Stipends and Honorariums

Stipends: A stipend is a sum of money paid to a person (not an organization)* that is NOT for their work. Stipends can be provided to program participants if needed to help enable their participation in your program. For example, you may decide to give a stipend to participants in a workshop that is intended to defray the cost of transportation, meals or childcare that may be necessary for them to participate, or it may be provided as an incentive for participation intended to honor their time spent on the program. If you are paying someone for their work, please do not use a stipend. Please see the “Paying People to Work for your Project” section of this Handbook for more details and next steps.

*Stipends and are intended for individuals only and may not be issued to businesses or other organizations.

Stipends are taxable income to the recipient. A W9 must be submitted for any stipend recipient. If the recipient earns $2,000 or more cumulatively from Social Good Fund in the calendar year, they will be issued a 1099-NEC.

If you would like to pay a stipend, and it fits the foregoing criteria, the participant and project must complete and sign a stipend agreement form, and the participant must also complete a W-9 form, which will be needed when the project sets up the recipient as a vendor in the Members Portal. Then the project should complete the payment request form, found on the member’s portal, attaching the completed stipend agreement form (in lieu of an invoice.)

Please note a stipend payment cannot be requested until the related participation is complete.

Honorariums: An honorarium is given to a person (not an organization)* “in honor” of their contribution or work, but in situations where payment is not normally expected or required. For example, a speaker at a workshop who you are paying without them giving you an invoice for their service. The payment amount must be at the discretion of your project and not by the recipient (if the recipient is setting a fee for their service, an honorarium is not an appropriate payment method). There are two situations in which SGF typically approves honorarium payments:

• One-time (or very occasional) payments to speakers or performers, such as musicians, at events. Note that if someone will be paid to regularly speak or perform for your project, they will likely need to be classified as an employee or independent contractor (See Paying People to Work for your Project).

• Payments for advisory, steering or selection committee members** in honor of their participation. Traditionally, advisory committees and selection committees work as volunteers and are not compensated. However, we recognize that many groups have decided to offer payment in honor of this work as not doing so may not be equitable in many situations. Therefore, an honorarium payment for these individuals can be appropriate. Honorariums for committee members are limited to $3,600 in a calendar year; should be standard across all committee members; and should be paid, if at all possible, in one lump sum payment for service for the year.

*Honorariums are intended for individuals only and may not be issued to businesses or other organizations. If your project wishes to pay an honorarium to another 501c3 organization on behalf of a speaker, that should be processed as a donation to that organization as outlined here. (In that case you could note that it’s an honorarium payment in the purpose section of the donation form.)

**Project Committee members (i.e. individuals who signed and/or are named in the project's fiscal sponsorship agreement) cannot be paid via honorariums.

Note, if you would like to pay speakers/performers or committee members, but the above criteria does not fit your situation (you want to pay more than specified or more frequently, etc.) please reach out to us at [e-mail] so we can assist with determining the proper way to pay them.

Honorariums are taxable income to the recipient. A W9 must be submitted for any honorarium recipient. If the recipient earns $2,000 or more cumulatively from Social Good Fund in the calendar year, they will be issued a 1099-NEC.

If you would like to pay an honorarium and it fits the foregoing criteria, the participant and project must complete and sign an honorararium agreement form, and the participant must also complete a W-9 form, which will be needed when the project sets up the recipient as a vendor in the Members Portal. Then the project should complete the payment request form, found on the member’s portal, attaching the completed honorarium agreement form (in lieu of an invoice.)

Please note an honorarium payment cannot be requested until the related participation is complete.