Charities and Trading... A Conflict of Interests?

Money has been touted as the root of all evil since biblical times, whereas charitable acts have only ever been seen as undoubtedly good. Yet it is actually generating income that enables our charity, Leap Confronting Conflict, to do some of its most profound, life-changing work with young people caught up in chaotic lifestyles in prisons and gangs.

Should we continue to hold out our begging bowl and rely solely on grants? We can’t afford to. Whilst grants and donations have been a staple of charities, we cannot continue to be so reliant on philanthropy alone. With an exponential increase in the number of applications and limited funding, diversifying your income streams is critical in these lean times.

I am fortunate enough to be working with remarkably skilled conflict practitioners that have passion and belief permeating through all their actions and communications so they are natural at selling though they may not know it. We also have empirical data, demonstrable impact and now have a winning model. However generating sustainable income streams is a huge change not only in income strategy, but in the culture of an organisation. The commoditisation of services that have been delivered purely for social gain may be seen as counter-cultural. And whilst commercially focussed, robust, business models aren’t often synonymous with charities, when married with clear social objectives, a successful enterprise is born.

The journey from being a charity to becoming more enterprising can be an exciting, challenging and rewarding journey; Leap has consistently generated over a quarter of a million pounds in revenue, worked with hundreds of organisations and reached thousands of people, helping them to understand and manage conflict, without recoursing to violence.

Amit Dixit is Head of Business Development at Leap Confronting Conflict