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Fundraising Questions That Work

This post contains yet another tool for creative thinking about fundraising. I hope you’ve read my most recent posts on that same topic. While this post will stand on its own, the other posts will just add arrows to your quiver.

I’ve been writing about tricks I picked up in a book called Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Business Creativity for the 90s by Michael Michalko. This is another post in the same series.

Asking questions about a fundraising challenge can lead to new ways to think about fundraising. Let’s assume for the sake of discussion we’ll assume the challenge relates to fundraising. I’ll offer an example as I explain the steps:

1. Specify your challenge – “In what ways might we raise the operating funds we need?” (You don’t have to be quite that precise, but that question is one I know comes up in the nonprofit world, so there it is.)

2. List “what if” scenarios – Usually these scenarios are phrased as questions but that’s not truly necessary. Here are some scenarios to consider:

What if this was a for-profit operation?

What if we stopped focusing on money?

3. Answer any questions raised by the scenarios – You may also want to write out any other implications that come to mind. If your nonprofit were a business, then how would you make money exactly? How would you advertise? To whom would you advertise? Would you rely on credit? A for-profit concern would try to maximize profits by cutting costs or finding new revenue streams.

Think about how that would work in reality. Did you find any fundraising ideas? Try that second scenario. You might be able to come up with one or two more scenarios. If so, work with them for a bit.

For extra credit, repeat steps one through three for another challenge that’s been on your mind recently.

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