The Conseil des arts de Montréal takes donations for your organisation and issues the tax receipts, for up to five years
Fiscal sponsorship (parrainage fiscal) lets a Montréal non-profit raise donations through the Conseil des arts de Montréal (CAM), the city's arts council. You do the asking, the CAM takes the gifts and sends the tax receipts, and the money comes back to you as a grant.
It's built as a bridge: after five years, the CAM can stop its support if you haven't applied to the Canada Revenue Agency for charity status yourself. Next deadline: 11 November 2026, 17 h.
The CAM has been a charity registered with the Canada Revenue Agency since 1988. Under this programme it is the only legal entity that accepts the donations and sends tax receipts, for gifts of $25 and more. Your organisation raises the money as the CAM's agent, under a management agreement.
In return, the CAM pays you a grant based on the new money your fundraising brought in, as long as you respect the management agreement. Each application covers one year of fundraising, and five years is the maximum, consecutive or not.
The CAM keeps an administration fee on what you collect: 4% for your first three years in the programme, 6% in the fourth and 8% in the fifth. It can change that percentage.
You can run fundraising campaigns aimed at individuals, foundations and companies. Benefit events are suspended for now. Auctions, raffles, crowdfunding, gifts of goods or artworks and sponsorship don't count.
Nothing can start until the CAM has said yes, the management agreement is signed by both sides and the CAM has approved your promotional material. Donors must be at arm's length: the CAM checks that there is no close link between each donor and the organisation that asked them, and that nobody close to the donor benefits personally.
- ·Incorporated non-profit organisations, or artists' cooperatives that don't pay out rebates (ristournes). Your head office must be on the island of Montréal, and most of your board must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents.
- ·Eligible organisations include creation and production companies, presenters, festivals and events, cultural periodicals, museums, and associations or service organisations.
- ·Not eligible: individual artists, artist collectives, organisations devoted to teaching or training, organisations working only in variety or comedy, and organisations that have already had their five years.
- ·Disciplines listed on the programme page: street arts, circus arts, digital arts, film and video, dance, literature, music, theatre, non-disciplinary practices, visual arts and the multidisciplinary sector.