Sponsorship, Grants & External Funding Policy

Purpose

To govern sponsorships, grants, gifts and in-kind support through documented controls that prevent funder influence, or the appearance of funder influence, over standards, measures, reviews or accreditation decisions.

1. Scope

1.1 This policy governs every form of external support: event and program sponsorships, institutional and government grants, charitable gifts, workplace-giving designations, and in-kind contributions of goods or services.

1.2 It binds every covered person under CHSPS-GOV-002 and every CHSPS program. No side agreement, informal understanding or verbal assurance may vary it.

1.3 Membership dues and education fees are governed by their own published terms and are not “support” under this policy, though the same impartiality and separation controls apply to them.

2. Principles

2.1 Mission first: support shall be accepted only when consistent with the health, safety and professional-standards mission, and declined — without obligation to give reasons — when it is not.

2.2 Impartiality requirement: no support of any size or form shall influence, or be represented as influencing, any eligibility determination, review, finding, measure, standard, interpretation or accreditation decision.

2.3 Transparency and oversight: material support shall be documented and subject to the disclosure, conflict-review and oversight controls in Section 8. CHSPS does not publish a supporter roster.

2.4 No endorsement: acceptance of support does not constitute CHSPS endorsement of any supporter, product or service, and supporters shall not state or imply otherwise.

3. Acceptance criteria and exclusions

3.1 CHSPS shall screen every prospective supporter for mission consistency and structural conflicts before agreement.

3.2 CHSPS shall not accept support from: (a) tobacco or nicotine businesses; (b) any organization whose primary products or services are, in the judgment of the CEO with General Counsel review, inconsistent with a health and safety mission; or (c) any organization currently subject to a CHSPS adverse action or an open for-cause review, until the matter is closed.

3.3 Applicant, candidate and accredited organizations may provide support. Their support shall be documented and conflict-reviewed under Section 8, shall not be included in any review or decision file, and shall confer no scheduling, review or decision consideration of any kind.

3.4 No supporter shall receive category exclusivity over any content area, standard or measure. Event-level exclusivity (a single sponsor for a single event) is permitted if the agreement says so expressly.

3.5 CHSPS reserves the unconditional right to decline or return any support.

4. Separation controls

4.1 Sponsor and funder status shall not appear in, or be discoverable from, any eligibility, review, validation, reconsideration, appeal or decision file.

4.2 Personnel who negotiate or manage support relationships shall have no role in any accreditation-relevant matter concerning that supporter, and vice versa, for the term of the relationship plus 24 months.

4.3 No supporter shall receive confidential accreditation information, attendee personal data, applicant lists, or advance notice of standards or measure content beyond what is public.

4.4 Decision bodies shall not be informed of, and shall not inquire into, the support status of any organization before them. Discovery of a violation triggers the conflict procedure of CHSPS-GOV-002.

5. Sponsor acknowledgment

5.1 Sponsor recognition shall be limited to qualified acknowledgment: the supporter’s name, logo, factual one-line description and, where agreed, a link — with no qualitative claims, no comparative language, no calls to action and no pricing.

5.2 Acknowledgment may appear on the sponsored program’s pages, registration communications, live introductions and replay end-cards where applicable, and shall never appear on Verify Accreditation, verification pages, standards text, measures content, decision documents or the accreditation seal family.

5.3 Anything beyond qualified acknowledgment is advertising; CHSPS shall contract it separately, assess unrelated business income tax treatment with its advisors, and never place it on accreditation surfaces.

5.4 All acknowledgment wording and placement requires written CHSPS approval before publication, and CHSPS may withdraw approval for cause with immediate effect.

6. Supporter use of the CHSPS name

6.1 Supporters may state support factually in the approved text form — e.g., “Supporter of the CHSPS orientation webinar series (2026)” — after written approval of the exact wording.

6.2 Supporters shall not use the CHSPS accreditation seal, member badge (unless separately a member), or any wording implying accredited status, endorsement, preference or partnership in accreditation.

6.3 Violations are enforced under the Mark & Claims Policy, up to termination of the relationship and public correction.

7. Grants

7.1 CHSPS may accept general operating support, program-restricted grants aligned with published funding priorities, multi-year commitments and in-kind professional services.

7.2 CHSPS shall decline: funding conditioned on any accreditation outcome, applicant, volume or timeline; funder editorial control over standards, measures, findings or reports; and any condition that conflicts with the documentation, conflict-review or oversight requirements of Section 8.

7.3 Restricted grants shall be tracked as restricted funds, spent only for the stated purpose, and reported to the funder on the agreed schedule with factual accuracy — including shortfalls.

7.4 Government grants shall be accepted only after confirming CHSPS can meet the program’s compliance, registration and audit requirements.

8. Disclosure and records

8.1 CHSPS shall maintain controlled records of external support sufficient to identify the funding source, amount or value, purpose, restrictions, approvals and applicable conflict review. CHSPS does not publish a supporter roster.

8.2 Support from an applicant, candidate or accredited organization shall receive documented conflict review regardless of amount and shall remain outside accreditation review and decision files.

8.3 Written acknowledgment stating the fair-market value of any benefits shall be provided for every contribution; CHSPS shall make no tax-deductibility representations beyond that statement and shall direct supporters to their own advisors.

8.4 Agreements, screens, approvals and disclosures under this policy shall be retained for 7 years under CHSPS-ACC-104.

9. Authority and approval

9.1 Support relationships are negotiated by the education and engagement function, conflict-reviewed by the General Counsel, and approved by the CEO. Any single commitment of $10,000 or more, any multi-year commitment, and any support from an applicant or accredited organization shall additionally be reported to the Board of Commissioners at its next meeting.

9.2 The Board shall review this policy’s operation and the controlled external-support record at least annually.

10. Termination and payment treatment

10.1 Either party may terminate a support agreement on written notice. Amounts paid are non-refundable. Where appropriate, CHSPS may reschedule or substitute unfulfilled sponsorship benefits, subject to the written agreement and applicable law.

10.2 CHSPS shall terminate immediately, without refund of amounts already applied, for misuse of the CHSPS name or marks, misrepresentation of the relationship, or attempts to obtain accreditation-relevant influence or information.

Related documents

Sponsorship & Events Support · Grants & Institutional Funding · Impartiality & COI (CHSPS-GOV-002) · Mark & Claims Policy · Policy Manual

Where this policy and a page-level summary elsewhere on this site differ, this controlled document governs. Substantive changes follow the published revision process and never apply retroactively to in-flight matters.