Income Diversification How-To Guide

While many community groups are largely volunteer led, most still face essential overheads such as space rental, insurance, utilities and equipment costs. To remain sustainable, groups often need to generate income alongside delivering their core activities. There are many ways that CAGs raise income, including trading, delivering services, fundraising initiatives and securing grant funding.

This toolkit was created by Alison Sallis, CEO of Proper Job in Chagford, a large community reuse centre. Under her leadership, Proper Job has generated money through a huge range of activities, including new shop spaces, e-commerce sales, fundraising events, money-saving community projects, fundraising events, connections with local organisations, and more. Alison has created this toolkit for CAG Devon members to help them explore and develop potential income opportunities and ideas to help their community projects make an impact in the longer term.

What to expect in this toolkit:

• How to understand your community needs
• How to align your group’s vision
• Mapping your groups strengths and weaknesses to work out what’s realistic
• How to identify risks and opportunities
• How to turn your ideas into an income stream
• How to set prices and stick to your values
• How to plan for the long term