ABSTRACT
Community Action leaders are responsible for ensuring the fiscal sustainability of their agencies. This chapter discusses the current sources of funding for local Community Action agencies, as well as initiatives the local leaders are undertaking to develop new funding sources. It presents an overview of the funding the agencies receive from governmental sources and describes funding of private sources such as foundations, United Way, and donors. These private funding sources account for about 10 percent of the total Community Action agency revenues. The chapter focuses on the need for revenue diversification and discusses the advantages of unrestricted revenues and reserve funds. It also discusses the types of changes in staffing and organizational structure that agencies are undertaking to pursue revenue diversification. The chapter also describes social enterprise activities that Community Action agencies are undertaking and discusses the advantages and challenges associated with those activities.
