Donate Your Roosevelt Island Ideas To Global Brainstorming Benefit - Idea Aid Aims To Help Solve Global Hunger

You Tube Video of Idea Aid

Roosevelt Island residents are a creative and resourceful bunch so maybe we can put some of our collective talents to use helping others by participating in a week long internet brainstorming campaign sponsored by Mensa Process called Idea Aid. The campaign is designed to come up with new fundraising ideas that make giving to non- profit organizations easier and more appealing. The NY Post recently wrote about this project and Roosevelt Island resident Hal Worsham who is involved.

... Idea Aid is a weeklong Internet campaign launching today. Sponsored by Mensa Process, the consulting arm of the genius club Mensa, the campaign aims to collect practical strategies for getting food to people without enough of it. The theory is if you put 100,000 people in a room and ask them to solve a problem, you’re likely to get some creative solutions. But put 100,000 of the certified smartest people in the world in that same room, and you might just get a few solutions that work.

In this case, that “room” is the Web site ideaaid.com. “We’ve been blessed with excellent brains and need to harness the energy of those brains for good,” says local Mensa member Hal Worsham. “Of course, ending world hunger is an extremely lofty goal, but hopefully we of all people have the mental ability to think outside the box...

... there is no Mensa membership requirement for this contest. You don’t even need to be able to do calculus. If you can turn on a computer, you have the skills to enter — though Mensa hopes entrants will think long and hard before submitting ideas....

According to Idea Aid:

One problem. Seven days. Thousands of solutions. One can change the world. This is the revolutionary idea behind Idea Aid.

Our goal is to connect big thinkers around the world to generate ideas to solve specific global problems. We know that combining high intelligence and high creativity generates remarkable results. Fresh thinking will go a long way to addressing these underfunded global issues.

We're confident that with new ideas to act upon, organizations like Heifer International can step in with proven solutions to create a framework of hopeful, workable, sustainable programs.

Some thought starters from Idea Aid include:

• What action, as frequent and convenient as swiping a barcode card at the grocery checkout or getting cash from an ATM, could conveniently raise funds?
• Could something be added on to free services, calls or Internet charges?
• Do certain seasons or holidays lend themselves to possibilities for giving?
• How could social networking play a role?
• What new possibilities do emerging technologies offer?

An interesting brainstorming idea to emerge from the process is:

... There should be a human right (I'm sure there already is a similar one) which says: shortly before you die, you can call toll-free 800-NEEDFOOD and within the next 24 hourse an emergency parcel is delivered.

Only slightly kidding. After all, this is brainstorming.

Something like an organ donation but instead of giving a kidney or other body part you can donate some food, money or other needy item.

Get started brainstorming. The session ends on November 21.