Label what is on it
Contracts, leases and grants
The few documents that carry most of a nonprofit's risk, read before you sign and written clearly when you are the one sending them.
The lease for the space, the grant agreement with its reporting duties, the vendor contract that renews on its own: nobody has time to read them, and they are the documents that come back.
We read what you are about to sign, mark the lines that matter in plain words, and draft the agreements you send out to partners, volunteers and funders.
What we handle
Four kinds of paper come to us most often.
- 01
Leases and use agreements
Space for a pantry, a studio or a clinic, including who pays for repairs, what the neighbors may expect and what happens if the building is sold.
- 02
Grant agreements
What you promise, what you have to report and when, and what happens to unspent funds. We explain the terms before the board votes.
- 03
Vendor and service contracts
Auto-renewals, termination notices and who answers for a mistake. We make the short version of each clause plain.
- 04
Volunteer and partner agreements
Fiscal sponsorship, program partnerships, data sharing and the waivers a volunteer shift calls for.
Questions about paper
Can you look at a grant agreement before we sign?
Yes, and that is the best time to send it. A funder will often change a clause if you ask early and say why.
Do you write volunteer waivers?
We can draft one for how your volunteers really work. A waiver helps, but it does not replace insurance, and we say what else to check.
What if the contract is already signed?
Send it anyway. We can usually tell you what it requires of you now and which terms can still be renegotiated.
Bring us the document, or the idea
A short note is enough. A lawyer writes back to say whether this is something we can help with and what a first meeting involves.