Where should my nonprofit be looking for money?

A majority of a nonprofit's profit comes from fees for services and goods. Read more to learn about the 6 other facets where money comes in. Many people go into the nonprofit world and they think, "My money is going to come from charitable contributions. People are just going to give me money."Realistically, that's not going to happen. It's not going to provide sufficient revenue for your nonprofit to be sustainable. It's not going to be filling your fiduciary duty as a director. You've got to be looking for all of the sources of revenue out there. If you're not hitting one of these and at least considering whether it plays a role in your nonprofit, you're not doing it right.Over 50% of the revenue that you're going to be seeking out is probably from selling some type of services or goods connected to your mission. Make sure it's connected to your mission. If you're not generating fees for services and goods, you're going to be having to work awful hard to make ends meet through these other things.Interestingly, the next biggest one is government contracting. If you're not generating contracts from government, you might want to see if there's something in what it is you are doing where you can start to generate money from government contracting. Obviously, state budgets are cutting back, so you might have to fight a little harder for that type of revenue, but it's an important source that you should not be forgetting. That goes for both state and local government. If you're not thinking about city government, your school board, etc., then you're not searching for all the money that's out there that can help make you into a healthy nonprofit.Private contributions are charitable contributions. They make a decent slice of the revenue. That slice is highly dependent on the sector that you're in. Additionally, the government can also grant you money.Finally, if you're fortunate enough, you might have some investment income. If you've got an endowment out there, and if you have the endowment, you're in a much better place. Most of the nonprofits would love to have investment income that could maybe pay an executive director.In the meantime, think about fees for goods and services and government contracting. Work on cultivating those private contributions and seeking government grants. (Note that the private contributions are also going to include private foundation grants).Hopefully this helped clear up some of your questions about where your nonprofit should be looking for money…