Donating Ideas

My Dad recently received a highly prestigious position as the voice/representative for a national non-profit organization. One of his tasks is to recommend to their marketing department ideas on how to boost donations for the year.

He asked me if I had any. I said that I did, but if his organization used them and I didn’t receive some sort of royalty or commission I would sue them… we both laugh it off.

But you know what? There was a level of seriousness to my comment. What if a simple chat among family gives birth to an idea that produces millions in donations? After all, how complex is the Lance Armstrong Foundation “Live Strong” bracelet campaign? Not complex at all. How successful? To the tune of 12 millions dollars collected from yellow bracelet sales.

We willingly give away our ideas in the form of suggestions because we want to help and because we see little value in the abstract thought. But as Joey Reiman in his book Thinking For A Living says “tomorrow's ideas will be the currency”, I too believe that in the near future “ideas” will be taking on a whole lot of tangible dollars worth since implementing them is far easier now than before.

In the mean time, I’m on my way to the Patent Office to submit a couple of ideas I had last night just in case they turn up as an exchange for donations.

Marcos J. Menéndez
President
Loop Consulting Group