Should Your Nonprofit Charge Its Beneficiaries?

Leaders of nonprofits are never short of creative ideas about how to improve the lives of disadvantaged people. Yet the simple truth is that nonprofits that rely on donations and grants usually can’t keep up with their ambitions for growth. Funding from individuals and institutions is time-consuming to raise and unpredictable and often has a lot of strings attached. One powerful way to bring in more money and increase impact is to add a more “commercial” approach to the mix—that is, to charge for what the organization would otherwise provide for free.