An alternative for lighter-weight organizing for communities can be seen in the fiscal sponsorship model.

Social Impact Commons defines fiscal sponsorship as “a nonprofit organization that shares with multiple independent missions a common corporate structure, tax exemption, and insurances, as well as staff and systems for managing your finances, human resources, legal, fundraising, marketing, and other areas of back office support.”

In this model, instead of starting a new nonprofit, a Founder for Good can essentially set up an account with an existing nonprofit. They can solicit, accept, and receive gifts; benefit from the support structures and oversight of the sponsoring organization; and generally act as if they are merely a program under the umbrella of their sponsor and therefore fall under their tax ID status.

Another alternative is to establish a giving circle. I would like to suggest that, in most cases, a giving circle is a much better way to make a difference in our communities than either of the other two options.

Giving circles provide a more cost-effective model that requires less administrative and overhead work. And in many cases, giving circles better leverage the real skills and assets of a potential Founder for Good while also encouraging community-based collaboration with existing organizations and programs that can lead to healthier communities, mission efficiency, and greater impact.

Through the process of learning about organizations and exploring issues more deeply, it is not uncommon for giving circles to uncover issues in their communities that go beyond the capacity of existing organizations to address.

In this case, the giving circle can turn out to be the perfect first step into a broader social impact mission. This is the ideal opportunity to explore fiscal sponsorship, to help an existing nonprofit expand its services, or to consider the creation of a wholly new nonprofit.

Those of us at Grapevine have seen giving circles transition from solely making grants to existing organizations, to beginning to implement their own programs to fill critical needs in their communities by setting up a fiscally sponsored account. In this way, some of the funds that they have raised can be used by their members to carry out programs directly.

Read the full article about starting a giving circle by Emily Rasmussen at Johnson Center.