New Funding Resources

At a time of tightening government support and an increasingly competitive, crowded fundraising marketplace, a growing number of charities are looking to new and emerging forms of revenue generation – things like debt financing and social enterprise – as ways to fund core operations and jumpstart growth.

On one hand, exploring alternative sources of funding as a means to maximize revenue is positive and exciting for the Canadian charitable sector. Not only can these funding mechanisms be a genuine means to increase revenues in some organizations, exploring new methodologies also pushes our thinking, tests our assumptions and fosters innovation.

On the other hand, we do need to be measured and methodical about entering into this sphere, as we want to be cautious not to skew our organizations “anti-philanthropy”. There is still much potential available to us through traditional fundraising and it’s important not to divert too much of our attention away from growing those lines of revenue. It’s also imperative to recognize that entering into emerging forms of revenue generation requires significant time and effort, and as you will see, not all tools are right for all charities.

And so, as mentioned repeatedly by everyone we consulted to put together this edition, these types of funding mechanisms should be thought of as a revenue tool, not the revenue tool and due diligence is required on the part of organizations before deciding to pursue any of these emerging funding mechanisms.