The Covid19 outbreak identified having only one income source is risky. Whether you’re a charity, social enterprise or commercial entity you’ll have seen prompts for ‘pivoting your programmes’ and ‘diversifying income streams’.

But what does this really mean?!

Organisations with ‘diverse income streams’ are simply organisations with multiple sources of money. If one is no longer available, there are others to fall back on. During the lockdowns, we saw fitness trainers move from group lessons to online activities and packaging DIY fitness sessions in a box. This meant they could reach a much wider audience than ever before. Many have continued their remote activities after lockdown as it proved an excellent addition to their business. Charities who fundraise using large events had to find new ways to bring in money. This included online challenges, corporate sponsorships and grant-based income. Again, these activities will most likely continue beyond Covid-19 because it makes the charity more stable to have a range of income sources.

Diversifying your income doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s about adding new ways of income generating without sacrificing any of your existing pathways.

Over the past 6-months we have been supporting 12 Newcastle Organisations to do just that! Through our fully funded, flexible online training programme, action learning sets and specialist consultancy, these organisations have started to:

• Maximise property income potential: children’s parties, corporate room hire, community events.
• Maximise produce sales: plants, vegetables, DIY cooking kits.
• Maximise online sales: training courses, artisan products, consultancy.

As these Organisations are all about purpose and not profit, their sales activities have had to fit with their social purpose. This means they are not only succeeding in diversifying their income streams but also finding new ways to achieve their Organisation’s aims.

“Income diversification is something we’ve often talked about, but this course has helped us to put our ideas to the test and take action” – Course Participant. 

If your organisation could do with generating income in a new way, get in touch. We’re recruiting our next cohort of 8 Organisations across Newcastle. We anticipate activities to begin in the Autumn.  Full details can be found by clicking the image below.