This is really a two-part post because I want to talk about yet another way to get fundraising ideas, a method that’s really too simple to need a whole post. You’ll need to spend some time evaluating and refining those ideas.
You will almost always need to refine or modify the idea in some way before you can use it. A quick look may reveal that some ideas are illegal, ethically dubious, or not practical for some other reason. You may want to ignore the impractical ideas and look for something that seems more promising.
Now, let’s get back to that simple fundraising idea generator. This technique takes only five or six minutes and is almost certain to produce something you can use. That “something” is probably an idea that can be refined rather than some fundraising event you could go and set up tomorrow.
The technique is this: Simply decide to concentrate on a specific challenge for five minutes. You might not get anywhere by thinking about fundraising for example. Focus on something specific – “We need new ideas for fundraising events that we can host in the community.”
That’s it. Just spend five minutes thinking about that challenge and writing down any thoughts that come. Quantity is what you after here. Never mind if some of the ideas seem useless.
Now that you have some ideas to work with, you’ll need to evaluate them. I’ll assume that it is obvious when an idea is useless. Don’t discard those ideas yet though! Set those “useless” ideas aside and turn your attention to one or more promising ideas. Here is how the ideas could be refined.
To improve an idea, you have several options. I’ve written before about a tool called SCAMPER. You could use it improve one of the ideas your simple brainstorming session produced. I’ve given an overview of how to use SCAMPER in a previous post.
If you are supposed to evaluate an idea that someone else prevented, don’t just look for ways to reject the idea. Do a PMI (also described in a previous post) to evaluate the idea’s strengths and weaknesses. Use OPV or logic bubbles to see how the audience for your fundraising event might respond.
You will almost always need to refine or modify the idea in some way before you can use it. A quick look may reveal that some ideas are illegal, ethically dubious, or not practical for some other reason. You may want to ignore the impractical ideas and look for something that seems more promising.
Now, let’s get back to that simple fundraising idea generator. This technique takes only five or six minutes and is almost certain to produce something you can use. That “something” is probably an idea that can be refined rather than some fundraising event you could go and set up tomorrow.
The technique is this: Simply decide to concentrate on a specific challenge for five minutes. You might not get anywhere by thinking about fundraising for example. Focus on something specific – “We need new ideas for fundraising events that we can host in the community.”
That’s it. Just spend five minutes thinking about that challenge and writing down any thoughts that come. Quantity is what you after here. Never mind if some of the ideas seem useless.
Now that you have some ideas to work with, you’ll need to evaluate them. I’ll assume that it is obvious when an idea is useless. Don’t discard those ideas yet though! Set those “useless” ideas aside and turn your attention to one or more promising ideas. Here is how the ideas could be refined.
To improve an idea, you have several options. I’ve written before about a tool called SCAMPER. You could use it improve one of the ideas your simple brainstorming session produced. I’ve given an overview of how to use SCAMPER in a previous post.
If you are supposed to evaluate an idea that someone else prevented, don’t just look for ways to reject the idea. Do a PMI (also described in a previous post) to evaluate the idea’s strengths and weaknesses. Use OPV or logic bubbles to see how the audience for your fundraising event might respond.
Comments
Post a Comment