Example Contracts, MOUS and Agreement for Services with Schools or Districts

[Greg Ellis]

Hi everyone!

One Cool Earth in SLO, CA is looking at having more formal contracts with our schools and districts that pay a partial fee for services, or who receive grants on behalf of the gardens with budgets for our organization.  We have done a lot on a handshake (we have short-sightedly tended to work first and ask for money later, or expect that it will come through) and used MOUs over the past several years, and recently it has gotten us in some trouble when payments were delayed or reneged without a contract in place.  In one case we wrote a grant that a school district received, and the payment was delayed for 4 years!!!  We sometimes use MOUs but have found them not to be enforceable, and would prefer them as an addendum to a contract.  Does anyone have a sample of a contract that your organization uses with schools or districts?  I'm also interested in looking at what others are doing for MOUs.

Many thanks,

Greg

-- 

Greg Ellis Growth Officer Earth Genius | Powered by One Cool Earth E: gr...@onecoolearth.org P: 760-382-5164 W: www.onecoolearth.org

[education]

Hi Greg,

That's exciting! If you go to the SGSO Network's Best Practices Page, you can click on the Best Practices Doc called "Models for Financial and Program Sustainability." In there, there are links to some model MOUs between SGSOs and schools, and those links take you into an Example Contracts Between SGSOs and Schools folder with 8 examples shared by other SGSOs. And if you or anyone has more examples to share, that folder is public and it would be great to drop them in there! We have found the examples there very useful as we work on developing these ourselves with local schools.

All My Best,
Whitney