It would be my honor, Joan. International Humanities Center (IHCenter) operates as a nonprofit fiscal sponsor. For those who may not be versed in fiscal sponsorship (FS), this is a means by which many start-up charitable endeavors get their feet wet, i.e., get up and running. For those projects that are just getting started, or have been operating for some time yet not with charitable status and want to take the next step, FS is often the answer.
The process of incorporating, obtaining nonprofit (NP) status from the IRS and dealing with the myriad of back-office complexities stops many promising organizations dead in their tracks. They simply do not have the time or expertise to deal with issues such as accounting, filings, merchant accounts, etc. This is where we, and other fiscal sponsors, come in. We are specifically equipped to handle the back-office aspects of running multiple projects, all of which are unified on one IRS filing and audit simultaneously. Fiscal sponsors do charge an overhead fee, yet this often is much lower than if the project took these services in-house. We provide major bang for the buck.
The use of a fiscal sponsor also frees
the project directors and their staff/volunteers from the very issues they do
not want to deal with. No one à ‚¬" and I do mean no one à ‚¬" begins
a charitable endeavor because they love the back-office tasks. People
start organizations because they see a need in their community or the world for
significant change. They see that there are children to feed, beaches to
clean, animals that are suffering, communities that are suffering the ravages
of civil unrest or a natural disaster, a broken electoral system that is badly
in need of an overhaul. The possibilities are practically endless. The
role of a fiscal sponsor is to vault these projects into action, rather than
them having to wait months for IRS exemption, by which time many of the
situations will have run their course.
IHCenter is a
great organization. (I know this first-hand because i'm one of those
little guys who is huddling under their umbrella.) How long has IHCenter been in
existence and how has it grown over the years?
IHCenter has been in existence since 1998, yet it incarnated into its present format in Summer 2003. At that time, I left my post at another (similar) organization and moved over to IHCenter. It truly was a leap of faith, as IHCenter had only one project at the time, no staff, no budget and precious little money in the bank.
Since that time we have grown tremendously: last year we counted over 300 projects under our sponsorship, all of whom combined to bring in over $6 million in revenue. The growth has astonished all of us! In fact, we have grown so fast that a moratorium on new groups is in place. This is allowing us to thin the ranks by de-activating inactive projects, as well as overhaul our office systems.
What this proves, this rapid growth of IHCenter, is that there is an unquenchable thirst among so many of our global citizenry. People are clamoring to make positive change. There has been so much misery, so much thievery, so much behind-the-scenes dealing amongst the powers-that-be, and people are tired of it. They want to make positive, lasting change. Many people have à ‚¬" and are continuing to à ‚¬" leave the corporate world to become activists. For some, this is a part-time endeavor; for most, it is a passion that consumes.
That is amazing! How many
people make up the IHCenter staff? Can you give us an idea of the kinds of
projects you serve? Also, how do people learn about you and the wonderful
way you free small projects up from all the bureaucratic 'stuff' that can take
up so much time and energy?
This is truly the astonishing part: the IHCenter staff currently consists of five full-time people and several part-timers. I am amongst the latter while still on a sabbatical of sorts. The going has been rough for the past year, as the economic meltdown caused revenues to dramatically drop. This is one of the primary reasons why two of us are working part-time on sabbatical, and the office has not been able to adequately ramp up with the hiring of more personnel. We work very hard for the projects that are sponsored, with minimal outside funding assistance and an ultra-low fiscal sponsorship fee.
The types of projects that are served are as diverse as the nonprofit community will allow. Our groups are digging water wells in India, building schoolhouses in several locations, providing disaster relief wherever/whenever we can, protecting the integrity of our American electoral system, providing healing for traumatized war veterans. The list is practically endless.
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