Édé operates programs directly.
Édé operates community programs directly: free hot meals, youth nutrition and gardening education, tutoring, and mentorship. Our programs are provided at no cost and open to all, with no application, eligibility requirement, or means test. We hire program staff, carry the insurance, keep the books, and report to our board and our funders.
We pay providers so services are free.
Some of the best providers in our neighborhoods are small businesses and independent practitioners. Rather than duplicate their work, Édé pays them a fair market rate under a written services agreement to deliver a defined service, free of charge, to a defined group of people: students who need tutoring, youth in care, seniors on fixed incomes. We document the rate against comparable quotes, define who is served before anyone is selected, and keep the free program visibly separate from the provider's commercial work.
A nonprofit home for community-led charitable work.
For community-led charitable projects that need a nonprofit home, Édé serves as fiscal sponsor. Under a written agreement, Édé receives and controls contributions, approves the project budget, pays vendors, and issues donor acknowledgments. The project keeps its name and its leadership; Édé carries the legal and financial responsibility.
Sponsor toolkit
The infrastructure behind sponsored projects.
Sponsored projects can draw on Édé's existing back office and capacity-building systems.
Receive and control charitable funds.
Tax-deductible fundraising and grants under Édé's 501(c)(3), with budgets, vendor payments, donor acknowledgments, and compliance handled properly.
Build a durable back office.
Bookkeeping, donor receipting, budgeting, vendor payments, and compliance.
Build a repeatable fundraising system.
Campaign design, donation infrastructure, grant research and writing, and tracking systems.
Strengthen the organization behind the work.
Governance, planning, cooperative ownership, and the organizational systems community leaders need to sustain their work.
How we decide
Before Édé commits funds to any project, our board or its delegate determines in writing that the project serves an identified group of people in need, that any benefit to a private business or individual is incidental, and that the determination can be documented.
We ask five questions of every proposal: who exactly is served, whether the business is the means or the destination, whether these people would go unserved otherwise, whether private benefit is incidental, and whether we could prove all of it a year from now. If a proposal cannot answer them, we help restructure it until it can, or we decline.
Leading community-rooted work?
Need a program partner, a paid provider agreement, or a nonprofit home? Start a conversation.