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How to Get Fundraising Ideas, Part 4

This post introduces another brainstorming tool that nonprofits can use to get fundraising ideas. This technique comes from Thinkertoys, by Michael Michalko. You can read the full description there, but this post should offer enough detail to use the technique. Michalko describes the technique in a chapter called “Rattlesnakes and Roses” but you can call the technique what It really is – the use of analogies.

By comparing fundraising to an activity in the business world, you might come up with a new way to meet your organization’s financial needs. Here are the steps to using analogies to get new fundraising ideas:

1. State your challenge. Be specific. “Raise money” is not as good as “Raise more money using our Web site.”

2. Extract a key word or phrase from the challenge. “Using our Web site” is a sensible focus for this example.

3. Choose a comparison. Go for a parallel field that’s vastly different from yours. Public education is not a good parallel for nonprofits. Social work is probably even worse. A few examples from Thinkertoys will give you some idea of how this works: dentistry, garbage collecting, physical fitness, water skiing. For the sake of illustration, let’s work with physical fitness.

4. List the images you associate with your parallel world. When I think of physical fitness I picture gyms, running shoes, weights, protein shakes, jogging in the park, a guy on a scale, exercise journals and yoga classes.

5. Look for similarities between the parallel world and your challenge. Take a few minutes to think about that challenge and the images mentioned above. Don’t try too hard.

That is it!

Try again with another challenge your cause or organization faces. Branch out from fundraising to other areas, like marketing or program design.
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