Thinking outside the box is dangerous ground. Whenever the topic comes up I cringe a bit and hope to goodness that folks understand how to manage creative thinking.
We deal with parent groups at schools on a daily basis, so when it comes to fundraising events, school fundraising gift catalogs or frozen cookie dough sales it's very common for comments to surface wondering what new and different ideas folks can come up with. The inference is that parents are dissatisfied with traditional fundraising and that we need something more creative.
For time sake, let me cut to the chase. With respect to whatever you are taking on, remember there is a set of conventional rules - a set of laws if you will that should not be broken. Then the icing on the top is the outside the box thinking.
In schools in particular, too many groups try outside the box thinking on the laws rather than set a good foundation and then build the exciting stuff on top of that.
The best way to understand this philosophy is by example - In order to take a shower you have to turn the water on. There is way around this basic law. If you create outside the box thinking too early in this process you now have to replace water as the source of the shower.
Here's another example for ya. Imagine for instance having a garage sale without putting up any signs or placing any ads. You may think that you can re-invent the garage sale and run one without ads or signage but the basic premise that people have to know about your sale. Nobody is going to show up and as a result you won't sell anything. Clearly not advertising your sale is not one of the laws you can break. Instead, if you want to give everyone at your sale a complimentary cookie - well, now you're talking effective outside the box thinking!
I'll leave you with this thought today. There are conventions that are tried and true and working and repeatable! If you are making a decision that requires out of the box thinking, try to use a convention that already exists as your base and then build on the extras using out of the box thinking.
Don't take me the wrong way here, if you can do something new and unconventional, that's in many ways what true breakthrough products and services are built on. When it comes to school parent groups and fundraising in particular, it's perhaps better to stick to what your parents will understand and want to be a part of. When you roll out something too mind-bending and unexpected you may lose the attention of the group of people you really need support from.
Until we meet again on this topic, don't be afraid to just say 'no' to out of the box thinking until you've got a winning combination of bare bones basics to rely on.
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Jay Moneta is the Vice President of Believe Kids Fundraising. If you enjoyed the post or would like to discuss this or any other fundraising related topic, please comment here or at www.twitter.com/believekids
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