The Creative Activist

No activist or nonprofit executive needs to be reminded that times are tough. The reactions to George Floyd's death and the economic meltdown caused by COVID-19 have raised questions and created challenges. And those things are in addition to the other big and small social issues that haven't gone away.  If your organization needs to do more with less or get faster results, there are a bunch of tools out there that can help. I think that's generally true at least. This series on Tools for Tough Times is my effort to offer some useful advice based on my experience and research. (See my revised bio at the bottom of this post.) This post is about asking the right questions. Future posts will explain some tools, techniques, and strategies that you may have read about in books like Thinkertoys, Serious Creativity, and Why Didn't I Think of That.  Questions: Whether you want to raise more money over the summer or really make progress on racial discrimination or animal rights,...

This fundraising post is about creative thinking, as we usually think of it. Last time I wrote about a systematic way to explore different elements of fundraising in a search for new ideas. This post is about an intuitive technique for creating ideas by using random concepts to spark new thinking about fundraising. New ideas are often just concepts taken from another field and adapted to fit. The concept of a library has been extended to garden tools. You can lease a washer and drier in Europe, now or pretty soon. With those two examples in mind, take a few minutes to examine this list of concepts: Coupon Vending machine Clearance sale Holiday sale Product recommendations (People who bought X also enjoyed Y) Layaway Buy One Get One (free, half off, et cetera) Lease Deposits Refer-a-friend Credit Renting Sharing (bikes, cars) Fractional ownership Think about a specific fundraising challenge your organization is facing and take another look at the list. Try working w...

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...

Genership 1.0: Beyond Leadership Toward Liberating the Creative Soul by David Castro describes some tactics for approaching social innovation in a creative, collaborative way. This post introduces three specific ways of thinking collaboratively, or individually, about social change efforts. Castro offers much more detail on using leverage, systems thinking and design thinking. Three Approaches to Thinking about Social Change : Whenever a group of social entrepreneurs gets together to plan or problem solve, they can choose to adopt one or more modes of thinking about the challenge at hand. The three modes of thinking that Castro mentions each deserves a book or two, but an introduction is easy to supply: 1. Looking for Leverage - This is a social change approach I’ve advocated for in previous posts. Activists should look for places they can intervene in society to produce the most benefit for the resources invested. A deep familiarity with the problem might be enou...

A Couple of Nonprofit Success Tools This is a follow-up to my previous post on things I’ve learned reading Genership 1.0: Beyond Leadership Toward Liberating the Creative Soul by David Castro. This particular entry will cover the book’s suggested tools and techniques that can contribute to nonprofit success. Genership 1.0 covers two new approaches to planning and problem solving that are worth adding to any social entrepreneur’s tool kit: CoVisioning and CoThinking. First, a definition of genership: The capacity to create with others, the community practice of creating. Castro’s book elaborates on this concept and breaks down some myths of leadership. The old model of leadership involves one man or woman creating a vision and a strategy, maybe some tactics, and getting people to go along with that strategy. Genership is all about working with others in a shared atmosphere of figuring out what needs to be done, how it should be done, and why it needs to be done. Cr...

The recent CVS announcement that the chain would stop selling tobacco products, prompted some thoughts on how best to reduce tobacco use. Public education and advocacy are sometimes put to good use, at least it seems that way. I wonder if some lateral thinking, or just some systematic investigation of the topic can lead to some better programs? The CVS decision may spark the desire to lobby other firms, to get them to stop carrying tobacco products too. This approach might appeal to activists, but has some challenges: 1. Access to decision makers 2. Shareholder concerns over profits 3. Lack of an alternative source of revenue, that makes sense for that business 4. C-level executives' natural conservatism about changing business strategy So, maybe working on corporate executives is not the best possible tactic. Maybe reducing the number of places that sell tobacco, through pressure is not the best strategy at all. What other strategies and tactics might be available? Othe...

Selling sustainable behavior during the holidays may not be a good idea, but there might be lessons to be learned by using the holidays. Valentine's Day is today, so it will make a good illustration of what I am getting at. Assume you want to convince people to stop eating meat, as a sustainability thing, not just as a question of promoting animal rights. How could the holidays be used to help achieve that goal? A holiday-themed ad campaign might work. Indeed, such campaigns are run in November in the run up to Thanksgiving Day. I would not recommend using Valentine's Day to convince people to go vegan. What possible connection is there between the two? Well, why not force a connection or two. You might get a new idea for promoting veganism. Here is how it works: 1. Ask yourself how celebrating Valentine's Day is like selling a lifestyle change (or just use veganism instead). 2. Spend a few minutes writing down everything you associate with Valentine's Day. Rec...

This is just a quick sort of public-service announcement dedicated to some books activists, working in nonprofits or not, might want to read. These titles are not always easy to follow, but contain powerful lessons for activists. Do you want to know how to raise more money, set up a new program, or start a social marketing campaign? Well, first of all you need two things: (1) A clear goal, (2) some relevant technical knowledge or training, such as training in the basics of social marketing. Assuming those two things are in place, reading one of these books, and applying the lessons therein, will give better results. DeBono's Thinking Course (Edward DeBono) - A summary of many tools and techniques for thinking about problems, evaluating information, and generating new ideas. The Creative Problem Solver's Toolbox (Richard Fobes) - A detailed methodology for defining (yes, you need to do that) and solving problems, with notes on how to evaluate ideas for potential effectiv...

The slow economy has put pressure on food banks to serve more people with the same or fewer resources. Now, the level of EBT benefits has been cut, so people who often struggled to make it through the month now have less food. More of those people will run out of money and food before the end of the month, and will turn to their local food bank for help. Will there be enough food for all when the time comes? No, in many cases the shelves will be bare. How can food banks meet increasing demands for food? This question has two dimensions: the immediate need for more food and the long-term challenge of securing reliable access to more food from donors. One hopes the long-term need doesn’t materialize, but realism requires being prepared.   The immediate need for additional food donations can be handled in several ways. If you run a food bank or just volunteer regularly, then you probably know what the options are: appealing to current donors, approaching new donors, using...

I'll skip the how and why of brainstorming and lateral thinking because I've posted my other entries on those subjects. You are creative, or at least you have the potential to be creative. So, where do you apply that creativity? The right places to apply creativity vary from time to time and organization to organizations. Still, there are some common elements. 1. Fundraising - How can we raise more money? How can we afford to launch this nonprofit? To turn those questions on their head: How do you do more with the resources that you have? 2. Goals and objectives - What goals and objectives should you pursue? Some dedicated thinking time might lead to the conclusion that your goals and objectives need to be changed. 3. Strategy - Are you solving a social problem or simply dealing with the symptoms? Does that focus need to be changed? Would brainstorming lead you to a strategy for attacking the problem? If dealing with symptoms is more realistic, how can you produce the m...

Getting attention for your organization of for a cause. You can use the usual methods - Facebook, events, Web site updates, blogging, radio and magazine ads, et cetera. But, what do you say exactly? How can you afford magazine and radio advertising? This time I want to just share a simple way to come up with new marketing ideas, and illustrate how it works. I've written before about using a technique called random input to generate new marketing ideas. To review, random imput requires you to state a creative thinking challenge, select an object or activity at random, then compare the two things. Hopefully, reflecting on the random object will give you a new and (potentially) useful idea. This is a post about nonprofit marketing so it should be easy to guess what's coming next. Say you have a small charity that exists primarily to help other anti-poverty organizations raise money and get attention for their specific causes. The challenge you set yourself is this: "H...

Some random thoughts on fundraising plans. Well, the thoughts are not entirely random, being inspired by Edward De Bono's book Serious Creativity - read it if you get a chance. If you haven't read the book, you'll still be able to learn a few things here. De Bono's Thinking Course is another recommended read, and a shorter introduction to De Bomo's ideas. The first step in fundraising is, obviously, to make a plan. You know the basics of making a fundraising plan or marketing plan. Here are a couple of things to think about before you go beyond the planning stage. 1. What is the overall objective of your fundraising effort? 2. What specific objectives do you need/want to achieve along the way? 3. What are the aims/purposes/goal of your organization? 4. What fundraising methods might support the organization's purpose? Make sure you take notes. Spend a few minutes thinking about each question and taking notes. Deciding how to actually raise the mone...

Random thoughts on starting and funding new programs or projects. A poster to a LinkedIn forum described a plan to re-forest a mountain in AZ. He was asking for advice on how to finance a nursery to grow the trees that would go on the mountain later. I asked a few questions that I want to repeat here, in generic form: Do you have a registered nonprofit organization? Do you have a track record of success with fund raising and/or programs? If you can answer 'yes" to both questions, then grant money might be available. That's one funding option. If you are really new, your fundraising options are a bit more limited. There might not be any point in pursuing grant money, or using snail mail to ask for money, or using the Web to raise some money. You have to network first, and raise money from locals. The old-fashioned tactics for raising money are still available to you. Be original though. Everyone holds car washes and sells candy. What else can you sell, or do for ...

Last time I promised to write more about creative fundraising, among other applications of creative thinking. There are many obvious ways to raise money. So, what place is there for creative thinking about fundraising? Your staff and volunteers are probably busy enough as it is. The urge to stick with traditional fundraising methods is probably strong for just that reason. Traditional steps like applying for grants and courting businesses and writing fundraising letters work fairly well most of the time. So, here is an way to escape the normal fundraising pattern, without too much fuss. Take a few minutes to think about your specific fundraising goals. Be specific and be as comprehensive as you can be in just a few minutes. Now take a few minutes to note which fundraising goals really need money and which could be handled by assembling volunteers or getting donations of goods and services. Repeat for the other goals. As you look over each fundraising goal and think of ways...

The blog fell into disuse while I was involved in other writing projects: starting a freelance Web writing business, studying screen writing, and job hunting. In addition, I found time to study grant writing and work on a couple of small grant proposals. Now is the time to get a useful, daily blog running for nonprofit staff and social entrepreneurs who want to make their organizations more effective and efficient. I hope you will want to follow along, or at least review some old posts. The older posts dealt mainly with using various brainstorming and problem solving techniques to make nonprofit programs and projects more effective. More of the same is coming up, but with more attention to marketing, fund raising, and earned income. The new focus reflects what I think are bigger issues, or bigger opportunities, for nonprofits. Building partnerships with businesses, other nonprofit, colleges and universities, and trade/professional associations seems like a good strategy in man...

This post is really about program design questions, again. Whether you are designing a new program or trying to improve an existing program certain questions need to be asked. There may a be a few types of questions that you haven't really considered; efficiency, effectiveness, and impact are the topics of the day then. Think about the best possible use of your resources. The program that will have the biggest impact matters, of course. How do you get the most benefit from a certain investment? You are thinking of your programs and projects as investments aren't you? Effectiveness and efficiency are worth asking questions about. This is even more true in a cash-strapped nonprofit than in a large business with vast financial resources. Thinking about efficiency and effectiveness as criteria for designing or improving a program will only make your organization more effective. For example, I want to start a program that educates people about how and why to recycle, and how ...

This is a post about asking good questions whenever you think you have a good idea for a program or program improvement. You probably knew that great ideas still need to be examined, questioned if you please. That's what this post is about, sort of. Mostly, I want to offer a few comments on Brainsteering: A Better Approach to Breakthrough Ideas by Kevin and Shawn Coyne. Brainsteering offers a disciplined approach to asking, and answering, questions about product ideas and business ideas. The process also works just fine for program ideas. The book starts by describing some generic questions to ask about a challenge then goes into creating logic trees. A logic tree works by stating a question and breaking it down into subquestions. Simply asking and answering questions might lead to some valuable new ideas. Brainsteering And that's as far as I have gone in the book. I can say that there is a chapter on making your own brainstorming efforts more effective. Other chapter...

This is just about my last post on fundraising, for now at least. I’ve previously written 16 or 17 posts on raising money, getting in-kind contributions, and planning fundraising events. Before I move on to talk about, something to be determined tomorrow, I want to offer some closing remarks “creative fundraising” practices. 1. Use more than one technique to get ideas. Try using an intuitive method to get ideas plus one that requires logic and structure. I described those methods in previous posts, and referenced two of my favorite books: Thinkertoys (Michael Michalko) and Serious Creativity (De Bono). 2. Review the brainstorming techniques I’ve described and then go on to #3 on this list. 3. Take a few minutes for each of these challenges: • Finding new ways to attract donations • Develop a method to attract major donors • Devise a way to solicit more in-kind contributions 4. Work on yet another fundraising challenge that’s specific to your organization. 5. Review you...

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 somethi...

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 consid...