Not surprisingly, what with it being January, many conversations are turning to budgets and forecasts for the next financial year. Those leading small, medium (and larger) charities and social enterprises, will also know that this isn’t a conversation confined to quarter 4.
It’s easy to assume that conversations about income diversity and fundraising go hand in hand, but they still don’t for many smaller charities. Many are rearranging the deckchairs, contributing no additional resource to fundraising and wondering why they’re in a deficit for the third year running with the reserves getting perilously low.
It’s easy for people like me (a consultant) on the sidelines to say ‘just diversify your income’.
As someone who is now on the sidelines, but started out in the thick of both an incredibly diverse and complex income portfolio and pivoted more times than I wrote funding bids, it’s also clear that it’s a lot harder, resource and capacity intensive than many organisations prepare for.
Just listen to my podcast #6 to hear more about the lived reality of diversifying.
So before you embark on income diversification and simply add some new revenue streams to this year’s fundraising strategy, take a look at some of theses headline questions I’ve pulled together.