Business Books for Nonprofit Strategy
Are you an activist or nonprofit executive who wants to be more effective and efficient? if you are reading this article, I guess you are. This article is about a few books with some tools you can use to create new fundraising ideas, social marketing campaigns, and design new programs or advocacy campaigns.
I’ve written quite a bit on here about nonprofit strategy, fundraising, and nonprofit marketing. Those posts have covered brainstorming, planning, problem analysis, selling ideas, and so on. I wanted to share that information in the hopes of helping activists and nonprofit managers become more effective.
Here are four business creativity books all social changes need to read, in no particular order:
1 — Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko
This business creativity classic introduces two sets of creativity techniques. You can learn logical techniques for generating new and better ideas, like SCAMPER and morphological analysis. The second part covers some traditional creativity tricks including mind mapping and random input. if you end up with more ideas than you can use, there’s also a handy tool for prioritizing ideas. If you need to evaluate a Big Idea for a program, project, or advocacy campaign, and don’t mind being a little uncomfortable, there is also a checklist for that.
2 — What a Great Idea by Chic Thompson
This is a good and breezy guide to creativity and how to be more creative. If you feel you need some “breakthrough” ideas to get reach people, change minds, or hit a fundraising goal, some of the tools and techniques in here are likely to help. It covers some of the same ground as Thinkertoys but adds more on getting ideas and selling them.
3 — Serious Creativity by Edward De Bono
This is really a foundational book on the art of creative thinking. De Bono delves into the nature of creative thinking and problem solving. He also lays out a bunch of creativity tools you can use alone or in a group. In addition to tools for generating ideas, you learn a smart way to evaluate ideas. If you aren’t sure which of De Bono’s lateral thinking tools make sense for your specific situation, there’s even a handy guide in the back.
4 — The Creative Problem Solver’s Toolbox by Richard Fobes
Everyone’s busy these days, right? This book covers a variety of techniques you can use to frame your challenge, decide what counts as a “good idea”, generate new ideas, and evaluate your ideas. It also has a handy guide that tells you which chapters to read in different circumstances, if you are already experienced at creative problem solving or if you have trouble implementing your ideas.
Bonus book — Michael Michalko wrote another business creativity book called Cracking Creativity, which covers some of the same material as Thinkertoys, so I honestly don’t think you need to study both.
Why We Need These Ideas
My original motivation for getting into this stuff had something to do with making it easier to “sell” progress on things like green technology and social justice.
Fast forward to 2023, and we (in the United States) have rising crime, climate change, homelessness, an epidemic of mental health issues, and what some consider the 1200-lb moose in the house: climate change.
In summary, we need to get better at coming up with killer ideas AND we need new ways to “sell” those ideas. That’s how these books help.
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