Andrea Escobar, Co-founder & Director, Fundación Soydoy

The pros

Generating income is deeply ingrained in my DNA. In the end, living off subsidies, grants, and donations is extremely complex, increasingly difficult, and even more so in this reality we are living now. That’s a pro.

Another advantage is that the mindset of the organization and its people – who are part of that organization – changes completely when you are seeking to generate income and seeing yourself as an entrepreneur. Not necessarily only as an organization supporting people, but rather that you generate value. That necessarily starts to force you to understand what your role is in the system.

What do they value about you? Why do they seek you out?

The cons

For the cons, I believe there are very few.

What I would say is – one – maybe this is a pro and a con. It’s about working on your mindset to stay focused on revenue generation, despite the beliefs of people around you. But if you are a nonprofit organization, people will say you should not be thinking about selling. Or they will always say to you: “But you are obligated to give this away for free,” or “You must provide your service, and we shouldn’t have to pay for this,” for instance.

And another con is that, unfortunately, we’re going off the trends. We end up seeing that there are many people and organizations looking to generate income with the same services. And then it becomes increasingly difficult to differentiate yourself. The global and local context in terms of income generation for nonprofit organizations is a priority issue today. It’s at the top of everyone’s conversations. I feel that it is very complex – that there is a market for all social enterprises – if we don’t think carefully about how we are differentiating ourselves and what is the value that I generate. Because we are all convinced that what we do is extremely important, and the world needs it. And that surely is true.

Though the question is: How much is the other party willing to pay for this? And that is the big question. Because having a customer does not mean you already have a product. And that’s where the challenge comes in.

So, I think there are many pros, and few cons.

Key takeaways

• Generating income creates long-term financial sustainability.

• Teams that generate income start seeing themselves as entrepreneurs, not just as support organizations.

• Belief in your mission isn’t enough: consider if someone is willing to pay, and what sets you apart.