Frequently Asked Questions
The jargon
What does 501(c)3 mean?
What's a fiscal sponsor?
The funding
What can I use a Sparkplug grant for?
What can't a Sparkplug grant be used for?
What do you mean by "education & teaching?"
What do you mean by "community organizing?"
The application process
How can I write a more effective proposal?
How and when should I send my application?
Beyond Sparkplug funding...
What other help can Sparkplug offer me?
If my proposal is not funded, where can I get support?
To be recognized as a non-profit under U.S. law, an organization must register with the Internal Revenue Service. A "501(c)3" organization is an organization that has registered under Section §501(c)3 of the federal tax code. They're a non-profit, tax-exempt organization.
In order to register, the organization has to have a certain structure, including officers who will take responsbility for the organization. And once an organization has been approved by the IRS as a 501(c)3, it has to follow certain rules -- for example, it can't do political lobbying. It also gets certain privileges, like being allowed to get foundation grants.
Most U.S. foundations only make grants to 501(c)3 organizations.
Since many community groups do not want to be 501(c)3 organizations for various reasons, they look for other ways to qualify for grants. One solution is to link up with a organization that is a 501(c)3, and ask them to accept grants on your behalf.
The 501(c)3 fiscal sponsor accepts funding on your behalf and holds it for you. When you want to spend grant money, you ask them to release the funds. The fiscal sponsor is legally responsible for proving that the grant money has been spent on non-profit purposes allowed by U.S. tax law. So they may ask you to provide receipts or other information for their own records.
They may also charge you for the service of being your sponsor -- either because it requires some administrative work, or because they need to fund their own work. Fiscal sponsors usually take a percentage of the grant money you ask them to hold for you. They might take a small amount, like 3%, or a much larger amount, like 12%. Sparkplug encourages our grantees to find low-cost fiscal sponsors, and we will try to help you find one if needed.
A fiscal sponsorship arrangement should be written down and signed by the sponsor and the grantee. When Sparkplug makes a grant through a fiscal sponsor, we ask for a copy of that signed agreement.
What can I use a Sparkplug grant for?
Sparkplug funding is for materials and activities that help your work become more sustainable. It can cover organization-building materials like flyers, pamphlets or websites. It can cover training/recruiting expenses like meeting costs. And it can cover long-lasting items like software (things that you only need to buy once, but that can really advance your work.)
Sparkplug can cover some salaries and stipends, if they're supporting the development of your project into a sustainable organization. For instance, we have funded salaries for people to teach community members how to be organizers -- because having a crew of local organizers makes it possible for the organization to carry its work forward, and the salary is a one-time expense that serves as the "spark."
What can't a Sparkplug grant be used for?
Since Sparkplug tries to fund new organizations or new projects, we're unlikely to fund the expansion of an existing project (like adding offices.) We're also unlikely to fund operating expenses of existing projects (like ongoing salaries.) And we can't, by law, fund lobbying or election campaigns.
We try not to fund technological equipment like computers, because they eat up a lot of funding and because you can often get them donated, rather than buying them. If you need computers etc, we encourage you to ask businesses in your area for donations. (Not sure how to do that? See our Resources page.)
We get a lot of funding requests for video/film projects. We may fund visual arts in the context of an Education & Teaching project or a Community Organizing project ONLY. But we don't fund visual arts -- even if they're educational or closely related to social justice. Sorry!
What do you mean by "education & teaching?"
In the Ideals section, we define education as a focus on "learning as a community activity," and on developing "critical and investigative thinking."
Many schools do this kind of education, and many schools are facing budget cuts that mean they have to drop important programs. To our distress, we cannot fill in those gaps.
Instead, our focus is still more specific: we try to fund community-based education as empowerment. In some cases, this means offering programs within schools that address disparities among students -- for example, we funded digital arts education in a school that serves students who are primarily foster children, where students used the skills to create commercially-marketed work. In other cases, this means teaching basic skills like reading and math to youth who are not adequately served by schools. In yet other cases, this means teaching parents and kids together, so that the learning they start in the classroom continues at home.
We also fund efforts by teachers to improve the education system, by organizing and networking themselves. This may include materials for dissemination, websites, etc.
Although many arts projects are educational -- from exhibitions to mass-distributed video -- we do not fund those projects under our Education & Teaching focus.
What do you mean by "community organizing?"
Community organizing and community service are different. Community service is providing needed services to people, like health care or a food bank. Community organizing is a community process in which people identify and change power relationships.
Both are important, useful and deserving of funding. But Sparkplug funds only community organizing. This quotation illustrates our approach. (Thanks to the Northland Poster Collective.)
If you give me a fish you have fed me for a day.
If you teach me to fish then you have fed me until the river is contaminated or the shoreline seized for development.
But if you teach me to organize then whatever the challenge I can join together with my peers and we will fashion our own solution.
Again, although many arts projects support community organizing goals, we don't fund them in this category.
How can I write a more effective proposal?
Many proposals are good at describing a problem they're addressing, but become vague when they talk about how they plan to address it. Be specific. Instead of giving general statements about what you want to accomplish, write down the steps you'll use to get there, the people and materials you'll need to do it, etc. Define the need or issues you're addressing. Tell us how you know you've chosen the right way to tackle it. Tell us what other groups you'll be working with and how many people will be affected by the project. Tell us how you'll know if you've been successful.
On the application, note the section called "About Funding & Growing Your Work." In this section, we need to know actual estimated costs for your work -- not just a description of your plans. This information will help us understand how you plan to carry out your work, and what you'll need to be successful.
How and when should I send my application?
Please consider sending in your application early. We try to help you by looking over the application and suggesting ways to improve it before we start making funding decisions.But we can only do that for applications that arrive at least two weeks before the deadline.
Because Sparkplug has very little infrastructure (so we can put our money into grants, not office expenses) we can't take your proposals by e-mail or fax. You must mail in your proposal -- and we must receive your proposal in our mailbox on or before the deadline.
Some applicants run into trouble when they learn, too late, that many express mail services don't deliver to P.O. boxes. It won't help much to hand-deliver the application to the post office where our box is located, either. Your application will still be stamped and posted; it won't reach the box right away.
So your best bet is to mail the application at least a few days before the deadline.
What other help can Sparkplug offer me?
We try to help applicants write their proposals for the best chance of funding. We can help you think through your application, talk to you about how foundations look at grant proposals, and suggest additional ways to get funding and support.
We can also help grantees connect with other organizations doing similar work -- in other words, to help you build your network and resources. This has been particularly important for brand new organizations who need help thinking about how to structure their membership, what operating principles will serve their goals, etc.
We're looking into ways that we can provide other assistance to grantees at low cost, but high impact. (For example, we might be able to host mini-websites for grantees on the Sparkplug website.) If you have ideas, please let us know.
If my proposal is not funded, where can I get support?
We will let you know if you can re-submit your proposal to Sparkplug. (Sometimes there isn't enough money to fund all the qualified applicants in a particular round, for example.)
But if we're unable to fund your request, don't give up. You can check the website of the Foundation Center, which has a huge national database of foundations. It tells you what each foundation supports, and how to contact them.
You can also find other organizations doing work similar to yours, and find out who funded them.
Most important, there may be local resources you can tap: businesses, professoinals, religious institutions, and sympathetic people who are willing to support you -- if you ask. Some will support your project just because they think it's important, while others may want public recognition in exchange for support. Community funding should be a part of every organization's plan. Foundation funding, often, is not as reliable as support from a community that knows you and believes in your work.