Andrea Escobar, Co-founder & Director, Fundación Soydoy

I have often wondered if that income idea can be a good idea – one that is aligned with my mission, the mission of the organization, and the mission of what we are doing at that moment. I think that in the first few years, when I started working in social innovation, I didn’t ask myself that. I ended up completely worn out, trying to generate income through actions that were very common

In the end, I think what has helped me is understanding what my non-negotiable were – and above all, those principles and how I want to generate impact. What do I want to give as a person, not just as an organization? How do I want to feel? And to what extent do I really want this to happen? How well do I know the sector?

Another thing that helped me was doing a proper financial analysis and really understanding the numbers. At first, it’s easy to be dazzled and think, “Wow, this will generate X amount of pesos or dollars.” But once you calculate the true cost – in both money and effort – you realize it often isn’t worth it. In the end, that whole journey may not have been necessary just to reach a single result. There could have been other, better ways to raise the same amount.

A year after we were founded, we decided to create a food business unit. Since we work in nutrition, food and nutrition felt naturally aligned. We opened a bakery and pastry shop, and also assembled foods. I worked on that for more than a decade – 12, maybe 13 years. But at that time, I already had a feeling that things were losing their focus. Of course, the bakery made sales – some years were better than others – but it was never enough to sustain the operation.

From the beginning, it didn’t align with our real priorities. If I wanted to scale, this model wasn’t scalable. As it stands now, it's not going to help me achieve that. It drained my capacity, my energy, and my knowledge. I had to train myself in a completely different business.

That’s when I started asking: How can we generate income doing what we already do every day— not by selling a separate product or building something unrelated,— but by sharing and selling what we already do?

That shift marked the real transformation, it began five years ago, and is only now starting to materialize. It has been very challenging, but it’s the knowledge I already have. So, with the pandemic we closed the bakery and moved on to selling our knowledge.

Key takeaways

• Clarify your non-negotiables and principles to assess whether an income-generating idea truly aligns with your mission.

• Conduct a cost-benefit analysis on your initiatives to avoid draining resources on those that dilute your mission.

• Build income models around your existing strengths and everyday work rather than forcing a separate business that pulls focus from your core purpose.