Transitioning from grant dependency towards diversified funding models is a long process that requires iteration and participation from an entire organisation - from volunteers through to board members. Often citizen science organisations are capacity-limited and therefore must focus on the mission and activities first, leaving insufficient time for strategic financial planning.

Non-profits benefit from creating business development strategies. Just like a commercial business, a non-profit organisation needs financial planning to identify and secure capital.

This section describes a phased approach for non-profits to create business development strategies to get of the grant funding treadmill and to financially sustain their environmental and social missions.

Undergoing a business development strategy is a time- and capacity-intensive process. For each phase, estimates of duration or provided, but actual times will vary considerably by organisation depending on specific contexts and capacities. Engaging a financial planner with non-profie experience is one way to increase capacity to lead this process. Alternatively, organisations may wish to build into existing strategic planning processes allocations of time to discuss financial planning, and in this circumstance, the process may take considerably longer than the time estimates given herein.

Note that any strategic planning that considers the diversity and length of funding sources may be a step in the right direction, and that iteratively developing financial strategies over time may be beneficial. As funding amounts and lengths increase, capacity to undergo financial planning will aslo likely increase.