Umbrella organisation

Umbrella organisation is often referred as Fiscal Host Organisation

An umbrella organisation in the Open Collective context, is when an organization holds funds on behalf of smaller projects (which we call initiatives or collectives) and often also provides administrative services such as financial oversight and management.

OC Europe provides fiscal hosting services to EU-based initiatives that are aligned with our mission, values, and impact areas.

Since OC Europe is a NPO, our hosted initiatives (through a contractual relationship), are also able to receive tax-deductible donations without obtaining their own independent NPO status - which can be a time - and resource-consuming process.

What does NPO mean?

Under Belgian law, a NPO (also referred as ASBL/vzw) consists of an agreement (the articles of association) between minimum two people, called the founding members.

It must pursue a disinterested goal within the framework of its activities (which will define its business purpose) and cannot directly or indirectly procure any pecuniary benefits to its founders, members, directors or any other persons, except for the disinterested purpose in the articles of association.

Our hosted initiatives can use OC Europe’s legal status to apply for special funding from foundations and funding from Public Authorities. From smaller/local grants or State funding to bigger international grantmakers (the EU included), the ability to apply for grants and State funding is a big benefit of joining OC Europe!

There are other potential benefits to nonprofit status, such as access to fee and discounted services.

Since our collectives are part of OC Europe, they must abide by restrictions to ASBL/vzw organizations, such as limitations on political and religious activity.

All of our hosted initiatives must align with our mission in order to be eligible to operate through our ASBL/vzw status.