How Does Your (Fundraising) Garden Grow?

By Bernard Ross and Paula Birnbaum Guillet

Case Study: Innovation at UNICEF

As a market leader in the field, with many recent innovations in its fundraising porfolio, UNICEF takes no success for granted and recognizes that innovation doesn’t just happen. So the organization created a special global unit to give innovation the attention it needs to flourish.

The organization realized it needed something special to take people out of the box and allow the free flow of ideas to kick off its innovation initiative. An avant garde arts center in Geneva, offered by a UNICEF supporter, served as an unusual but perfect venue for the initial, exploratory phase of UNICEF’s innovation journey. The launch event at the arts center involved:

Gathering a mixed group of international fundraisers, policy experts and campaigners for an intensive cross-fertilization workshop.
Listening to input on society trends from sociologists, including jaw-dropping insights into how Pringles develops new snacks by studying consumer behavior.
Mixing in creative challenges and inspiration, filling breaks with painting, music and culinary surprises.
Developing a set of key trends UNICEF must respond to and building a series of fundraising ideas based around these trends.
Having each idea evaluated and videotaped in an idea-assessment event judged by a consultant, a commercial marketer and the center’s arts manager.

Recognizing the importance of speed and sharing, the group created a wiki of the entire event, including videos of the idea presentations. It was accessible to UNICEF staff within 24 hours so members could share in the results.

This exploratory event marked the starting point, creating initial ideas, feedback and understanding for how to drive innovation at UNICEF globally. It was followed by an analytical phase, carrying out a survey among fundraisers worldwide using the value-chain model outlined on Page 22. UNICEF discovered the key challenges were in stages two and five. There was no lack of ideas, but the survey showed a need to become better and faster at sharing them across the complex, multinational organization.

Below is a matrix, developed by The Management Centre, that outlines seven innovation approaches used by a number of charities. Most of the examples are European, but you probably can identify how they might apply to you.

No one approach is ideal for any organization. And an organization might go through a series of these approaches as it develops. (See the Greenpeace International case study sidebar.)

Structure: Pirates
Characteristics: Create a small team that works away from the headquarters to develop high-risk/high-potential projects. The team acts like pirates, taking ideas from anywhere without having to report back to headquarters. It returns when it’s come up with “loot” — any idea that might work.

Structure: Skunk Works
Characteristics: Organize time-limited, cross-functional project teams to generate ideas in response to specific challenges, and work them through. As a part of this, it’s common to bring in outsiders to stimulate thinking. So an organization’s new strategic plan is being developed, for example, over three weekends by a group of 50 percent insiders and 50 percent outsiders.

Structure: Revolutionaries
Characteristics: Train a small group in innovation techniques. Members return to their normal roles empowered to stimulate innovation among others. NSPCC chose a team of 50 creativity coaches who had been trained in creativity and innovation techniques to encourage others to have great ideas. (They’re not innovators themselves, but people who help others to be.)

Structure: Prodigies
Characteristics: Encourage ideas from everywhere through prizes and awards that anyone can apply for. This approach involves reducing bureaucracy and the dreaded “ideas committee.” (Doesn’t that just seem like an oxymoron?) One person assesses the ideas, and there are various levels of prizes and awards to stimulate participation. Prizes involve time off to develop your idea.

Structure: Dragons’ Den
Characteristics: Create a formal “American Idol”-style system to select ideas. Innovations are assessed by a group that has an investment budget. The Dragons’ Den involves staff bringing ideas into the fierce heat of critical thinking. The dragons’ job is to weed out ideas that won’t make it. (You need a process to stimulate ideas to this stage. And make it clear: It’s tough!)

Structure: Open Source
Characteristics: Pose problems online, and ask users, donors, supporters and customers to solve them. This is the newest of the innovation approaches; it is used by Procter & Gamble to develop new projects and was adapted by Greenpeace International to ask supporters how to raise funds.

Structure: Functionalize
Characteristics: Create a team whose job is to come up with innovative ideas. Sometimes you need to create a team of people whose sole focus is generating ideas and then selling them to another part of the organization to deliver — more like a conventional research-and-development operation. At Cancer Research UK, the team focuses on high-value ideas that will create more than $10 million a year.

You might like to reflect on which of these approaches would fit most neatly in your organizational culture. And notice that the story of Greenpeace is one of choosing different structures as the situation changes.