Venice MainStreet Inc., along with three other regional nonprofit organizations, have joined Margin & Mission Ignition, an entrepreneurial endeavor of The Patterson Foundation designed to build organizational capacity, boost revenue and strengthen mission impact. Venice MainStreet’s participation will unfold over a 30-month process in which the nonprofit will develop and implement an ecommerce website as an earned-income strategy in partnership with downtown businesses. It will serve as a sales continuation tool for those businesses to reach a broad online market. The project is under the guidance of No Margin, No Mission, a social enterprise and national consulting firm.
The Patterson Foundation created Margin & Mission Ignition to give nonprofits the opportunity to explore, develop and execute earned-income strategies that can help sustain and enhance the impact of their missions in the community. Since 2015, Margin & Mission Ignition has generated these 30-month consulting engagements to help organizations throughout our region strengthen their thrivability.
“Venice MainStreet has learned some hard lessons in the last four years. The take-aways from these lessons are to prepare for the future because business interruptions are inevitable,” said Tracy Silver, President of Venice MainStreet and owner of Venice Wine & Coffee Company. “We are deeply grateful to The Patterson Foundation for this opportunity. The effects of the last four years are deeply personal to our community and MainStreet wants to position itself as a leader for our local businesses to help them thrive now and in the future.”
Venice MainStreet demonstrated the leadership, willingness, readiness, capacity, and culture for success, along with fellow nonprofits Charlotte County Homeless Coalition, Resilient Retreat, and Selah Freedom. All participated in a series of learning labs with No Margin, No Mission prior to opting into the 30-month process to evaluate their readiness to engage in earned-income planning. Throughout the process, No Margin, No Mission will convene the cohorts and create opportunities for the organizations to learn and share their experiences in creating and implementing their earned-income plans. Margin & Mission Ignition is part of The Patterson Foundation’s Nonprofit Thrivability initiative. This initiative connects nonprofits with expertise and resources to learn concepts like strategic decision-making while adopting and implementing entrepreneurial principles to generate enough revenue to support and eventually grow their operations.
We will continue to post about our progress along the way and will be excited to share the launch of the new Venice marketplace website once it is complete. Please check back on our News Blog. To learn more about The Patterson Foundation and Margin & Mission Ignition, visit thepattersonfoundation.org or join the conversation using #TPFMarginMission on social media.
Photo: Tracy Silver (left), President of Venice MainStreet and owner of Venice Wine & Coffee Co.; Ronnie Fernandez (center), Venice MainStreet Treasurer and owner of Venice Florida Tours; and Rod Nafziger (right), Venice MainStreet Economic Vitality Committee Member and former owner of Ciao Gelato are part of the team working with The Patterson Foundation on the Margin & Mission Ignition project, along with MainStreet staff.
