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Using Pencils to Raise More Money Online

Fundraising is the topic of the day. Every nonprofit must constantly work to attract donors and sponsors or risk financial disaster. That statement might seem melodramatic, but I don't think so. Either way, fundraising needs to be a priority all of the time.

That truth makes it reasonable to keep looking for ways to raise money, or solicit in-kind contributions of goods and services. The obvious methods - fundraising letters, donation buttons on Web pages, car washes, and et ceters - are always worth considering.

Creative thinking about fundraising is always desireable too. This post is about creative thinking in fundraising.

We all know how to brainstorm, in some sense of the word. Not everyone knows a specific technique for generating ideas, so I am going to share a simple brainstorming technique - random input.

What? Well, this is not difficult. You just start by writing down your challenge or problem in a few words. Next, you randomly select a random thing. Thridly, you list the characteristics, properties, traits, or whatever that you associate your random thing. Then, you study each of those characteristics you listed for some new way of approaching your challenge. A brief example will (I hope) make the process a bit clearer.

Assume our challenge is this - online fundraising.

I consult a list of common nouns (I could have used a dictionary and opened it to random page) - pencil is the word. Here are some things I associate with pencils.

1. Made of wood and graphite
2. An old-fashioned writing tool.
3. Self correcting, because they usually have erasers!

You can probably add other things to the list.

Now, what does each of those things suggest, regarding online fundraising? From "an old-fashioned writing tool" I get the idea of generating emails that look like letters written by hand on parchment. Maybe that's not an awesome idea, but it is a new idea, one that might cause your email fundraising letter to stand out.
What other ideas can you come up with?
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