Nonprofit grows revenue and mission through social enterprises

Now that Spring has spring Growing Hope is growing all sorts of green things in Ypsilanti.

Excerpt:

Growing Hope, the Ypsilanti nonprofit dedicated to bringing organic food and gardening to a larger audience, is finding that making money and pursuing its mission are not incompatible.

Selling goods and services such as organic herbs or kits for building raised garden beds are accounting for an increasing portion of the group's budget, said executive director Amanda Edmonds.

"It's creating models of earned revenue or fee for service in ways that simultaneously serve our mission," she said. "It's different from selling T-shirts ... We're willing to play in the competitive marketplace, but we're more interested in getting people involved and making sure we're doing something complementary to our mission."

"People want them like crazy," she said.

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