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North American Wikimedians/Hub 2025-2026 projects/Memorandum of Understanding between Hub and fiscal sponsor

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Draft Agreement between the North American Hub and its Fiscal Sponsor for 2025-2026

  1. This statement describes an understanding between two parties:
  • The “North American Hub”, a coalition of Wikimedia user groups with a shared Steering Committee, and
  • Hacks/Hackers, a fiscal sponsor of the Hub’s grant funds from the WMF for 2025-2026
  1. The WMF Grants Team, which is granting the funds for the Hub’s projects, is an interested third party.
  2. Hacks/Hackers has agreed to serve as Fiscal Sponsor for the grant and the funded projects, using the meaning of fiscal sponsorship defined for Wikimedia Foundation funds generally, spelled out here: Grants:Fiscal_sponsorships.
  3. The Fiscal Sponsor shall hold and dispense the Hub’s grant funds, subject to constraints discussed below. The Hub does not otherwise have any financial accounts and may need timely action by the Fiscal Sponsor.
  4. The Fiscal Sponsor has Duty of care to observe the Hub expenses which are for particular projects and for strictly nonprofit purposes, are used for those purposes. Minor variations from the stated project plans are to be expected. The Hub shall not carry on activities or use funds in any way that jeopardizes the Fiscal Sponsor's tax-exempt status.
  5. The Fiscal Sponsor has duty of care to take a second look if a grantee or vendor of the hub’s is double-billing other WMF-affiliated funders for the same project. (E.g. it would be thinkable for the projects funded by the Hub to already have been funded by a WMF or WMCA grant.)
  6. The Sponsored Organization will provide the Fiscal Sponsor with reports describing programs and services of the Hub projects upon request.
  7. The Fiscal Sponsor shall take the lead in developing financial reports for the WMF of the activities of the Hub. These are intended to be cooperatively written documents.
  8. On behalf of the Sponsored Organization, the Fiscal Sponsor will establish and operate for the use of the Hub a designated account ("Account") segregated on the Fiscal Sponsor's books. All amounts deposited into a Project's Account will be used in its support, less administrative charges, if any, and subject to the conditions set forth below.
  9. Disbursements by the fiscal sponsor shall be documented by receipts, invoices, or other appropriate documentation. The Hub forecasts needing on the order of <30> financial transactions.
  10. The fiscal sponsor shall receive 5/7/10% of the grant funds as a fiscal sponsorship fee.
  11. The fiscal sponsor shall designate individuals to answer financial questions from Hub staff and volunteers.
  12. The Sponsored Organization shall designed a person to act as an authorizing official. The authorizing official shall act as principal coordinator of the Project's daily business with the Fiscal Sponsor, and shall have authority to sign disbursement requests [add additional authority, at no time should a person approve their own disbursement]. This authorizing official may be a staff member, or the chairperson if any of the Hub steering committee, and if no such person has been designated then majority votes of the Steering Committee can authorize expenditures.
  13. Both the Fiscal Sponsor and Sponsored Organization will maintain the financial records relating to the Project according to generally accepted accounting principles, retain records as long as required by law, and make records available to auditors as required by law.
  14. The Fiscal Sponsor will manage any tax implications, incorporating the transactions to the extent required, on their state and federal government tax returns and financial reports. The fiscal sponsor will determine which grantees or other recipients of grants funds to send 1099 tax forms to, for calendar 2025 and 2026.
  15. Either of the parties may terminate the agreement in which case the funds will be transferred back to the WMF or by instruction from the Steering Committee and the WMF jointly to another fiscal sponsor.
  16. At the conclusion of the projects, expected in summer 2026, the remaining funds will be transferred as instructed, or to the WMF.
Agreed on behalf of the Fiscal Sponsor: ____________________________ Date: _____
Agreed on behalf of the Hub: ____________ Date: ______________
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