The Creative Activist

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...

Fundraising is the topic of the day. Every nonprofit must constantly work to attract donors and sponsors or risk financial disaster. That statement might seem melodramatic, but I don't think so. Either way, fundraising needs to be a priority all of the time. That truth makes it reasonable to keep looking for ways to raise money, or solicit in-kind contributions of goods and services. The obvious methods - fundraising letters, donation buttons on Web pages, car washes, and et ceters - are always worth considering. Creative thinking about fundraising is always desireable too. This post is about creative thinking in fundraising. We all know how to brainstorm, in some sense of the word. Not everyone knows a specific technique for generating ideas, so I am going to share a simple brainstorming technique - random input. What? Well, this is not difficult. You just start by writing down your challenge or problem in a few words. Next, you randomly select a random thing. Thridly, you...

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...

Program Design Are there better ways to start or improve nonprofit programs? This blog is about building better nonprofits, so you probably hope I'll have more answers than questions. I do. I've written about many brainstorming techniques that you might be able to employ generically for dealing with any nonprofit challenge. This post summarizes some of those ideas and explains how to apply them to program design. A simple desire to challenge ideas, assumptions, and requirements would be a good place to start. What are the assumptions and usual requirements for a certain type of program? Write them down and examine each one to see if it is valid. Verify that each requirement is really a requirement now, and not a bad assumption or an outmoded idea. Spend about 10 minutes on this exercise.. Break down program design into component parts and look at each of the components. using either stratals or the filament technique. The filament technique calls for writing down the us...

The core of most nonprofit work is the program of some sort. Conservation, education, and emergency assistance seem to be the most popular program goals. When a program exists there may be room for improvement. Heck, there is almost certainly room for some improvement. If you have an idea for a nonprofit you will want to develop your core program, or refine your program idea. You already know how to brainstorm ideas, or research them. The next twenty or so posts will help you do a better job of finding program ideas. I'll help by describing a bunch of brainstorming tools you can use. The tools I cover here will be the same ones you may have read about in my long and rambling posts on better fundraising. If you are tuning in late, that's fine. The techniques I want to show you are simple to learn and will come with actual program design examples. I'll get into a few techniques that did not come up in the fundraising section. When I was skimming through Michael Michalk...

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...

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 qui...

Raising money is a perennial challenge for nonprofits. The Great Recession has made things tougher for some and nearly impossible for others. Your nonprofit may be working hard to deal with fundraising challenges. Traditional thinking about fundraising might lead to thinking like this - “We need to raise $600,000 more money third year. What do we need to do to make this happen?” A discussion of grant writers, fundraising consultants and mailing lists follows. There is nothing wrong with this approach. At least some of that discussion needs to happen. But, new thinking might also be needed. Lateral thinking may help you get better results. Lateral thinking is (from Wikipedia) “solving problems through an indirect and creative approach.” The point of lateral thinking is to move “sideways” to new ideas and different ways of thinking. The point of this little essay is to point out another way of approaching the subject of fundraising. Lateral thinking itself suggests a broader approach to ...

This post introduces another tool you can use to generate ideas for your nonprofit. I know you have many problems/issues and challenges and opportunities related nonprofit management, marketing, and strategy, so this post offers a little bit of help. So, the tool of the day is called a “stratal” for no specific reason. The first step in using a stratal is to write down a topic to think about. This could be something broad, like fundraising, or something specific like getting in-kind contributions from area businesses. I’ll go with the latter topic for the sake of discussion. I start my session by just writing down the subject. Below the subject I write down exactly five thoughts on the subject. There is no need to be comprehensive or rational about this list. But, the list must contain complete statements and not just single words. Here’s what I come up with: SOLICITING IN-KIND CONTRIBUTIONS FROM AREA BUSINESSES 1. Go around and talk to managers 2. Send letters to owners 3. Use a maili...

Nonprofit strategy seemed like a good subject, given that times may be lean for nonprofits for a few years. Well, that was the impression I got from a Chronicle of Philanthropy newsletter. Last time I wrote about a guy named Edward De Bono and a few of the “thinking tools” he invented. This is another post in that series, and it will be a series. One of the thinking tools is called Consider All Factors (CAF). The point with CAF is to examine various factors that are relevant to a decision. In this case, I want to focus on decisions about the strategic direction of your organization. Where do want the organization to go over the next few years? If you want to examine factors that are relevant to your answer to that particular question, then CAF is a useful tool. “Doing a CAF” means to take a systematic look at various social or technological factors that might be relevant to your decision. A simple desire to focus on those factors for several minutes is all that’s needed. When studyin...

This post might seem totally out of the blue without a few words of introduction, so here it goes: All operating NGOs and all social entrepreneurs have to deal with certain challenges. Fundraising, strategic planning, marketing, and program design all have to be addressed. Even if your “program design” is to copy an anti-bullying program that worked in Detroit there are still going to be design issues to address. You probably have guidelines, checklists, case studies, books, articles, and personal experience you can draw upon. This post is the first of a series, of 20-30 short essays on tools for problem solving and innovation that you, as an NGOer might find helpful. I’ll start with describing some tools you can apply to fundraising. Fundraising starts with, well, with deciding to ask for some money! Before you actually do that certain steps are normally completed. You know that. You also do some planning before even deciding to write a letter. This post is about a technique you can...