As your fiscal sponsor, IMN acts as a non-profit tax-exempt umbrella organization that accepts and administers contributions made to your project.

For this service we charge a 5% fee for all grants, with the exception of the National Endowment for the Humanities and State Humanities Council grants (for which we charge 7% due to the additional administrative costs involved).

• IMN is legally responsible for the funds received on behalf of fiscally sponsored projects and must ensure that the funds are used for charitable activities, as agreed upon between the donor and recipient, and that the donor reporting requirements are met and in a timely fashion.
• Acting as your fiscal sponsor does not mean that we are your producers, fundraisers, or in any way connected to the content or actual production of your project.
• All artistic and proprietary rights, title, interest in and to the completed project will belong to the Project Director and may be copyrighted in the Project Director’s name.

If IMN approves your request for fiscal sponsorship, we will require a copy of each funding request you are making using IMN as a fiscal sponsor.

• If the funding request is approved by IMN as fitting our mission guidelines, we will then create a cover letter for you to attach to the funding request.
• When the funder agrees to fund your project, IMN will help administer the funding for your project.
• We will create an account for you and all monies contributed to your project will be placed in this account.
• When you are ready to start using the funds for your project you will submit a payment request to IMN for the funds. Upon receipt of the request we will send a payment to the Project Director.
• Checks are only made payable to Project Directors, a production company or another individual. Disbursements are made to one name only per project. You are responsible for paying your vendors and consultants with these funds.

You must keep track of all your expenses connected with the project and submit Disbursement Expense Reports to IMN with copies of receipts and invoices after each disbursement is made to you.

• You also agree to spend funds administered to you by IMN in accordance with the budget approved by IMN and your funder. An annual narrative and financial report has to be filed with IMN at the end of each year.
• You must also file reports to your funders in accordance with their guidelines and deadlines.

As a fiscal sponsor, we are legally responsible for the funds received on behalf of your sponsored project.

• We must insure that the project uses the funds for non-commercial charitable activities in accordance with the agreed upon terms between the donor and your project, and that the donor reporting requirements are met by the project in a timely fashion.
• In order to do this, we set up financial and database files to keep track of your project; acknowledge contributions to donors for tax purposes; prepare End-of-the-Year reports.
• For this service we charge a 5% fee for all grants, with the exception of the National Endowment for the Humanities and State Humanities Council grants (for which we charge 7% due to the additional administrative costs involved).

Hopefully this information is helpful to you in understanding how a fiscal sponsorship works. Please let me know if I can answer any questions if you want to move forward with a fiscal sponsorship through Independent Media Network.