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C.E. & I.C.S. for the A.S.K.

nonprofit fundraising

In last week's nonprofit fundraising post, we explored fundraising flow and ways to achieve flow in your work. Establishing a creative environment (CE) which leads to an inner creative state (ICS) are two key components to working in a state of fundraising flow.

So what are CE and ICS?

When someone describes an environment as creative you probably have a clear picture in your mind of what that is. A creative environment is largely initiated by leadership and then adopted, maintained by an organization's entire team. Signs of a robust creative environment are open and safe surroundings where a sense of exploration and experimentation are valued and encouraged, offering team members the freedom to dig deep into their work with prospects and/or implement new strategies and tactics for fundraising.

A few ways an organization's leadership team can promote a creative environment include, but certainly aren't limited to:

  1. Maintaining a non judgmental tone.
  2. Implementing open lines of communication.
  3. Emphasizing personal responsibility.
  4. Encouraging fresh perspectives.
  5. Celebrating new ideas.
  6. Valuing transparency.

Nonprofit leaders who foster a sense of exploration, experimentation, play are supplying the necessary building blocks for a creative environment. As leadership prioritizes a creative environment by implementing the above standards, you can't help but get swept up in the climate and let your own personal inner creative state follow suite.

If a creative environment is promoted by leadership and then embraced by the entire team, an inner creative state is your personal means of adding to the environment, helping to sustain it.

On the most fundamental level, an inner creative state is the creative environment that lives inside of you. We know a creative environment feels safe, open, and free. This is exactly the environment we should be trying to create within ourselves as well.

A creative environment and your inner creative state are closely aligned. When intentionally attended to they lead us to work and explore with an open body, mind, and spirit to deliver the best fundraising results possible.

The most effective fundraising teams I've worked with all promote healthy C.E. and I.C.S. They are two of the biggest drivers in achieving consistent fundraising flow which naturally leads to more successful A.S.K.S.

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