Charity Village® Research: Fundraising Management: Short- and long-term approaches to finding new revenue sources

Charity Village® Research: Fundraising Management: Short- and long-term approaches to finding new revenue sources: "hort- and long-term approaches to finding new revenue sources

By Rebecca Post, Managing Editor, Fieldstone Alliance
March 22, 2010


Earning money is hardly a new concept for nonprofit organizations. In fact, the current economic environment may have you thinking about ways to turn your organization’s products or services into new sources of revenue.

Perhaps your organization prints a booklet on preventing substance abuse. Might people be willing to buy this? Perhaps your nature center has room in its lobby for a retail store. Would visitors like to buy gift items, books, and apparel from you?

Fieldstone Alliance encourages nonprofits to evaluate opportunities for earned income. If these activities are related to the nonprofit’s mission, the venture generally can be engaged in without limitations and without incurring tax liability. These types of mission-related earned income activities are often called 'social enterprise.'

If your activity is not mission-related you may have to pay unrelated business income tax. But in many cases, paying the tax is worth it if your net revenues are high enough. Be careful though to not have too much of your income from non-mission-related activities."