The Creative Activist

If you want to solve a problem, have to stop and think about the problem first. Logical, right?  Whether you want to tackle racial inequality, gun violence, climate change, or homelessness in your city you need to explore the challenge. Take notes, ask questions, do some interviews, reflect. This post introduces a couple of techniques you can use to focus on a new (to you) problem. You can use the tools here to help you shift your focus, or reevaluate whether you're focusing on the right thing.  Say your interest is climate change. Maybe you've decided that getting people to consume less stuff is the key to reducing the effects of climate change in the future. If you don't know much about the problem, here are a few key points: 1. The world is warming up with alarming speed, mainly because of human activity.  2. We may not be able to prevent some major changes like a 1-meter rise in sea level and permanent drought 3. Some would argue that adapting to those changes is more...

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 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 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...