What We Sponsor and What We Don't

Unlike many fiscal sponsors, Visions Made Viable specifically seeks to support a wide variety of efforts to bring about important social change.

If your project or nonprofit is a practical approach with potential to add value to the lives of others, and it fits our mission statement, we’d love to hear from you.

However, we want to be sure that you have a good chance at success.  We believe in being upfront and honest with our partners so before applying with us.

If your project is just an idea without any committed financial supporters for your project already, it is very difficult for you to be successful.   Talk to lots of people and obtain commitments for them to support your idea before you apply.  Fiscal sponsorship is not a cure-all for financial problems that will motivate foundations or funders to support a project just because it has nonprofit status.

Also, there are some types of projects we don't sponsor. Before contacting us or applying, make sure your project doesn’t fall into any of the following categories:

  • Projects Specifically Focused on Political Advocacy
    • As a 501c3 nonprofit organization in the US, VMV can't support projects dedicated to straightforward political advocacy
  • Projects for fundraising through events, conferences or fundraisers.  Fundraising through events if often very complicated (securing facilities, selling tickets, managing vendors, determining which part of the donation is for the food and which part is truly a gift, obtaining permits, etc.) and we just do not have the expertise to successfully support projects that have this as a component of how they are going to operate. 
  • Projects Funding Individual Education or Career Development.
    • We don’t support individuals seeking grant monies or contributions for their own educational or career development.
  • Arts Projects Without a Clear Connection to Creating Social Change
    • We deeply appreciate  the contribution the arts community makes to social change. But VMV can't support individuals or groups of artists looking for further training. We're motivated to consider artistic projects that contribute directly to social change, but in most cases artists hoping for fiscal sponsorship should probably look for support among the many fiscal sponsorship groups committed to helping artists do what they do best.