Social Enterprise — The Road to Sustainability for Your Nonprofit

Nonprofits all over the U.S. are learning about earned income (social enterprise) as a way to deal with the uncertainties of traditional funding, cutbacks and giving decreases.

What is social enterprise?

Social enterprise — or earned income — is simply money that you have generated through product sales, payment for services, or other business opportunities that is yours to use as your organization sees fit. If successful, it builds upon itself and earns more. It is unrestricted income that creates the path toward self-sustainability and enhances your mission. Although there are many opportunities to earn money, our experience has taught us that the most successful enterprise ventures are based on an organization’s current assets: what they do well (core competencies), what they know (technical and knowledge assets) or what they have (underutilized physical assets).