Funding Sources and Marketing Strategies to Sustain Small-to-Midsized Nonprofit Businesses

Ineffective funding sources and marketing strategies can negatively impact business sustainability. Half of all leaders of small-to-midsized businesses (SMBs) experience an inability to sustain their businesses for more than 5 years. Grounded in Greiner, Jablonski and Jablonski’s and Mella and Pellicelli’s sustainable growth models, the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore how leaders of an SMB developed funding sources and marketing strategies to sustain their business for more than 5 years. The participants comprised 3 leaders from a nonprofit SMB in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Data were collected from semistructured interviews, documents on performance outcome data, the information provided by the client leaders, and the organization’s website data and information related to finances, budget, and market share. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. The emergent themes included community involvement, job stability, and marketing strategies. A key recommendation includes identifying useful funding sources and marketing strategies that leaders of SMBs can use to sustain their businesses for more than 5 years. Positive social change has implications for social and economic inclusion, health and well-being, and civic engagement through creating and maintaining jobs to provide income to people to improve quality of life and reduce unemployment