Margin & Mission Ignition Welcomes New Cohort Into Earned-Income Consulting Opportunity

While generous donations are crucial to any nonprofit mission, entrepreneurially minded organizations can access untapped resources that further strengthen their work. By creating opportunities to generate revenue — whether through the sale of products, event hosting, specialized programs, or a similar innovation — nonprofits can achieve thrivability to safeguard and enhance their vital operations.

Attaining that thrivability is the goal for the four regional nonprofit organizations from Charlotte, Manatee, and Sarasota counties that recently joined Margin & Mission Ignition, an entrepreneurial endeavor of The Patterson Foundation designed to build organizational capacity, boost revenue, and strengthen mission impact. Their participation will unfold over a 30-month process that will see them develop and implement earned-income strategies under the guidance of No Margin, No Mission, a social enterprise and national consulting firm.

The Patterson Foundation created Margin & Mission Ignition to give nonprofits the opportunity to explore, develop and execute earned-income strategies that can help sustain and enhance the impact of their missions in the community. Since 2015, Margin & Mission Ignition has generated these 30-month consulting engagements to help organizations throughout our region strengthen their thrivability.

“We have learned that diversifying revenue streams does more than strengthen the financial viability of nonprofits — it can also build organizational capacity,” said Debra Jacobs, president and CEO of The Patterson Foundation. “Previous participants of Margin & Mission Ignition have developed and implemented earned-income plans that advance both their missions and impact. The Patterson Foundation is pleased to work with these four organizations who have demonstrated the leadership, willingness, readiness, capacity, and culture for success.”

The following regional organizations are participating in the new cohort:

• Charlotte County Homeless Coalition
• Resilient Retreat
• Selah Freedom
• Venice MainStreet

Each of the four nonprofits participated in a series of learning labs with No Margin, No Mission prior to opting into the 30-month process to evaluate their readiness to engage in earned-income planning. Throughout the process, No Margin, No Mission will convene the cohort and create opportunities for the organizations to learn and share their experiences in creating and implementing their earned-income plans.

Margin & Mission Ignition is part of The Patterson Foundation’s Nonprofit Thrivability initiative. This initiative connects nonprofits with expertise and resources to learn concepts like strategic decision-making while adopting and implementing entrepreneurial principles to generate enough revenue to support and eventually grow their operations.

Learn more about Margin & Mission Ignition and join the conversation using #TPFMarginMission on social media.