The Creative Activist

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...

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...

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 ...