The Creative Activist

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...

The Clinton Global Intiative theme for this year is "Designing for Impact" Designs must take account of needs and contraints (infrastructure, money, human resources, et cetera). Don't forget to consider cultural norms, demographics, technology, education levels, laws, and regulations. Designs need to match the social environment as well as being fit for a given natural environment. Technologies obiously need to be designed. Design thinking should be applied to systems or processes too. Just introducing water purification devices or new software can cause new problems. The rest of the system doesn't really fit what you've done. Do people have the training or experience they need to really use that new software? Feeding hungry people and preserving historic buildings are process that might be designed to work more effectively. Stanford Social Innovation Review describes the principles and give ss few examples of good and bad design thinking. For example, a wat...

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 with each concept in ...