for all other Foundation-requested reporting elements (narrative, statistical, etc.). Since reporting will focus on the project activities, we assume that reporting forms and processes, as well as any interim or variance approval processes would be no different for a sponsored project than any other grantee. The report would be submitted under the grantee’s (sponsor’s) portal for the project in question.