Why Most Nonprofit Brainstorming Sessions Don't Work (And How to Fix Them)
TL;DR: Better brainstorming doesn’t come from putting more people in a room. It comes from putting the right people in the room, preparing them ahead of time, creating clear boundaries for the conversation, capturing the ideas, and following through afterward. A well-designed 30-minute meeting can often produce more progress than two hours of unstructured discussion.
We've all been in this meeting before.
Someone on your team has identified a problem that needs solving. Maybe your nonprofit needs some fresh ideas for an old program, you're trying to figure out how to increase your average donor gift, or you've run into an operational challenge that nobody seems to know how to fix.
So, you schedule a brainstorming session. You gather a group of people around a conference table or on a Zoom call, explain the challenge, and invite everyone to start throwing out ideas.
The thinking is pretty simple. Get enough smart people in a room, encourage everyone to think creatively, and eventually somebody will come up with a great idea.
Except that's rarely how it works.
Most brainstorming sessions end up producing a lot more conversation than actual solutions. A few people dominate the discussion, someone suggests something that was already tried six months ago, and eventually the meeting ends with everyone wondering what was actually accomplished.
The problem usually is in how the brainstorming meeting is designed.
And for a small nonprofit where everyone is already juggling multiple responsibilities, spending an hour in an unproductive meeting is an expensive way to accomplish very little.
The good news is that brainstorming, when done correctly, can be an incredibly effective tool for solving problems and generating new ideas. But getting the most out of the collective brainpower of your team requires a little more intentionality than simply getting everyone together and hoping something brilliant happens.
Here are seven things you can do to make your next brainstorming session significantly more productive.
1. Get the Right People in the Room
There's a common assumption that the more people you invite to a brainstorming session, the more creative ideas you're likely to generate. After all, bringing together people from different departments and backgrounds should produce fresh perspectives, right?
Sometimes. But more people doesn't automatically mean better ideas.
One of the biggest mistakes leaders make is inviting people who don't actually understand the problem they're trying to solve. These are often well-meaning individuals with plenty of enthusiasm, but without enough knowledge of the challenge, its history, or the obstacles that have already been identified.
The result can be frustrating for the people who have been working on the problem. They spend much of the meeting explaining why certain suggestions won't work, or why an idea was already tried and abandoned.
Instead, be selective about who you invite. Look for people on your staff, board, or volunteer team who understand the challenge and can contribute from a place of knowledge and experience.
You don't necessarily need everyone in the room. You need the right people in the room.
2. Give Everyone Time to Think Before the Meeting
One of the least effective ways to begin a brainstorming session is to invite everyone into a room, explain a complicated problem they've never heard about, and expect them to develop brilliant solutions over the next 30 minutes.
Most people simply don't do their best creative thinking that way.
A couple of days before the meeting, send participants a brief explanation of the problem you're trying to solve. Tell them what you're hoping to accomplish, what solutions you've already considered, and what barriers have prevented progress.
For example, if you're trying to improve donor retention, share some basic information about your current retention rate, what your donor follow-up process looks like, and what you've already tried.
Now, instead of spending the first half of the meeting getting everyone up to speed, you've given them an opportunity to start processing the challenge and thinking through potential solutions.
Some of the best ideas may already be taking shape before anyone walks into the room.
3. Set a Time Limit and Establish Some Ground Rules
Creative problem-solving actually benefits from boundaries.
That might sound counterintuitive, but telling a group of people they have 45 minutes to solve a specific problem can produce much better results than giving them an open-ended invitation to talk until the ideas run out.
I generally wouldn't recommend a brainstorming session lasting longer than an hour. In fact, if you can accomplish what you need in 30 minutes, even better.
Create a simple agenda, explain the objective, and establish a few expectations for how the meeting will work. Make sure everyone understands what you're trying to accomplish and what will happen with the ideas afterward.
Also: eliminate distractions.
Put phones away, close unnecessary browser windows, and ask everyone to give the conversation their full attention. When you're asking people to think creatively together, divided attention makes that much harder.
4. Control the Chaos, But Not Too Much
You want to keep everyone focused on solving the problem, but you also need to leave enough room for creative thinking to develop. Sometimes a conversation that initially seems like a rabbit trail can lead to an idea nobody had considered.
The key is knowing when to let the conversation continue and when to gently bring everyone back to the original challenge.
One principle I find particularly helpful comes from improvisational comedy: "Yes, and..."
In improv, immediately rejecting someone else's contribution shuts down the scene. The same thing can happen in a brainstorming session when every suggestion is met with, "No, because..."
Even when an idea has already been tried or seems impractical, look for ways to build on the thinking behind it rather than immediately explaining why it won't work.
That doesn't mean every idea is a good one, or that you should ignore real limitations. There will be time to evaluate the ideas. But during the creative process, try to keep the conversation moving forward rather than allowing it to become a debate over why everything is impossible.
5. Capture Everything
Ideas can come pretty quickly when a group of people gets into a productive conversation. And sometimes an idea that doesn't seem particularly important in the moment becomes much more valuable after you've had time to think about it.
That's why someone needs to be responsible for recording the discussion.
You don't necessarily need a word-for-word transcript, but you do want to capture the suggestions, observations, and potential solutions that emerge.
A shared document, whiteboard, or meeting recording can all accomplish this. The important thing is making sure good ideas don't disappear simply because everyone was too busy talking to write them down.
6. Give People Time to Keep Thinking After the Meeting
Not everyone does their best thinking in real time.
Some people are incredibly good at hearing a problem and immediately generating creative solutions. Others need time to process what they've heard, consider the possibilities, and work through potential obstacles.
I'm actually one of those people.
When I have an initial discovery conversation with a nonprofit leader, I spend a lot of time listening and asking questions. But I often do my best thinking about potential solutions during the 24 to 48 hours after our conversation.
The same thing happens in brainstorming sessions.
After the meeting, send participants a brief recap of the ideas that were discussed and invite them to share any additional thoughts that come to mind over the next couple of days.
You may discover that the best idea from your brainstorming session wasn't actually suggested during the meeting at all.
7. Close the Loop
This last step is one that I think gets overlooked far too often.
Imagine being invited to help solve a problem for another department in your nonprofit. You spend time preparing, participate in the meeting, contribute several ideas, and walk away feeling like the group made some real progress.
And then you never hear another word about it.
Did anyone use your suggestion? Was a decision made? Did the problem get solved?
When leaders fail to communicate what happened after a brainstorming session, they miss an important opportunity to build trust and encourage future participation.
You don't have to implement everyone's ideas. In fact, you probably shouldn't. But you should let people know what was decided, why that direction was chosen, and what happens next.
People are much more likely to contribute their best thinking in the future when they can see that their participation actually mattered.
Better Meetings Start With Better Leadership
One of the responsibilities of leading a nonprofit is learning how to get the best thinking out of the people around you.
As your organization grows, you simply won't have the time, experience, or perspective to solve every problem yourself. Your board members, staff, volunteers, and partners all bring knowledge and experience that can help your nonprofit become healthier and more effective.
But getting the benefit of that collective wisdom requires more than simply inviting everyone to a meeting.
You have to create the conditions where good thinking can happen.
That means choosing the right participants, preparing them ahead of time, providing enough structure to keep the conversation productive, and following through once the meeting is over.
The next time you're facing a problem that could benefit from some fresh thinking, resist the temptation to simply gather everyone together and start talking. Spend a little more time designing the conversation first for the outcome you need.
You may be surprised at how much more your team can accomplish in 30 focused minutes than in two hours of unstructured discussion.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many people should be in a brainstorming session?
There isn’t a perfect number, but smaller groups are usually more productive. Instead of inviting everyone who might have an opinion, choose the people who understand the problem, know the existing barriers, and can contribute useful perspective.
How long should a brainstorming session last?
Most brainstorming sessions do not need to last longer than an hour. In many cases, 30 to 45 focused minutes is enough if participants understand the problem and have been given time to think about it beforehand.
Should you send information before a brainstorming meeting?
Yes. Give participants a brief explanation of the problem, the outcome you’re hoping for, and any solutions that have already been considered or attempted. This allows people to arrive ready to contribute instead of spending half the meeting trying to understand the issue.
How do you keep brainstorming from becoming unproductive?
Set a clear objective, establish a time limit, eliminate distractions, and have someone guide the conversation. The leader should keep the group focused without shutting down potentially useful ideas too quickly.
What should happen after a brainstorming session?
Send participants a recap, give them an opportunity to contribute additional ideas after they have had time to process, and eventually tell everyone what decision was made. Closing the loop makes people much more likely to contribute meaningful ideas the next time you ask for their help.
Matt Stockman is a nonprofit growth coach who helps startup, small, and growing nonprofits build stronger fundraising, marketing, leadership, operations, programs, and financial systems. He has coached hundreds of nonprofit and ministry leaders throughout North America, and around the world.