Equitable Intermediaries: Power, Protection, Partnership

Today, nonprofits face elevated risk. Some have advised nonprofits to put on their metaphorical oxygen masks to wait out the storm. Such caution may be understandable, but turning inward can fracture needed solidarity. One tool that can help grassroots organizations avoid isolation is an equitable intermediary.

An intermediary or “fiscal sponsor” can assist with such matters as legal compliance and human resources. It can also provide financial and technological expertise. This allows grassroots organizations to focus on base building, organizing, and visioning.

BiNi Scoor, founder and CEO of 212 Catalysts, an intermediary based in Austin, TX, explained how this works to NPQ: “The funders and the mission folks can talk about the project and the mission…No one has to really worry much about all the sausage-making in between.”

Not all intermediaries are created equal. Some file paperwork and manage finances, but little else. But fiscal sponsorship, when practiced with equity in mind, can help grassroots organizations maintain their power building focus.

What Makes an Intermediary “Equitable”?

An equitable intermediary goes beyond “traditional” infrastructure support in key, meaningful ways. Instead of simply processing grants, equitable intermediaries make capacity investments in such areas as communications and fundraising support, leadership development, coalition building, peer learning, and wellness support.

Equitable intermediaries absorb financial, legal, and compliance risks…a redistribution of risk that levels the playing field for community-led organizations.

With equitable intermediaries, the way the fiscal sponsor is governed is different as well. For example, sponsored projects may have a voice in organizational decisions. This can look like a peer governance model or involve naming directors of fiscally sponsored projects as board members.

In Seattle, RVC (Rooted in Vibrant Communities) offers partner organizations the opportunity to review and provide feedback before the organization makes decisions regarding policy and procedure, RVC’s Executive Director JoJo Gaon told NPQ. “The ‘equitable’ piece is an invitation for our fiscally sponsored organizations and community partners to contribute to the fiscal sponsorship system.”

Equitable intermediaries absorb financial, legal, and compliance risks on behalf of their fiscally sponsored projects—a redistribution of risk that levels the playing field for community-led organizations still building their capacity. Typically, fiscal sponsorship fees are allocated as part of a project’s budget in order to ensure “an organization’s economics are not disrupted or traumatized by fees and costs that are beyond their capacity,” as Carla Dartis, executive director at Movement Strategy Center told NPQ. Equitable intermediaries may also make the choice to provide these services at a sliding scale so projects with small budgets can still have access.

Ben Wrobel, the cofounder and editor at the media platform Proximate (an MSC partner), told NPQ that working with an intermediary like MSC has made him aware that even “decisions about contracting, organizational structure, or accounting can either reinforce hierarchy or open space for co-creation.”

Equitable intermediaries are not neutral administrators. They work intentionally as strategic actors to assist grassroots organizations in navigating philanthropic rules designed to keep grant applicant pools small and low-risk while working with funders to reduce barriers around access and reporting.

Growing the Equitable Intermediary Movement

RVC and arts intermediary Fractured Atlas steer a cohort of equitable intermediaries, along with three foundations: The Rockefeller Foundation, St. David’s Foundation, and the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation. Overall, the group seeks to increase equity within the nonprofit sector and beyond by shifting funding and resources from philanthropy to frontline communities.

Aside from attracting more funders to support this work, the cohort seeks to raise awareness of the roles intermediaries play, foster relationships between funders and the grassroots, and promote a wholesale shift toward more equitable practices throughout the industry.

Equitable fiscal sponsorship can help activists and movement builders address inequities within their communities, develop as leaders, and scale their work. It comes down to three core elements: power, protection, and partnerships.

Power: Becoming Too Big to Fail  

Equitable intermediaries can help groups grow, take root, and scale. Dartis shared that a coalition of community and faith-based organizations in the Midwest came to MSC to become “too big to fail.”

She told NPQ, “With our bridge loans, backbone services, and compliance expertise behind them, no funder could say they were incapable of accepting and reporting on large cash infusions.”

The funding led to the building of Americans with Disabilities Act–compliant bathrooms, along with modern food storage and preparation equipment in their community centers. Similarly, MSC joined another partner, along with a coalition of solar energy companies, unions, nonprofits, and homeowners in suing the US Environmental Protection Agency in October 2025 over its termination of federal Solar For All funding.

Dartis said it was an easy decision: “Our partners are our peers, and we believe in strength in numbers and solidarity.”

Scoor shares a similar story. 212 Catalysts has handled contract acquisition and compliance for the first-ever trauma recovery center in Texas, part of the National Alliance for Trauma Recovery network. With fiscal management and data support from 212 Catalysts, their BIPOC-led client secured $1 million annually from various government entities over the last several years.

As Scoor explained, the benefit of the fiscal sponsor is that the sponsor can provide grassroots groups with a platform to receive institutional funds while maintaining accountability and mission integrity.

Another MSC partner, We Rise Production, is a collective of cultural producers and artists who understand that storytelling and narrative change are essential to addressing the world’s urgent crises. Cat Petru, one of the organization’s cofounders and co-directors, quoted Toni Cade Bambara in reference to their mission: “The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible.”

MSC supplied the backend compliance We Rise needed to accept funding in support of the release of Rising for Our Motherlands, a podcast project that began in 2019. We Rise’s work, Petru added, focuses on “decolonization and power building and community and storytelling and uplifting stories that are not ones that are very prominently highlighted.”

Protection: Safeguarding Mission in a Hostile Climate

All fiscal sponsors aim to absorb risk. But in today’s hostile climate, where organizations working in social justice or diversity, equity, and inclusion face unprecedented scrutiny and threats, equitable intermediaries are ramping up their own compliance, legal, and security measures while developing strategies around crisis communications and targeted language.

Equitable fiscal sponsorship intermediaries build long-term relationships that support reflection, collective impact, and collaboration.

In MSC’s case, the strategic decision was made to soften its tone and its language, including removing targeted words and terms from its website with the goal of shielding member nonprofits from these pressures.

Whether this works remains to be seen. What is evident, however, is that it is not the fiscal sponsor norm. As Tansy McNulty, CEO of 1 Million Madly Motivated Moms (1M4) told NPQ, “If we were with another [intermediary] organization who told us to change our messaging, change how we talk to funders, or change how we communicate our mission….We wouldn’t have been able to be us.”

The nonprofit only selected MSC as its fiscal sponsor after rejecting 10 other options. After two years, 1M4 obtained its own independent 501c3 status, though the organizations maintain a fruitful relationship.

Partnership: Replacing Control with Collaboration

Equitable fiscal sponsorship intermediaries build long-term relationships that support reflection, collective impact, and collaboration. Judith Le Blanc, executive director of Native Organizers Alliance and a board member of MSC, noted in an interview with NPQ that equitable intermediaries provide “a beautiful entry ramp for engagement and growing relationships with a cross-section of communities who are organizing and analyzing what is strategically necessary to create a world guided by the principles of social justice.”

Jose Pineda, executive director of After Incarceration, told NPQ that an equitable intermediary “replaces control with collaboration.” Pineda was a member of the first Beloved Communities Cohort, a program of the Beloved Communities Network, which is fiscally sponsored by MSC.

The cohort focuses on cultural strategy and spiritual practice in movement building. During one session, Pineda connected with Oja Vincent from Forced Trajectory Project, an organization that confronts state violence with storytelling and technology. Vincent was able to share his media talents while Pineda offered access to training and resources.

“Infrastructure is not neutral—it either concentrates power or redistributes it.”

“The exchange reflected what the cohort was designed to do,” Pineda said, “create relationships that move beyond dialogue into shared work and mutual investment across movements.”

Scott Simpson is an organizer for MSC partner Qommittee for Qreative Freedom, a national volunteer organization that envisions a world where drag artists can focus on spreading joy and making a living rather than fear and hate. MSC’s partnership came in the form of fundraising support, as Simpson put it, “on the entire philanthropic landscape—everything from budgeting basics to approaching funders to finding our authentic voice in grant writing.”

Creating Containers for Change

By caring for the fundamentals, equitable intermediaries create a container for experimentation. Pineda noted that “infrastructure is not neutral—it either concentrates power or redistributes it.”

For organizations working at the grassroots level, for funders seeking to support movement infrastructure, and for the nonprofit sector grappling with how to show up in this political moment, equitable intermediaries represent both a practical solution and a transformative vision.

As Simpson told NPQ, “An equitable intermediary doesn’t just open the door—they help you learn to build your own.”