Looking for opportunities to raise more money or just to use your fundraising resources more efficiently? This post is another of a series on brainstorming and fundraising.
You need three things to think creatively about fundraising. Openness to new ways of thinking is a requirement. Attitude matters in creative thinking, so you need to be positive and nonjudgmental. You also need to be familiar with one or more brainstorming tools.
In recent posts I’ve described some brainstorming tools created by Edward De Bono and described in various books of his. In those posts I referred to using random ideas or objects to spark new ideas. In this post I will rely on a fantasy question, a provocation in De Bono’s terms, as a starting point.
Consider this fantasy question: What if every donor supported 1000 charities?
That question can potentially spark new ideas, if examined in the right way. De Bono writes about several ways of creating movement from a provocation like that question. I’ll quickly describe five ways to create movement.
Extract a Principle – The individual donors resources should be spread as widely as possible. That’s the principle I can take from the question.
Focus on the Difference – Think about differences between fantasy and reality. For example, several nonprofits compete for the individual’s attention and money.
Moment-to-moment – Consider how it would work if each donor really supported 1000 charities. How would that work? How would such a thing even be set up? What would the donor do? What would the charities do? Try to imagine events unfolding.
Positive Aspects – Think about the benefits if this fantasy question reflected reality. Don’t try to think about specific ways of having one donor support 1000 charities. For the moment you just want to stay abstract.
Circumstances – Where or when would this provocation work? In other words, in what situations might it be valuable if one person could really lend support to 1000 nonprofits?
So, what if every donor supported 1000 nonprofits? Use the five techniques I just described and write down your ideas.
Try the process I just described to solve a different fundraising challenge. Maybe your specific fundraising challenge involves meeting a certain goal, starting a legacy giving campaign, or collecting more donations on your Web site. In any case, if you can invent a provocation that has absolutely nothing to do with money or fundraising, you might just get a breakthrough idea.
I hope you’ll take some notes and try this idea generating trick on one of your organization’s fundraising challenges.
You need three things to think creatively about fundraising. Openness to new ways of thinking is a requirement. Attitude matters in creative thinking, so you need to be positive and nonjudgmental. You also need to be familiar with one or more brainstorming tools.
In recent posts I’ve described some brainstorming tools created by Edward De Bono and described in various books of his. In those posts I referred to using random ideas or objects to spark new ideas. In this post I will rely on a fantasy question, a provocation in De Bono’s terms, as a starting point.
Consider this fantasy question: What if every donor supported 1000 charities?
That question can potentially spark new ideas, if examined in the right way. De Bono writes about several ways of creating movement from a provocation like that question. I’ll quickly describe five ways to create movement.
Extract a Principle – The individual donors resources should be spread as widely as possible. That’s the principle I can take from the question.
Focus on the Difference – Think about differences between fantasy and reality. For example, several nonprofits compete for the individual’s attention and money.
Moment-to-moment – Consider how it would work if each donor really supported 1000 charities. How would that work? How would such a thing even be set up? What would the donor do? What would the charities do? Try to imagine events unfolding.
Positive Aspects – Think about the benefits if this fantasy question reflected reality. Don’t try to think about specific ways of having one donor support 1000 charities. For the moment you just want to stay abstract.
Circumstances – Where or when would this provocation work? In other words, in what situations might it be valuable if one person could really lend support to 1000 nonprofits?
So, what if every donor supported 1000 nonprofits? Use the five techniques I just described and write down your ideas.
Try the process I just described to solve a different fundraising challenge. Maybe your specific fundraising challenge involves meeting a certain goal, starting a legacy giving campaign, or collecting more donations on your Web site. In any case, if you can invent a provocation that has absolutely nothing to do with money or fundraising, you might just get a breakthrough idea.
I hope you’ll take some notes and try this idea generating trick on one of your organization’s fundraising challenges.
Comments
Post a Comment