Fiscal Sponsorship and Management
At the Oakland Public Education Fund, our mission is to lead the development of community resources to invest in Oakland public schools so all students can learn, grow, and thrive. As part of our mission, we offer fiscal sponsorship to initiatives and projects that work to improve outcomes for Oakland kids. Let us manage your administrative responsibilities so you can focus on serving children and families.
The Ed Fund is proud to be the 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor for a range of Oakland public schools, OUSD departments, and education-focused projects—more than 120 fiscal sponsorships in all.
What is Fiscal Sponsorship?
Fiscal sponsorship allows you to operate your education-based project under the Ed Fund’s 501c3 status. Fiscal sponsors hold all fiduciary and legal responsibility for a project while you are the experts on programming.
Why Choose the Oakland Public Education Fund?
As a small, independent nonprofit we are able to respond quickly and flexibly when you need to pay for goods and services, hire employees, or take care of other project-related goals. When you need to move fast, we are here to help!
Increase Efficiency & Impact of your project:
501(c)(3) status requires $10K-100K in startup costs alone. Running a non-profit requires much administrative time that could be focused on your program work.
Access Expertise in Financial Management and Human Resources:
Our team has extensive experience in financial management, human resources, fundraising, grant management, program design, and more. All of your funds are audited yearly and hiring practices are always in line with the latest CA and Federal employment law.
Engage Donors & Funders:
We provide a reputable and established vehicle for funding — from online donors to private foundations to government agencies. Your donors receive tax donation letters regardless of the amount and as our fiscal sponsored project your work is eligible for foundation and government grants.
Eligibility
To set up fiscal sponsorship with the Ed Fund, your project, school, or department must be aligned with our mission to support public education and have a project presence in Oakland.
Services and Fees
We offer a suite of services above and beyond the industry standard and can customize a fiscal sponsorship plan that meets your project’s unique needs.
Employment administration including hiring and onboarding; full payroll services; benefits administration including vacation and sick leave balance management; risk management and compliance; HR policies.
Finance and accounting administration, including procurement function processing requisitions to purchase goods, accounts payable and check disbursements, annual independent audit and compliance reporting.
Grant support, including application development, tracking, and reporting; tax receipts for donations ; customized online donation page and portal with access to donation information; fundraising event support.
Insurance including worker’s compensation, liability, commercial and personal property, automobile, accident, employment practices liability; access to pro bono legal support for real estate, employment and discrimination claims, unrelated business income tax, partnership agreements.
Financial coaching, including budgeting best practices; performance management coaching; relationship building within Oakland education networks; etc. Our staff can support you with the many facets of running your project, from strategic planning to fundraising to volunteer engagement.
When you join the Ed Fund as a fiscally sponsored project, you share the cost of services with other projects in the program. To accommodate budgets of all sizes, each project contributes a percentage of each transaction.*
- Single revenue transaction <$1 Million: 10% contribution
- Single revenue transaction >$1 Million: minimum 7% contribution
- Single revenue transaction, local government grants: minimum 15% contribution regardless of amount due to complexity of reporting requirements
*Certain transactions will also incur additional fees to mitigate volume of requests including fundraising events and one time employee hiring fees.