You need a new idea for an education program. mentoring, recycling, prevention of bullying, and so forth. You can find an existing program and duplicate it, or maybe duplicate a variation of the idea. That's what usually happens and it usually works pretty well. This post is for times when no suitable programs exist.
When you don't have anything you can copy, whether because of local laws, lack of resources or what have you, then it is time to get creative. How does that work? I'm glad you asked. In many previous posts I've covered lots of ways to generate new ideas, some creative and some more logical. Let's continue in that vein and look at how various brainstorming tools can work in creating new programs.
First, the "creative" approach to brainstorming. Refer to Serious Creativity by Edward De Bono to read more about provocation and movement. For now, just keep these things in mind: Movement is about getting away from established ways of thinking. A provocation is a deliberate attempt to spark new thinking. Many movement and provocation techniques exist.
Wishful thinking involves asking a purely fanciful question or stating a situation exists that is totally at odds with reality. You then figure out realistic ways to make the fantasy come to life.
Consider wishful thinking as it relates to program design. I want to encourage DC-area businesses to use renewable energy. How can I do that though? I might start with a bit of wishful thinking: DC businesses must generate their own energy. Really? It isn't likely that all DC businesses will generate all of their own power.
How could we have DC businesses generate some of their own power? That goal is ambitious but achievable. Maybe energy conservation is the key here. Maybe business owners need to be educated about ways to cut their energy use as much as possible. What are the most cost-effective ways to cut energy use? Is there some clever way to slash energy consumption that we can teach?
A systematic approach might start with lists of all elements of your challenge. I want to get DC area businesses to use renewable energy, so I am working with variables like the type of business, type of energy technology and the promotional method I could use. Running through combinations of type of business, promotional method, and type of energy technology could lead to any number of new ideas:
1. Use direct mail to talk business owners into buying electricity from wind and solar power sources. That option does exist in DC, I think, so the goal would be to get more businesses to use it.
2. Use workshops to teach real estate developers how to integrate small wind turbines or solar panels into buildings and capitalize on the marketing value of having a "green" energy source available.
This post has just provided a taste of how creative thinking about program design can really yield results.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
Program Design Tips That Really Work
Program Design
Are there better ways to start or improve nonprofit programs? This blog is about building better nonprofits, so you probably hope I'll have more answers than questions. I do.
I've written about many brainstorming techniques that you might be able to employ generically for dealing with any nonprofit challenge. This post summarizes some of those ideas and explains how to apply them to program design.
A simple desire to challenge ideas, assumptions, and requirements would be a good place to start. What are the assumptions and usual requirements for a certain type of program? Write them down and examine each one to see if it is valid. Verify that each requirement is really a requirement now, and not a bad assumption or an outmoded idea. Spend about 10 minutes on this exercise..
Break down program design into component parts and look at each of the components. using either stratals or the filament technique. The filament technique calls for writing down the usual requirements for a type or program then writing down ways to fulfill each of the requirements. A stratal is a set of five statements about the subject of your challenge. Spend ten minutes on either the filament technique or the stratal technique.
Try to escape from the usual assumptions, constraints, and taken-for-granted ideas about program design. Use what Edward De Bono called an "escape provocation" to set aside your assumptions. Take an assumption and act like it does not exist. You should have already listed the assumptions behind your program.
Are there better ways to start or improve nonprofit programs? This blog is about building better nonprofits, so you probably hope I'll have more answers than questions. I do.
I've written about many brainstorming techniques that you might be able to employ generically for dealing with any nonprofit challenge. This post summarizes some of those ideas and explains how to apply them to program design.
A simple desire to challenge ideas, assumptions, and requirements would be a good place to start. What are the assumptions and usual requirements for a certain type of program? Write them down and examine each one to see if it is valid. Verify that each requirement is really a requirement now, and not a bad assumption or an outmoded idea. Spend about 10 minutes on this exercise..
Break down program design into component parts and look at each of the components. using either stratals or the filament technique. The filament technique calls for writing down the usual requirements for a type or program then writing down ways to fulfill each of the requirements. A stratal is a set of five statements about the subject of your challenge. Spend ten minutes on either the filament technique or the stratal technique.
Try to escape from the usual assumptions, constraints, and taken-for-granted ideas about program design. Use what Edward De Bono called an "escape provocation" to set aside your assumptions. Take an assumption and act like it does not exist. You should have already listed the assumptions behind your program.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Asking Plenty of Questions Will Make Your Program Better
This post is really about program design questions, again. Whether you are designing a new program or trying to improve an existing program certain questions need to be asked. There may a be a few types of questions that you haven't really considered; efficiency, effectiveness, and impact are the topics of the day then.
Think about the best possible use of your resources. The program that will have the biggest impact matters, of course. How do you get the most benefit from a certain investment? You are thinking of your programs and projects as investments aren't you?
Effectiveness and efficiency are worth asking questions about. This is even more true in a cash-strapped nonprofit than in a large business with vast financial resources. Thinking about efficiency and effectiveness as criteria for designing or improving a program will only make your organization more effective.
For example, I want to start a program that educates people about how and why to recycle, and how to do it without much hassle. My goal is to increase the number of households in DC that recycle from 43% to 58% in three years. What should I do to make the most use of my time and energy? What marketing or promotional tricks would give me the best shot at the biggest increase in recycling rates? What methods, or what program, would give me the best results for my investment or time and money?
Those questions speak to effectiveness and efficiency respectively. Every program design and every program improvement really needs to be subjected to the same two questions. Being hard-nosed about your answers will only serve everyone's long-term interests.
I was reading a blurb in the Chronicle of Philanthropy newsletter this week. There was a piece on a walk for charity thing that basically questioned the effectiveness of doing that sort of fundraiser, versus pursuing another option that would also raise money. That short article led to another question worth asking about any program design or improvement effort.
Short post this time. Next week I'll get into some tools for designing innovative programs that are both effective and efficient.
Think about the best possible use of your resources. The program that will have the biggest impact matters, of course. How do you get the most benefit from a certain investment? You are thinking of your programs and projects as investments aren't you?
Effectiveness and efficiency are worth asking questions about. This is even more true in a cash-strapped nonprofit than in a large business with vast financial resources. Thinking about efficiency and effectiveness as criteria for designing or improving a program will only make your organization more effective.
For example, I want to start a program that educates people about how and why to recycle, and how to do it without much hassle. My goal is to increase the number of households in DC that recycle from 43% to 58% in three years. What should I do to make the most use of my time and energy? What marketing or promotional tricks would give me the best shot at the biggest increase in recycling rates? What methods, or what program, would give me the best results for my investment or time and money?
Those questions speak to effectiveness and efficiency respectively. Every program design and every program improvement really needs to be subjected to the same two questions. Being hard-nosed about your answers will only serve everyone's long-term interests.
I was reading a blurb in the Chronicle of Philanthropy newsletter this week. There was a piece on a walk for charity thing that basically questioned the effectiveness of doing that sort of fundraiser, versus pursuing another option that would also raise money. That short article led to another question worth asking about any program design or improvement effort.
Short post this time. Next week I'll get into some tools for designing innovative programs that are both effective and efficient.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Program Design, Again
How do you know if your program idea is a good one? Admittedly, experience and some data collection (interviews in particular) could be all it takes to answer those questions.
This post is for the times when experience and a bit of research won't do the job. Consider the case of a part-time social activist, we'll call him Chet, who wants to start a nonprofit to educate people about how new renewable energy technologies can help them save money.
The right questions can lead to better ideas, or a new approach to a challenge, or a newer challenge that might be more important, or at least more tractable. After all, your first thoughts about the challenge (or problem) might not reflect the best way to address whatever problem you've been inspired to tackle.
There is the "5 Why" technique for example. You start by asking why you want to address a specific challenge: How do I get people in my city to adapt innovative renewable energy technologies (never mind which ones for now)? Chet could ask himself why he wants to do that. Asking "why" one, two, or three more times may yield a new goal, or a better approach to the original challenge.
Chet could also play reporter and ask the classic journalistic questions - Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? A number of generic questions come to mind:
Who is the audience for this program that doesn't exist yet?
What would those people want/need to know?
What specific action(s) do we hope people will take because of this program?
Why does this program idea address the want/need identified earlier?
How will we reach our audience?
Where will we reach our intended audience? Where will we carry out program activities?
When do we start the program? When is a particularly good or bad time to get started?
How will we know if the program is working?
How will Chet know if his idea is a good one? We would tell Chet to do some market research. What programs and policies already exist and have the same objective, or a similar objective? For the sake of illustration let's say there is nothing. Chet is venturing into new territory, at least in his city.
This post is for the times when experience and a bit of research won't do the job. Consider the case of a part-time social activist, we'll call him Chet, who wants to start a nonprofit to educate people about how new renewable energy technologies can help them save money.
The right questions can lead to better ideas, or a new approach to a challenge, or a newer challenge that might be more important, or at least more tractable. After all, your first thoughts about the challenge (or problem) might not reflect the best way to address whatever problem you've been inspired to tackle.
There is the "5 Why" technique for example. You start by asking why you want to address a specific challenge: How do I get people in my city to adapt innovative renewable energy technologies (never mind which ones for now)? Chet could ask himself why he wants to do that. Asking "why" one, two, or three more times may yield a new goal, or a better approach to the original challenge.
Chet could also play reporter and ask the classic journalistic questions - Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? A number of generic questions come to mind:
Who is the audience for this program that doesn't exist yet?
What would those people want/need to know?
What specific action(s) do we hope people will take because of this program?
Why does this program idea address the want/need identified earlier?
How will we reach our audience?
Where will we reach our intended audience? Where will we carry out program activities?
When do we start the program? When is a particularly good or bad time to get started?
How will we know if the program is working?
How will Chet know if his idea is a good one? We would tell Chet to do some market research. What programs and policies already exist and have the same objective, or a similar objective? For the sake of illustration let's say there is nothing. Chet is venturing into new territory, at least in his city.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Steering Your Brain Toward Better Program Ideas
This is a post about asking good questions whenever you think you have a good idea for a program or program improvement. You probably knew that great ideas still need to be examined, questioned if you please. That's what this post is about, sort of.
Mostly, I want to offer a few comments on Brainsteering: A Better Approach to Breakthrough Ideas by Kevin and Shawn Coyne. Brainsteering offers a disciplined approach to asking, and answering, questions about product ideas and business ideas. The process also works just fine for program ideas.
The book starts by describing some generic questions to ask about a challenge then goes into creating logic trees. A logic tree works by stating a question and breaking it down into subquestions. Simply asking and answering questions might lead to some valuable new ideas.
Brainsteering
And that's as far as I have gone in the book. I can say that there is a chapter on making your own brainstorming efforts more effective. Other chapters cover ways to conduct brainsteering exercises in groups and one chapter on implementing ideas.
The logic tree and the three-step process for evaluating new program ideas make this book worth a look if you are interested in starting or improving a program. Brainsteering will also help if you have an idea for a new nonprofit. Will your idea really fly? Asking and answering the right questions is critical to finding out how good your idea really is. also offers some tips for using analysis to find or evaluate ideas. Studying data and case studies could be enough to lead to a new idea. Analysis also serves the more common purpose of helping you evaluate an idea. The Coyne brothers offer a three-step analytical approach to evaluating a new idea. Though the example they use is a business idea, the same process could easily work on nonprofit program ideas.
Mostly, I want to offer a few comments on Brainsteering: A Better Approach to Breakthrough Ideas by Kevin and Shawn Coyne. Brainsteering offers a disciplined approach to asking, and answering, questions about product ideas and business ideas. The process also works just fine for program ideas.
The book starts by describing some generic questions to ask about a challenge then goes into creating logic trees. A logic tree works by stating a question and breaking it down into subquestions. Simply asking and answering questions might lead to some valuable new ideas.
Brainsteering
And that's as far as I have gone in the book. I can say that there is a chapter on making your own brainstorming efforts more effective. Other chapters cover ways to conduct brainsteering exercises in groups and one chapter on implementing ideas.
The logic tree and the three-step process for evaluating new program ideas make this book worth a look if you are interested in starting or improving a program. Brainsteering will also help if you have an idea for a new nonprofit. Will your idea really fly? Asking and answering the right questions is critical to finding out how good your idea really is. also offers some tips for using analysis to find or evaluate ideas. Studying data and case studies could be enough to lead to a new idea. Analysis also serves the more common purpose of helping you evaluate an idea. The Coyne brothers offer a three-step analytical approach to evaluating a new idea. Though the example they use is a business idea, the same process could easily work on nonprofit program ideas.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Building Better Nonprofit Programs
The core of most nonprofit work is the program of some sort. Conservation, education, and emergency assistance seem to be the most popular program goals. When a program exists there may be room for improvement. Heck, there is almost certainly room for some improvement. If you have an idea for a nonprofit you will want to develop your core program, or refine your program idea.
You already know how to brainstorm ideas, or research them. The next twenty or so posts will help you do a better job of finding program ideas.
I'll help by describing a bunch of brainstorming tools you can use. The tools I cover here will be the same ones you may have read about in my long and rambling posts on better fundraising. If you are tuning in late, that's fine. The techniques I want to show you are simple to learn and will come with actual program design examples.
I'll get into a few techniques that did not come up in the fundraising section. When I was skimming through Michael Michalko's brainstorming guide Thinkertoys, I was reminded of different ways to explore the nature of a challenge.
Once you get an idea, you need to be able to evaluate and improve it. Would this program possibly work better? Can we actually get people to do this? How could we get people to sign on to this? Those sorts of questions, and many others, will come up. You are prepared to handle those questions I think. A bit more preparation can't hurt. That's where this next series of posts can help.
When thinking about designing or improving a program you also need to know what counts as a good idea. This is something you can figure out based on education and work experience, sort of. It might help to have an easy, structured way to walk through an evaluation of the ideas you (I hope) get by applying one of the brainstorming techniques you read about earlier in the series.
I also want to say a few things about brainstorming software, another subject that didn't make it into my fundraising posts.
I'll post again on Monday, June 20. The subject is gathering new program ideas.
You already know how to brainstorm ideas, or research them. The next twenty or so posts will help you do a better job of finding program ideas.
I'll help by describing a bunch of brainstorming tools you can use. The tools I cover here will be the same ones you may have read about in my long and rambling posts on better fundraising. If you are tuning in late, that's fine. The techniques I want to show you are simple to learn and will come with actual program design examples.
I'll get into a few techniques that did not come up in the fundraising section. When I was skimming through Michael Michalko's brainstorming guide Thinkertoys, I was reminded of different ways to explore the nature of a challenge.
Once you get an idea, you need to be able to evaluate and improve it. Would this program possibly work better? Can we actually get people to do this? How could we get people to sign on to this? Those sorts of questions, and many others, will come up. You are prepared to handle those questions I think. A bit more preparation can't hurt. That's where this next series of posts can help.
When thinking about designing or improving a program you also need to know what counts as a good idea. This is something you can figure out based on education and work experience, sort of. It might help to have an easy, structured way to walk through an evaluation of the ideas you (I hope) get by applying one of the brainstorming techniques you read about earlier in the series.
I also want to say a few things about brainstorming software, another subject that didn't make it into my fundraising posts.
I'll post again on Monday, June 20. The subject is gathering new program ideas.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Some Final (for now) Fundraising Thoughts
This is just about my last post on fundraising, for now at least. I’ve previously written 16 or 17 posts on raising money, getting in-kind contributions, and planning fundraising events.
Before I move on to talk about, something to be determined tomorrow, I want to offer some closing remarks “creative fundraising” practices.
1. Use more than one technique to get ideas. Try using an intuitive method to get ideas plus one that requires logic and structure. I described those methods in previous posts, and referenced two of my favorite books: Thinkertoys (Michael Michalko) and Serious Creativity (De Bono).
2. Review the brainstorming techniques I’ve described and then go on to #3 on this list.
3. Take a few minutes for each of these challenges:
• Finding new ways to attract donations
• Develop a method to attract major donors
• Devise a way to solicit more in-kind contributions
4. Work on yet another fundraising challenge that’s specific to your organization.
5. Review your results from #3. Evaluate and refine your ideas.
6. Use the products of steps 3 to 5 in a 12-month plan to raise more money.
My next series of posts will be on…something different. If you want to design a program to meet a specific need, or improve one of your organization’s programs the next series of posts will be useful. So, program design is the next topic.
Come back on June 14 or 15.
Before I move on to talk about, something to be determined tomorrow, I want to offer some closing remarks “creative fundraising” practices.
1. Use more than one technique to get ideas. Try using an intuitive method to get ideas plus one that requires logic and structure. I described those methods in previous posts, and referenced two of my favorite books: Thinkertoys (Michael Michalko) and Serious Creativity (De Bono).
2. Review the brainstorming techniques I’ve described and then go on to #3 on this list.
3. Take a few minutes for each of these challenges:
• Finding new ways to attract donations
• Develop a method to attract major donors
• Devise a way to solicit more in-kind contributions
4. Work on yet another fundraising challenge that’s specific to your organization.
5. Review your results from #3. Evaluate and refine your ideas.
6. Use the products of steps 3 to 5 in a 12-month plan to raise more money.
My next series of posts will be on…something different. If you want to design a program to meet a specific need, or improve one of your organization’s programs the next series of posts will be useful. So, program design is the next topic.
Come back on June 14 or 15.
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