When Your Organization Has More Ideas Than Time
If you've ever worked for a nonprofit, small organization, school, or community group, you've probably been part of this conversation:
"We should really do that."
Everyone agrees it's a great idea.
Maybe it's a new program. A grant opportunity. A fundraising campaign. An event. A marketing project. A partnership with another organization. Or something that's been sitting on the wish list for the last three years.
Everyone is excited about it.
And then someone asks the question:
"Who's going to do it?"
And the room gets a little quieter.
Not because people don't care.
Not because the idea isn't important.
There just isn't enough time.
Good Ideas Aren't Usually the Problem
I've spent more than 15 years working with organizations and communities, and I've rarely encountered an organization that didn't have ideas.
Usually, they have too many.
The problem is that the same people responsible for dreaming up those ideas are already answering emails, managing programs, helping customers or clients, preparing for board meetings, planning events, managing budgets, supervising staff, talking with donors, posting on social media, putting out fires, and doing all the other things required to keep an organization running.
Then another opportunity comes along.
There's a grant that would be perfect.
Someone has an idea for an event.
A donor wants to talk about a new project.
The website desperately needs updated.
There's a community partnership that could be really valuable.
And suddenly a great opportunity feels like one more thing on an already very long list.
That's how good ideas end up sitting on the back burner.
"We'll Get to It When Things Slow Down"
I've said this.
I've heard other people say this.
And I'm pretty sure anyone who has worked in a busy organization has said it at some point.
"We'll get to it when things slow down."
Except things rarely slow down.
One event ends and another starts. A grant deadline pops up. Budget season arrives. Someone leaves. Someone new starts. A board meeting is suddenly two weeks away.
Before you know it, six months have passed and someone brings up that great idea again.
"Whatever happened with that?"
It's still sitting there.
Sometimes You Don't Need Another Employee
When an organization has more work than its staff can reasonably handle, the obvious answer can seem like hiring another person.
Sometimes that's absolutely the right answer.
But sometimes you don't need another full-time employee.
You need someone to take one thing off your plate and get it done.
You need someone who can research the grant opportunity and write the application.
Or someone who can take ownership of the event that's been overwhelming your staff.
Maybe you need help creating a fundraising plan, developing donor communications, organizing a project, writing content for your website, or figuring out how to turn an idea into an actual plan.
Sometimes you just need another person at the table who can say:
"Okay. Here's what we need to do next."
That kind of support can make the difference between an idea that stays on the list and one that actually happens.
Start With What Matters Most
When everything feels important, it's easy to try to do everything at once.
I've learned that usually doesn't work very well.
Instead, start with a few questions.
What would make the biggest difference right now?
What opportunity has a deadline?
What project has been sitting on the list the longest?
What keeps getting pushed aside because no one has time to own it?
What would move your organization closer to where you want to be a year from now?
And maybe most importantly:
What are you doing right now that someone else could help you do?
That last question can be hard, especially for people who are used to figuring things out themselves.
I know because I'm one of them.
But asking for help doesn't mean you aren't capable of doing the work.
Sometimes it simply means you've realized your time is better spent somewhere else.
You Don't Have to Do Everything at Once
One of the easiest ways to make a big idea feel impossible is to look at the entire thing at once.
Let's say your organization wants to start a new program.
Immediately, there are questions.
How much will it cost? Where will the funding come from? Who will run it? Are there grants available? Who needs to be involved? How will you explain it to donors? How will you market it? What does success look like?
That's a lot.
But you don't have to answer every question today.
Start with the next one.
Then the next one.
A big project becomes much more manageable when someone can help break it into pieces, identify what needs to happen first, and keep things moving.
That's often the difference between having an idea and making something happen.
Maybe Capacity Is the Problem
If your organization keeps having great ideas that never seem to make it past the meeting room, it might be worth asking whether the problem is really the idea.
Maybe you don't need another brainstorming session.
Maybe you don't need another committee.
Maybe you don't need another item added to someone's job description.
Maybe you just need more capacity.
And that doesn't always mean hiring another full-time employee.
Sometimes it means bringing in the right person for the right project at the right time.
That's one of the reasons I created Three Roots Creative.
I wanted organizations to have somewhere to turn when the answer to "Who's going to do it?" isn't obvious.
Whether it's a grant that needs written, a fundraising idea that needs a plan, an event that needs organized, a story that needs told, or a project that simply needs someone to take it and run with it, sometimes a little extra help is exactly what gets an idea moving again.
What's Been Sitting on Your List?
Think about your organization for a minute.
What's the thing you keep saying you're going to get to?
What's the project that comes up at every meeting?
What's the opportunity you know you should pursue but haven't had time to tackle?
Or maybe it's still just an idea.
That's okay.
You don't need to have the entire thing figured out.
Tell me about your project.
Tell me what's been sitting on your list, what you're trying to accomplish, or where you're getting stuck.
We'll figure out what comes next.
Because sometimes the difference between "We should do that someday" and "We did it" is simply having someone with the time to help make it happen.