Donor Terms & Conditions

Fiscal Sponsorship Allies, Inc. (“FSA”) is committed to donor rights, as well as to transparency and accountability. Donors may have questions about how the donations or donor information is used. These Donor Terms and Conditions (“Donor Terms”) should help clarify such questions. Throughout this section a “sponsee” is the entity charitable program or charitable project that FSA is supporting as a fiscal sponsor.

Donors or other funders agree to these Donor Terms in one of three ways. For online donations, they consent by checking the acceptance box during the online donation checkout process. Grantmakers who make grants pursuant to grant applications and/or grant agreement expressly consent to the Donor Terms. Finally, Donors who contribute via check, ACH, wire, cryptocurrency or otherwise not through an online form receive a contemporaneous written acknowledgment with a reminder about the applicability of these Donor Terms and an opportunity to revoke the donation so as to not be bound by the Donor Terms; such Donor Terms are thus in effect when such a Donor does not revoke the donation pursuant to the information in the contemporaneous written acknowledgment and these Donor Terms.

1. Charitable Program. FSA is an Indiana public benefit nonprofit corporation, organized and operated as an Internal Revenue Code (“Code”) Section 501(c)(3) organization treated as a public charity under Code Section 509(a)(3). Our core charitable program is to provide fiscal sponsorship services to other entities operating charitable programming.
2. Restricted Donations. Donations given in support of a sponsee are considered donations to FSA. Those donations are restricted for FSA’s use in carrying out its charitable programming and specifically restricted for the specific sponsee. For example, if a donor gives for the benefit of Sponsee X or Project Y (that is operated by Sponsee Y), then we will honor the donor designation or restriction in our grantmaking and award those funds to Sponsee X or Sponsee Y as a grant, except as provided in Paragraphs 4 and 6, below. Donors understand that it is their responsibility to ensure that donations through the FSA platform are in fact donations, and are not disguised fee-for-service payments, or other non-donation transfers of funds.
3. Donations are Final. Donations are generally final. Because we very quickly grant the donations back out to the sponsee, any donations received are final. Exceptions may include times where a donor may have errantly added too many zeros in making the donation, or if the donation was fraudulent. In such events, we work with the sponsee, the individual donor, and/or the credit card companies, for example, to ensure each donation is appropriately handled.
4. Disallowing Restrictions. Donations given in support of a particular sponsee will generally be restricted for our grants to that sponsee. However, there are times where our legal obligations or Generally Accepted Accounting Principles require that FSA not honor such restrictions. For example, if a sponsee is judicially dissolved, files bankruptcy, or loses its tax-exempt status, FSA may not be permitted to make the grant to that sponsee. In these rare cases, if a sponsee fails to receive ACH payments and also fails to negotiate (i.e., deposit or cash) the check(s) sent to it from FSA, or if the donations are otherwise undeliverable pursuant to FSA’s policies, then any restriction is deemed lifted and the funds become unrestricted funds of FSA for use in furtherance of its charitable mission and program.
5. Treasury Management, Use of Restricted Funds and Investment Returns. Donor expressly acknowledges, agrees, consents to and ratifies FSA’s (a) use of advanced treasury management techniques, (b) investment of restricted donations, as well as (c) use of otherwise restricted donations for its own purposes (i) on a temporary basis or (ii) where FSA anticipates other funds will be available within a reasonable period of time to replenish the used funds. All investment returns (whether short-term, medium-term or long-term) derived from FSA’s investments (regardless of whether the investments are undertaken with restricted or unrestricted assets) belong to FSA (for its use consistent with its charitable purpose) and are not allocated to any particular fiscally sponsored project or fund.
6. Variance. FSA retains the unilateral right to spend the amounts donated to it specified for a sponsee so as to accomplish the charitable purposes of the sponsee as nearly as possible within FSA’s sole judgment, subject to any more specific donor-imposed restrictions, on the charitable use of such assets. In the event that the sponsee cannot spend any donation amount for its charitable purposes due to impossibility, impracticality, waste, or illegality in the sole judgment of the FSA, then the FSA has the right to spend such funds on charitable programs and purposes that in the sole discretion of the FSA are deemed appropriate.
7. Donor Information. Donor information is used in three ways. First, highly confidential donor information (i.e., credit card numbers and expiration dates) is never shared, nor is it accessible by our personnel or by any sponsee personnel. Second, donor contact information (names, addresses and email addresses) is collected and used by us and shared with sponsees. Both sponsees and FSA use this donor contact information in subsequent communications with the donors. Donors may opt out at any time. Third, sponsees and FSA use donation information (donation amount, date, time, last four of credit card numbers, associated confirmation numbers, and similar) in processing donations and in processing subsequent grants to sponsees. This information is treated confidentially and only utilized insofar as is necessary for accounting, donation processing and similar purposes.
8. Gross Contributions. FSA retains a service fee, generally 3.89% of the donations (plus additional fees, as incurred). For accounting purposes and hereafter the donation is considered 100% received by the Sponsee and then the Processing Fee is paid to FSA by the Sponsee.
9. Gifts to Donors. FSA does not provide goods or services to donors in return for their donations.
10. Amendments. These Donor Terms may be amended from time to time. The amendments shall be effective at the time notice of such is sent, unless otherwise noted. If the amendments reduce Donor’s rights or increase its responsibilities, FSA will provide notice via email and provide at least twenty-one (21) days advance notice within which donor may object. By not objecting to the amendments donor agrees that donor is bound by those amendments.