For Consultants, Vendors, Contractors, and Stipend Recipients
Contract Work With CED
Thank you for collaborating with CED. This page is for individuals and organizations working with us (or our fiscally-sponsored projects) on a contract basis. We hope the instructions, answers to frequently asked questions, and resources are helpful to you as existing contractors.
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If you are interested in opportunities to work with CED on a contract basis, check if we have any Requests for Proposals listed on our RFP page. If you are interested in staff positions at CED, please check if we have any career opportunities listed on our "Join Our Team" page.
Contracts
CED’s policy is to sign written contracts with contractors/ vendors in cases where there will be an ongoing relationship and they will invoice repeatedly. We also may require contracts for one-time payments, depending on the type and amount.
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If your contract payment from CED (or one of our fiscally-sponsored projects) is for a stipend we've awarded you for an internship, fellowship, artist residency, etc. then your award letter serves as both your contract and your invoice.
As a best practice, written contracts may be appropriate even when not required, because they make the commitment of both sides clear, explain to contractors the process for getting paid, and can incorporate relevant agreements (e.g. Confidentiality, Intellectual Property, Media Release).
If a vendor/contractor submits their own contract, it will be reviewed by CED staff and may be signed if the terms are acceptable.
If you’ll be entering into a contract created by us, we’ll send you an invite via either Adobe Sign or DocuSign. You don’t need an account on these platforms to sign the document - just click the link in the email to sign electronically online. The sender email may show as CED, but it will come from either adobesign [at] adobesign.com, or an address ending in [at] docusign.net.
IMPORTANT: Because of Massachusetts law about how businesses must protect sensitive Personally Identifiable Information, CED and our fiscally-sponsored projects cannot accept materials containing information such as Social Security Numbers or bank account numbers via email.
Documentation - W9/W8 Forms
If a person or company receives $600 or more for contract work in a calendar year from CED (including from our fiscally-sponsored projects), the law requires us to collect a W9 form from them, and to issue them a 1099 form reporting total paid at the end of the year (which is also filed with the IRS). The W9 form includes your name or business name, Social Security Number (SSN) or Employer Identification Number (EIN), address, and signature, and an attestation that you are a “US Person”.​​​
If you are an individual operating under your SSN, you can share your W9 with us one of 2 ways:
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If you already have a completed, signed, and dated W9, upload it securely to CED's DropBox folder. (This is where we store materials with sensitive Personally Identifiable Information. Access is restricted to only members within the CED team involved in payment processing.)
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If you don't already have a W9 filled out, let your contact at CED know, and we'll send you an invite to fill it out securely via AdobeSign (your SSN will be masked). The invite will come from adobesign [at] adobesign [dot] com.
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On the W9 form, an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) should go in the same box that an SSN would.
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​If you are an individual living outside the U.S. and you're not a citizen or resident of the U.S., you must provide a W8BEN form instead of a W9. The lines you need to complete on that form are:
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1 (name)
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2 (country of citizenship)
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3 (permanent residential address)
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6 (tax identification number in country of residence)
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name, signature, and date at the end of the form.​
If you are a company operating under an EIN:
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If you already have a completed, signed, and dated W9, you can share it with us either through DropBox, or by email.
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If you don't already have a W9 filled out, let your contact at CED know, and we'll send you an invite to fill it out securely in a platform connected to our DropBox account. The invite will come from adobesign [at] adobesign.com.
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If you check off "Limited Liability Company" in Question 3, you must complete the line next to that checkbox describing what type of LLC you are.
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If you check off “Other” in Question 3 and enter “Nonprofit” on the line next to that check box, you must also note what type of nonprofit you are (ex: 501c3, 501c4).
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Invoicing
When you complete your deliverables (or on a payment schedule specified in your contract, if you have one), bill us one of 2 ways:
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Email your invoice in PDF format to payables [at] economicdemocracy[dot] us. If your billing system permits it, please cc the staff member who is the main contact for your engagement with us, on each invoice you send us. (If you signed a contract before beginning work with us, this person's name is listed there). This practice streamlines our internal approval process, and will allow us to get your payment out faster.
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If you're an established Bill.com user and connected to CED, send us your invoice on that platform. In that case, you won't be able to cc your main contact, but we will make sure your invoice gets approved and processed efficiently.
✅ Your invoice must include:​
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Your name (individual or business) and payment address
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Services or goods provided (with dates, if applicable)
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Unit of payment (can be cost per word translated, or per unit of deliverables or goods, or a flat fee for things like a speaker honorarium; for ongoing consulting services, invoices must list hours worked with activities performed)
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Amount you are billing for in this invoice
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Invoice date
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Identifies CED or one of our fiscally-sponsored projects as the client being invoiced
🚫 Your invoice should NOT include sensitive information (contractor/ vendor’s SSN or bank account number).
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For your convenience, here are examples of approved invoice templates (you can also find many online):
Note: if you send your invoice to CED by email, it must be in PDF format
CED's Payment Platform: Bill.com
When you first enter into a contract with CED or submit an invoice to us or our fiscally-sponsored projects, we offer to connect with you on Bill.com:
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If you already have an account, we ask for your Bill.com Payment Network ID number, so we can connect with you.
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If you don't already use this platform, we create a payment profile for you in our Bill.com account, and send you an invitation (which comes from a Bill.com email, not a CED one) to connect with us and turn our profile for you into your own free basic Bill.com account, where you can choose to receive payment via direct deposit. The account setup process in Bill.com is targeted more towards businesses than individuals, so it can be a little confusing. Here's a tutorial with screenshots explaining how to do it as an individual.​​
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If you don't wish to create an account in Bill.com in order to receive electronic payment from us, you should ignore our invitation, and we'll use the payment profile we created for you within our account to send your payments via paper check through the mail. (Note: if your name, corporate status, or payment address changes, you will need to update us by emailing payables [at] economocdemocracy [dot] us.)
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When will you get paid?
CED and our fiscally-sponsored projects follow an internal approval process for invoices, which takes 1-2 business days. After your payment is approved, Bill.com describes their processing timeline for mailed and electronic payments at this link:
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Electronic payments should be direct-deposited in your bank account within 3 business days of CED authorization to begin processing.
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Paper checks should reach you within 12 business days of approval by CED. The payor listed on the check will be "Center for Economic Democracy dba Boston Ujima Fund," and it will be drawn on Chase Bank and sent from Palo Alto, CA.
Note: please make sure the payment terms of your invoice reflect your desired payment schedule.
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If you choose "Payable Upon Receipt", Bill.com will schedule the payment, once approved, for the soonest date that is available.
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If you choose a specific date, Bill.com will schedule the payment, once approved, for the date closest to the one specified that is available.
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If you choose "Net 30" etc., Bill.com will schedule the payment, once approved, for the date closest to 30 days from the invoice date, that is available.
