Image of the Georgia Pacific mill site in Fort Bragg, CA; NHUDG, fiscally sponsored by CFI.

Cloud Forest Institute encourages bio-regional endeavors to re-establish balance within ecological systems by way of environmental education, forest conservation and resilient community development.

Apply for fiscal sponsorship

• Submit a copy of your organization’s governing documents i.e. bylaws or, if not legally incorporated, a copy of the first meeting’s minutes identifying the group’s participants, purpose and status as a “community group”.

• Write a letter of proposal or give a presentation to the Cloud Forest Institute (CFI) board of directors describing your educational project. Submissions can be sent to Cloud Forest Institute, PO Box 1432, Ukiah, CA 95482 or by email to jen@cloudforest.org.

Procedures & Requirements

• If our board agrees that it is compatible with the educational and scientific mission of CFI it votes to approve it.

• A Fiscal Sponsor Contract between your organization and CFI is signed. This contract is renewed annually.

• CFI receives an administrative fee of 12% of any grants or tax-deductible donations written to CFI in your behalf.

• When an individual makes a donation of $100 or more they will receive a letter of thanks and a receipt from CFI for their tax records. Donors make checks out to Cloud Forest Institute which is deposited into a restricted fund. Checks must be written to Cloud Forest Institute or they cannot be deposited. The name of your organization should be stipulated on the memo line of the donation.

• If you are asking for fiscal sponsorship in order to apply for a grant you will be required to submit a copy of the CFI 501C(3) letter of determination of federal tax exemption and often times a copy of our budget or a roster of our directors and their affiliations. We supply copies of these documents upon your request.  

• If granted, the funding agency will mail a check to CFI which we deposit into a fund restricted for use by your project.  

• CFI has a legal responsibility to insure that all tax deductible donations or grants are used for educational, scientific or charitable purposes.  You are required to submit receipts for reimbursements, purchase orders or invoices in order to access your funds. 

• At the end of the period of a grant, you are usually required to send a report about the outcomes of the project to the original granting agency. CFI also requires a copy of this report.

• CFI should be noted as your fiscal sponsor for tax deductible donations on any printed information that your group creates for the public and we ask that you send us copies of this literature. 

• Your organization is listed on our brochure and on our website where we will create a link to your website.  Arrangements can be made for on line contributions to be designated to your organization via our website as well.