Fiscal Sponsorship

Through our fiscal sponsorship program, the Good Work Institute provides support to Just Transition-aligned initiatives working here in the Mahicantuck / Hudson Valley, enabling new ideas to take root quickly and effectively.

We see our fiscally-sponsored projects as partners in our mission to build collective power, to reject systems of oppression and extraction, and create regenerative, just, and life-affirming communities.

We work with passionate leaders, organizers, and change agents to help them access critical sources of funding, while allowing them the freedom to focus their efforts on the work at hand. Specifically, we offer Model C, pre-approved grant fiscal sponsorship to mission-aligned initiatives in our region.

To date, we have helped our fiscally-sponsored projects access over $1.5 million in charitable funds to support Just Transition-aligned work here in the Mahicantuck Valley / Hudson Valley.

What is fiscal sponsorship?

Many funders are only able to give to nonprofit 501(c)3 organizations, meaning that emerging initiatives are either cut off from these funds, or must go through the intensive process of forming their own nonprofit, with all of the administrative and governance responsibilities that come along with that. Fiscal sponsorship allows us to provide an effective and compliant way to accept funds on behalf of these new initiatives, and offer support as they evolve.

How do I apply?

If you are interested in applying for fiscal sponsorship, please reach out and we will be in touch.

Fiscally sponsored projects include (current and past)

Alliance for a Viable Future – Alliance for a Viable Future brings together community and organizational leaders in the Northeast bioregion to generate whole-systems paradigm shift.

Build Power Academy Our goal is to build the next generation of leaders in our movement through consulting quality, high-touch, free academy style classes.

BreakBread: The American Village Series – A place-based community building implementation of BreakBread World, a culture-building process that reweaves our common humanity through deeper, more meaningful face-to-face conversation while breaking bread. BreakBread: The American Village Series will be offered free to Kingston community residents with the intention of building a high-trust community which in turn supports a strengthened, active local democracy.

Center for Post Carbon Logistics We envision a world of resilient, re-localized communities connected to one another through post carbon transport and logistics systems. Mission: To research and assist in the implementation of appropriate post carbon maritime technology needed to keep commerce and transportation viable by responding to the interrelated connectivity, communication, equity, economic, ecological, and energy crises of the 21st century. 

Community Music Therapy Project – to develop a therapeutic community with music as the focus of activity designed to facilitate positive interaction, social inclusion, positive self-concept and relationship-building through empowerment of creative potential for individuals with disabilities, mental health concerns, or other life challenging barriers to well-being.

The COOP Concept – Our mission is to empower Hudson Valley youth through immersive employment opportunities in sustainable agriculture, green building, and entrepreneurship.

The Energy Justice Law & Policy Center (past) – EJLPC, is the nation’s first energy justice public interest law firm and justice center. We work with local communities to address harms caused by energy systems while catalyzing a just clean power transition.

Engather – A tech and culture platform that restores the connective and regenerative powers of community through the gift economy.

Faithfully Sustainable – A collective (eventually – a worker self-directed non-profit) of Black and Brown Muslim learners and changemakers that aim to center Islamic knowledge in the environmental justice movement while equipping young Muslims with the educational and financial resources to create a more sustainable world.

Hudson and Mohawk Rivers Leachate Collaborative – The purpose of this project is to analyze landfill leachate disposal through municipal wastewater treatment plants in the parts of the Hudson River and Mohawk River that are used as drinking water supplies. 

Hudsy (past)- We’re a collective of artists who believe we are more powerful together than separate! Hudsy is a multi-stakeholder cooperative with a mission to create and distribute content in and about the Hudson Valley by local artists, arts organizations, and other local creators. 

Hummingbird Healing Arts – Massage Access Project – The Massage Access Project was created to provide free bodywork to marginalized and/or low income folks to better their physical and mental wellness. The program prioritizes BIPOC folks as well as queer/trans/non binary identifying folks in our community here in Kingston. These services are regularly offered and so the grant fills a need for access to massage therapy and consistent care. 

IMatter Project – The “IMatter” Project reflects the vitality and strength of communities through the beauty and promise of its people in images and words. The community-engaged multimedia campaign celebrates the sanctity and self-worth of diverse community members while instilling a sense of communal pride and promise. 

Kingston Food Coop – Kingston Food Co-op will be a member- and worker-owned cooperative market committed to providing fresh, local, nutritious, and affordable food to the Kingston community. Together, we work to support the changing needs of our members and to promote the well-being of our city and our planet.

Oika – is about the realignment of culture and nature through human thought and action. This work is grounded in the principle of Ecological Intelligence defined as wisdom that arises from relationships. It is the intelligence of nature that can also infuse human consciousness.

Old Ford Farm Food Access Fund – is small diversified family farm raising cattle and poultry on pasture in Gardiner, NY. The Food Access Fund allows customers and supporters to make donations that subsidize purchases of low-income customers. 

Omnymyst – consults with people and organizations to build equity, interdependence, and authentic connection. Through consulting, facilitation and coaching we can help you engage with your work in a new way. 

Place Corps (past)Our mission is to know, love and serve our places. Place Corps offers place-specific transformational education programs including: residencies, fellowships, summer intensive gap programs, and community learning.

Queerteenth (past) – Inhabiting and traversing queer, trans and non-binary subjectivities, Queerteenth: Black is Queer is Freedom Performance Art Festival artists engage with time travel, radio transmission, radical loving, ancestral futures and durational performance.

The Rhinebeck Farmers’ Market John Honey Scholarship Fund – named in honor of founding member of the Rhinebeck Farmers’ Market, John Honey. This annual award of a $2000 scholarship is intended to support the education and future success of local students who are dedicated to promoting local agriculture and enhancing the social, economic, and environmental sustainability of the Hudson Valley.

Rise & Root Farm – a QTBIPOC centered farm, founded on love, created family, and commitment to social justice. We center care in everything we do: for the land, ourselves, each other, and our wider communities. We talk about and work to uproot underlying systems of oppression in order to create liberation.

Rise Up Kingston (past) – a grassroots organization led by those experiencing racism, classism, and gender oppression on a daily basis. We organize to win, with our collective power, a Kingston economy that meets all of our social and environmental needs.

Rock Steady Farm – A queer owned and operated cooperative vegetable farm rooted in social justice, food access and farmer training.

Rosendale Heart & SoulFounded to create a comprehensive plan for the Rosendale Community that both preserve the unique character and the deep emotional connection felt by the people who live here and help us plan for the upheaval of climate change and for climate migrants that will continue to move to our area.

Suburb Futures – A doctoral research project whose aim is to design relationally towards more equitable and sustainable US Suburbs. 

THRIVE ON! (past) – challenges the fine fabric of education by directly connecting curriculum with the community. We prepare students to be conscious, contributing members of society, while actively shifting the socio-economic landscape through their fields of interest. We do this by making the community the classroom, holistically investing into the student as an individual, challenging the status quo of academia through our innovative margin*-based curriculum, and engaging in the art of interconnectivity.

Trust Up – Building a toolbox for distributing resources in Kingston, NY that support economic flows that are more efficient and sustainable to all than de facto Capitalism. 

Ulster County Coalition for Housing Justice (past) – Our mission is to ensure good quality housing at affordable prices for renters of all incomes. Until this is possible, we are dedicated to preventing the unfair eviction of rent-burdened individuals.

well+being – Community Lab is a division of Well+Being Hudson Valley that brings mindfulness, yoga and social emotional skills to a variety of communities in the Hudson Valley, with an emphasis on underserved communities.

What matters? – An artist lead project designed to engage residents of Dutchess County in thinking about and expressing what’s changed for them in recent years to what matters for them, now. And further, in the interest of dialogue and community, to reflect on whether the answers reflect personal, individual needs and desires or are more about the needs of community and shared values.