fiscal sponsorship

Philanthropy
Some Suggestions for Improving the Form 990
Each year, tax-exempt, nonprofit organizations and foundations are required to file returns with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Most of these groups file Form 990, while § 501(c)(3) private foundations…
by Robert Stilson on March 28, 2022

Organization Trends
Unearthing the Tides Nexus: “Dark Money” Pioneer
The modern pass-through funding model dates back to the mid-1970s, when entrepreneurial political activist Drummond Pike created the Tides Foundation, launching the pass-through scheme that now dominates the nonprofit netherworld.
by Hayden Ludwig on March 8, 2022

Organization Trends
Unearthing the Tides Nexus: The Tides Nexus
Since the 1970s, Tides has become a brand that now encompasses eight distinct organizations, seven 501(c)(3) public charities and one 501(c)(4) advocacy group, collectively referred to as the Tides Nexus.
by Hayden Ludwig on March 8, 2022

Organization Trends
Unearthing the Tides Nexus: Incubation
While the Tides Foundation actually started incubating new groups in 1979, it spun off its fiscal sponsorship services into the Tides Center in 1996, possibly to insulate the main group…
by Hayden Ludwig on March 8, 2022

Organization Trends
Unearthing the Tides Nexus: Pushing Policy
Tides Advocacy combines the pass-through and incubation efforts of the Tides Foundation and Tides Center in order to service 501(c)(4) groups, which are allowed to spend significantly more on lobbying…
by Hayden Ludwig on March 8, 2022

Philanthropy
Fiscal Sponsorship, the Left, and Beginning to Explore Reform
Most people have never heard of one of the Left’s potent weapons—“fiscal sponsorship”—yet it’s the secret to the legion of liberal activist groups flooding American politics today.
by Hayden Ludwig on July 27, 2021

Organization Trends
Inside Fiscal Sponsorships: A Way to Start Nonprofits
In his celebrated book Democracy in America (1848), the French observer of the mid-19th century United States, Alexis de Tocqueville, praises Americans' aptitude for what he calls “the art of joining” with…
by Neil Maghami on May 14, 2019

Organization Trends
Inside Fiscal Sponsorships: Incubation and the Tides Center
The above definitions emphasize fiscal sponsorship as a grassroots, community-level, activity. A different view of the concept comes into focus if one takes a top-down view of it, particularly considering…
by Neil Maghami on May 14, 2019

Organization Trends
Inside Fiscal Sponsorships: Obscuring Finances?
To illustrate some potentially problematic applications of the fiscal sponsorship concept, this report will look at some specific nonprofit organizations that are acting as sponsors on a scale that is…
by Neil Maghami on May 14, 2019

Organization Trends
Inside Fiscal Sponsorships: Improving Transparency
Speaking of the IRS—in 2012, the IRS’s own Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities (ACT) published a report that recommended changes to the rules governing fiscal sponsorship. The…
by Neil Maghami on May 14, 2019