For Impact

Blog

The Broader Meaning of Income

For Impact Ideas | | Tom Suddes

“The mind, once expanded to dimensions of larger ideas, never returns to its original size.” Oliver Wendell Holmes

The implications and application of IMPACT DRIVES INCOME had become pretty far-reaching. Here’s another great example.

Once you expand your thinking beyond ‘FUNDRAISING’, it opens up huge opportunities to generate significantly more INCOME.

For Impact Organizations look at ALL SOURCES of INCOME, including… REVENUE STREAMS, CREATIVE FINANCING and COLLABORATIVE PARTNERSHIPS.

We have helped large numbers of For Impact Organizations get super creative about ‘HOW’ they fund their People, Programs and Places. Nowhere has this been more evident than in our work with FIO’s ‘real estate’ goals. Mortgages, land contracts, long-term leases with gift-backs and more.

So many For Impact Organizations can really ramp up their Revenue Streams by taking a very creative and hard look at their ‘Services and Products’ (Programs).

In the very near future, there may even be a Social Capital Market to help FIO’s increase their Income and their Impact!

Note: ‘Social Enterprise’ is a terribly confusing space right now. Four or five years ago, it was about putting a Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream franchise on the first floor of your not-for-profit and try to make some money. (That didn’t work.)

The real message here is looking at this like any successful ‘business’:

    • How do we make money?
    • How do we increase sales and revenue?
    • How do we creatively finance our expansion and ability to scale and grow?