B2: Key Strategies to Increase Funding
The purpose of this workshop is to map out the funding process with an emphasis on increasing agency revenue to respond better to evolving community needs while balancing agency budgets. The workshop will focus on the following topics:
- Sources of revenue- e.g. governmental grants, governmental contribution agreements, private funders, social enterprise accompanied by estimates of the percentage generated from each source
- Identification of the priorities of various funders and the magnitude/envelope size of funding
- Strategies to obtain extra funding i.e. partnerships vs. individual organizational funding
- Changes to organizational capacity to obtain extra funding
- Identification of shortfalls (reasons and percentages) in expenditures and strategies to respond to them
- Balancing of budgets through alternative sources of funding e.g. fundraising, social enterprise and realistic estimates of how much can be raised.
The audience may expect to improve their awareness of why expanding the funding base is important and how it can be done through studying the evolution of specific agencies. They will also develop an understanding of important issues to identify and address as part of expanding the funding base ( e.g. expansions to mandate, organizational capacity) as well as best practices to achieve the same.
S.Gopikrishna has been the Executive Director of the Scarborough Housing Help Centre since 2006. He has worked with various agencies in a professional and volunteer capacity to address funding issues with specific reference to broadening the funding base and balancing agency budgets. Gopi is proud of his agency’s taking the lead in addressing hidden homelessness among newcomer populations as well as broadening the agency’s mandate to offer services in the York region with specific reference to newcomers.
