Revenue Streams

Revenue streams or earned income has been considered one of the key features of SE. It is considered to be the most efficient way to achieve self-sustainability in light of decreasing donations and grants (Boschee & McClurg, 2003; Yunus, 2007). It also shapes the company’s organizational and institutional structures (Barr, Smith, & Stevens, 2007). Earned income is an internal source of funding achieved through profitable core activities, secondary to their not-for-profit ventures, or by establishing partnerships with commercial corporations (Alter, 2003). Some revenue streams include: sale of goods and services, membership or subscriber fees, advertising revenue, lending, renting, and leasing amongst others (Alter, 2003).

AA finds tourism to be the most suitable business to create revenue streams with the available resources. Tourism activities have allowed AA to take advantage of their context and local resources (exotic nature, products and abundant labour force) to create their offer and recycle profits back to the community. AA’s revenue streams come first from the operation of tours and expeditions. A second important revenue stream is from donors who began as AA clients and subsequently donate to MM. A donation to MM is either an optional or compulsory aspect of an AA trip, and often past AA clients become long term donors to MM after they have experience first-hand the positive impacts delivered by MM.