With the effects of COVID rippling throughout our economy, I often get queries from nonprofit organizations looking to fill budget gaps with grants. Grants have an essential role to play in your revenue stream, but they are not agile, quick, or individually stable long-term.
Mission-driven organizations have been in similar positions before when economic events negatively impacted fundraising efforts. This time, with events cancelled, volunteers sidelined, and in-person activities affected by the global pandemic, nonprofit organizations with continuous and iterative efforts, an informed strategic direction, and diverse funding streams have been most capable of moving their mission forward despite the challenges.
In learning from our COVID experience, how can organizations develop resources that improve agility yet not pull the organization off mission? There are many opportunities, and one option is a venture that generates income.
Annapolis, MD nonprofit Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating (CRAB) brings the thrill, freedom, and therapeutic value of sailing to people with disabilities, recovering warriors, and local youth. They know sailing, and they know boats. CRAB diversifies their income through the sale of donated boats, creating a stable source of revenue in a community known as the sailing capital of the US. CRAB built the systems and processes that improved their boat donation program over time, piloting an early-stage donation before scaling up to their multi-boat donation program today.
Like the San Antonio Lighthouse for the Blind & Visually Impaired, (SALB) other nonprofits combine revenue-generating activities with mission achievement. SALB achieves this through manufacturing services that also employ the people they support. While this effort was born of necessity, a gaping budget deficit, the organization has refined and improved the program since its inception providing financial stability during turbulent times.
Some organizations find ways to generate revenue that aligns with corporate culture yet is not necessarily mission-connected. A recent article in The Chronicle of Philanthropy outlined how one nonprofit stabilized its annual revenue generation by developing a waste-to-cash business they then expanded to help other nonprofits learn to do the same.
Thinking deeply about how to create and sustain long-term financial stability is critical to mission success. There is no quick fix, and plans made three years ago no longer apply. Nonprofit leaders need to evaluate their funding strategies and develop systems that will sustain operations through turbulent economies rather than chasing funding not measured against the organization’s strategic direction.
Organizations utilizing continuous and iterative efforts will be more agile and better able to adapt to rapid change, which is especially important in our post-pandemic world.