We all know that traditional funding sources like major donations, and private and government grants may be harder to come by this year than in the past.

Ensuring that you've creatively leveraged your organization's tangible and intangible assets to generate revenue will help create a balanced fundraising portfolio that could help stabilize the organization. Here are just a few oft-overlooked places to look:

1. Do you own a building? If so, do you have extra office or storage space that you could rent out? Or do you have parking spaces in a desirable location that could be leased? Example: The YWCA of Greater Charleston, South Carolina is smack dab in the middle of the campus of College of Charleston. The YW uses a parking management company to lease their premier parking and to generate an extra $1500-$3000 a month while college is in session.
2. Can you re-package your staff expertise and target a new audience? Example: The Joffrey Ballet in Chicago realized they were facing a 40% decline in ticket sales, so they began teaching dance classes to the general public. In just four months, they raised an additional $200,000.
3. Do you provide service for free to low-income program participants? If so, can you begin to offer those services on a sliding-fee scale to higher income audiences? Example: Bonnie CLAC in Claremont, New Hampshire helps low-income car buyers with financial education and purchases. They offered a modified version of their services to higher-income car buyers and used the revenue to offset the expenses associated with training for their core recipients.

View the slides from my recent presentation on Creative Revenue Generation for more ideas and examples.