What we offer
Gift Collective provides a fundholding service for unincorporated charitable projects, and an online platform for managing money.
Fundholding 101
Fundholding (also known as fiscal sponsorship, fiscal hosting, or auspicing) is when an unincorporated project (one without a legal entity) sits under the umbrella of an incorporated entity, using its bank accounts and legal status. Funding is received by the incorporated entity (the 'fundholder'), and spent on the unincorporated project's expenses.
Grants and donations are received by the fundholder, into their bank account, and (in many cases) the fundholder is legally responsible for them. For small unincorporated projects, this is often the easiest way to get up and running. For larger unincorporated projects, working with a fundholder cuts out all the financial administration that comes with running an entity.
Gift Collective offers charity fundholding, for projects that are charitable in nature. Gift Collective is run by The Gift Trust, a registered charity, which can issue donation receipts eligible for New Zealand donation tax credits. The projects we host can utilise our charity status to qualify for grants, and have raised more than $5m since 2021. We also take care of accounting and legal reporting, including to IRD and Charities Services.
Managing your Collective's funds online
Gift Collective uses an online platform called Open Collective, which is used around the world to enable fundholding for thousands of projects. Every Gift Collective project gets its own online page, where it can fundraise, tell its story, engage its community, and track and spend money transparently.
With Open Collective and Gift Collective, you can:
Receive donations which are eligible for New Zealand tax credits
Receive other financial contributions, including grants
Tell your story and engage your community on a bespoke web page, with a transparent budget
Create and submit expenses, which we process and pay
Create crowdfunding pages, events, and projects, to manage your budget
Send updates to all your donors and supporters, with one click
Other services
Alongside what we facilitate through Open Collective, we'll also:
Check your expenses for alignment with your charitable purpose
Sign contracts with vendors, venues, and contractors as needed
Help you engage contractors and employ people to work on your Collective's mahi
Provide documentation for your grant applications
Engage with your funders and submit your funding applications when required as the legal entity
What we don't do
We do a lot for our Collectives, but not everything. Importantly, we don't:
Operate like a bank account - we only make payments weekly, and only when valid expenses have been submitted and approved
Employ people - we can help with payroll and HR, but you or another incorporated entity must be the legal employer
Get funding for you, or write your funding applications
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