Nonprofit Autonomy and Reliability in Revenues
Nonprofit autonomy and reliability is the key to a sustainable revenue strategy.
Nonprofit autonomy and reliability is the key to a sustainable revenue strategy.
The opening premise of this article is simple. Creating and acting on a clear revenue model is an essential strategy to support the long-term stability of your nonprofit organization. Without intentional strategy your agency is less resilient and less in control of your future. Creating a revenue model is the process of thinking about the potential universe of funding accessible to your organization and making strategic decisions about preserving, increasing and/or expanding revenue streams with the highest potential of working within the constraints of your organizational capacity.
What is your nonprofit strategy of pursuing contests and competitions?
Being clear about how your organization plans to grow will influence your options for strategy, funding and operations. Without such a focused and shared understanding of your organizational growth will likely be much more opportunistic and reactive rather than proactiv
I have worked with many organizations where the starting point for revenue development planning is next year’s budget. However, a “seeking support for programs” approach to resource development is an increasingly unreliable way to raise revenues that support the financial stability of a nonprofit.
Sustainability is more than fundraising and nonprofits need to embrace revenue planning as a more powerful management tool than fundraising planning.
Nonprofit strategic budget and revenue planning is a staged process that includes decisions about capacity, growth and sustainability.