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What We Do

Three ways to increase the dollars reaching your programs.

Any of the three can be a starting point. An organization with a strong program portfolio and an established name often finds what it needs in the first. An organization whose programs hold little commercial value is usually better served by the third. We determine which applies before recommending anything, and the work is scoped so a board can approve one step at a time.

01

Find the revenue inside current programs

We inventory what the organization runs today, including the programs delivered entirely at no charge, and identify where a paying market exists for the same capability. Commercial and institutional buyers frequently pay for services that are currently provided at no charge. The output tells you what those services are worth, what it would cost to deliver them commercially, and how much would reach the mission. If the answer is that there is little there, we say so and move on.

What you get

A short written assessment with a ranked list of opportunities, sized, and priced for a board discussion.

The work

  • Inventory of programs, facilities, staff capability, and data
  • Who would pay, and what they currently pay others
  • Pricing, delivery cost, and dollars to mission
  • Unrelated business income and exempt purpose review
02

Add a service line next to the work you do

Some of the strongest opportunities sit just outside the current programs, in markets where the organization's reputation, staff, and facilities already carry weight. The point is to grow using capacity that is already paid for rather than entering an unfamiliar market from a standing start, which is slower and costs considerably more.

What you get

A shortlist, financials for the leading option, and a recommended operating and legal structure.

The work

  • Screening of adjacent markets against current capability
  • What is missing and what it would cost to add
  • Launch budget, break-even, and projected support to programs
  • Whether to run it inside the organization, in a subsidiary, or with a partner
03

Buy income that already exists

Buying an established small business and holding it transfers customers, staff, systems, and income at closing, which is a very different proposition from launching a venture and waiting several years to find out whether it works. The business continues to operate, and its earnings support programs. For organizations whose current programs have limited commercial value, this is frequently the most realistic route to unrestricted dollars.

What you get

Target criteria, valuation and diligence support through closing, and an integration plan the board can oversee.

The work

  • What kind of business, at what size, and why that one
  • Valuation, normalized earnings, and diligence support
  • Capital: reserves, debt, seller financing, or donor funding
  • Ownership structure, governance, and the first year of operation

Additional Capability

Donors will fund a purchase.

Acquisition capital does not have to come out of reserves. Donors who have given to programs for years are often willing to fund something that keeps giving after the gift is spent, and buying a business with steady earnings is exactly that. One gift, and the programs it supports are funded every year that follows.

We help organizations build that ask. The transaction gets translated into language a donor and a board can follow, the annual support to the mission is documented, and development staff are given what they need to have the conversation with confidence.

A case for support donors can follow

What the business does, what it earns, and how much of that reaches programs each year, written for a philanthropic reader rather than a financial one.

Numbers that hold up to questions

Purchase price, how it is financed, projected annual support to the mission, and the assumptions behind each figure, documented so your finance committee and your donors see the same thing.

Structure and stewardship

How the gift is received, how the business is held, and how results are reported back to the donor in the years after closing.

How This Works

Start small. Decide as you go.

Nothing here requires a large commitment up front. The first conversation is free, the first piece of work is small and fixed in price, and the board decides after seeing it whether to go further.

A conversation, at no cost

About an hour with the executive director, the board chair, or both. What the organization runs, where funding is tightening, what assets it holds, and what leadership is open to considering. If nothing promising comes out of it, that is a useful answer and there is no charge for it.

A first piece of work, scoped and priced

A defined assessment with a fixed fee and a written deliverable. It answers one question: is there earned revenue available here, and how much. Most organizations stop after this and act on it themselves, which is a perfectly good outcome.

Further support, only if the answer warrants it

Pricing and launch, the donor ask, or a search and acquisition. Each stage is agreed separately. There is no retainer and no obligation to continue.

Not sure which one fits your organization?

That is what the first conversation is for. It is free, it takes about an hour, and it commits you to nothing.

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