Live Webcast
CC

Fiscal Sponsorships for Nonprofits: Risks, Rules, & What’s Next 2026

  • City:
  • Start Date:2026-10-21 09:00:00
  • End Date:2026-10-21 10:30:00
  • Length:
  • Level:Intermediate
  • Topics:Business

$139.00 ProPass

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This program is eligible for 1.5 hour of CLE credit in 60-minute states. In 50-minute states, this program is eligible for 1.8 hours of CLE credit. Credit hours are estimated and are subject to each state’s approval and credit rounding rules.

Overview

Fiscal sponsorship is a key vehicle for launching and operating charitable projects without forming a new tax-exempt entity — but it also presents nuanced compliance challenges, especially as regulators and policymakers increase their focus on transparency and accountability. This session provides a practical overview of fiscal sponsorship models, with particular attention to recent sponsor collapses, proposed legislative developments, and anticipated changes to IRS Form 990.

The session will begin with a primer on common fiscal sponsorship structures and their benefits, including comprehensive (Model A) and pre-approved grant relationship (Model C) arrangements, highlighting key legal distinctions, advantages, and risks. The session will then turn to planning considerations, common misunderstandings that trip up organizations (and their counsel), and how and why fiscal sponsorship relationships can break down, or collapse —and how to prevent it and protect the organizations involved.

We will then examine the evolving regulatory landscape, including proposed legislation and increased federal enforcement efforts, and what these developments mean for sponsors and projects. To close out, we will address anticipated IRS Form 990 updates and their implications for reporting fiscal sponsorship activities.

Participants will leave with practical guidance and equipped to advise the nonprofits they serve on the structure, oversight, and reporting of fiscal sponsorship arrangements in a rapidly evolving compliance environment.

Faculty

Beth Dougherty, Esq.

Beth Dougherty is the Director of Legal Education Initiatives at Cheshire Law Group in Philadelphia. Beth has advised a wide range of nonprofit organizations on all aspects of their activities, including formation and tax-exempt status, board governance, federal and state laws and regulatory compliance, mergers, affiliations, and fundraising compliance. She has also served on the boards of grassroots nonprofit organizations and worked directly in the nonprofit sector, supporting public education initiatives through the City of Philadelphia’s Community Schools Program and child health as a Project Coordinator at Children First. An active volunteer in her community, Beth has been involved with the East Passyunk Crossing Civic Association since 2008. She is a graduate of Temple University Beasley School of Law, J.D., and New York University, B.A.

Morgen Cheshire, Esq.

Morgen was named the 2024 Outstanding Nonprofit Lawyer of the Year by the American Bar Association and is a systemic thinker, dedicated to serving the legal needs of nonprofit organizations and revolutionizing how nonprofits access legal supports. She is the founder and managing attorney of the Cheshire Law Group, which was awarded the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Solo and Small Firm Section Award in 2024. Cheshire Law Group was launched in July 2011 to bring legal counsel within reach for nonprofit organizations, and in her daily practice, she exclusively serves as outside general counsel for nonprofits, helping them to manage their day-to-day and strategic legal needs effectively and affordably. Morgen is also the founder and managing editor of PAnonprofitlaw.com, a digital legal library launched in 2023 that offers resources that help make sense of legal complexities and accelerate and elevate the work of Pennsylvania’s nonprofit organizations and the professionals who serve them. PAnonprofitlaw.com includes tools that range from ready-to-use templates to informative guides to an annotated version of Pennsylvania’s Nonprofit Corporation Law (a 4th edition is coming in 2026!). Morgen also currently serves on the Public Policy Committee for the Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Organizations (PANO) and is a member of the Pennsylvania Department of State Corporation Bureau Advisory Committee. Morgen earned her bachelor’s degree from Grinnell College, and her law degree from Temple University School of Law, cum laude, and spent her third year of law school at Columbia School of Law studying art law. She is admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania and New York.

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