This publication tells the story of seven voluntary and community organisations in a journey of exploration of different trading ideas. The project dates back to 2003-2005 when NCVO’s Sustainable Funding Project and its partners in the South West run a pilot program to support a selection of organisations wishing to develop an idea for generating income from trading goods and services.

The participant organisations sought to diversify their incomes through trading in order to move away from an exclusive reliance on time-limited grants and charitable donations. In the process they examined their organisations’ capacity and abilities to undertake trading, and where necessary developed their skills to take on the new challenges.

   The booklet is introduced with a chapter dedicated to sustainable funding, which is represented as a map of an incremental journey from donations to trading. This is a strategic and holistic approach towards financing. It brings forward ideas such as “funding in the round” or diversification of income streams, stress on organisational management and planning and the use of loans at the specific stage of development as a key for success.

“New opportunities are emerging. Increasingly voluntary and community organisations are moving away from grant and single source income dependency to become more entrepreneurial – earning income through delivering contracts or trading goods and services; developing an asset base; and considering loan finance. Opportunities for earning government money through delivering public services are also growing.”

    The following chapters focus on the seven case studies. Each of these give an overview of the organization and its trading plan, considers how far the participant made it down the path to developing a sustainable income source and closes with a “lessons learned” section which outlines how the participant overcame the problems and challenges that appeared along the way.

An interesting note; a list of first common hurdles found when developing sustainable source of income:

• Organisational structure/capacity – Getting a trading idea off the ground often forced participants to reflect and reshape their organisational structures and to consider where they could find the necessary skills within their organisations;
• Access to finance to develop trading ideas – Trading ideas often required finance to get them off the ground. Identifying ways to find investment was vital for many participants; 
• Identifying the market and setting the right price– Due diligence on markets and pricing was paramount to the success of many trading ideas. Waiting until trading ideas were up and running proved to be a dangerous track to go down;
• Being realistic about the time frame– It was important that organisations did not expect too much, too soon. Enterprises rarely become sustainable overnight. Investment needs to cover any period before a venture becomes self-financing; 
• Skills to develop the plan– Successful trading required skills. These should be in place before attempts to trade are put into action. Organisations should not be overly dependent on any single person in order to run a trading operation. Such dependency is a barrier to sustainability.”

   The last chapter encourages funders, policy makers and other stakeholders to reflective thinking. From the experience of the participants, it asks what needs to be done in order to create a favourable environment for similar organisations to diversify their sources of income.

   At the end of the book there are two practical appendix. The first one focuses on the specific lessons learned abut project management; the second one gives an account of organizations and websites of expertise and hands-on business support.

Summarizing, this is an essential reading for anyone interested in generating earned income from the voluntary, community and public sectors .