Customer Reviews

Fired-Up Fundraising: Turn Board Passion Into Action (AFP Fund Development Series) (The AFP/Wiley Fund Development Series)

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If you're looking for a book that will help you get your Board moving when it comes to fundraising, this is it. Gail Perry has done a wonderful job of describing the mindshifts and actions needed for any Board to become a fundraising Board. It's full of nuggets of wisdom that you can implement right away and her many stories from the field help bring the main points home.

If you know Gail, you know she's passionate about helping organizations to be successful. And she's come up with a way of thinking about board-member involvement that is refreshing and exciting. She makes several seminal points: focus on the organization's mission first, inspire board members with a new concept, give board members the right tools and skills and then engage them in the fundraising plan.

Gail has developed a sound program that takes board members from where they are in their comfort zones and then slowly challenges them to move outward. We know that not everyone is constituted as a fundraiser, but everyone can find a niche in the overall fundraising strategy. She provides a checklist that includes activities that board members can engage in that don't include direct solicitation: support and promote the fundraising plan, make their own gift annually, bring friends and colleagues to the organization and its events, thank donors and, of course, make the ask if a particular board member is the right one to participate in a solicitation.

The premise is that solicitation is just a small part of a much larger process from identifying prospects to cultivating, involving and finally thanking. There's a place for all board members at this table.

I've been running nonprofits for decades, and this is among the few books that has actually helped energize and motivate the board to raise funds. It's full of new and fresh ideas and strategies that work.

I love Fired-Up Fundraising. In the midst of fiscal year planning with a well-meaning but unfocused board, the book has proven indispensable. Focusing on the most crucial aspect of fundraising - Board motivation and participation - this book is packed with ideas and strategies to get your BOD working effectively for your organization.

Anyone who has worked as a fund raiser knows a nasty little secret: fund raisers are effective to the extent that their Boards are effective. Too many of us have been in the situation where the Board assumes that the fund raiser is the "professional" or "hired gun" who will come in and solve all of their funding problems, thus giving the Board a free pass on their responsibility in creating an effective fund-raising matrix. That's a recipe for disaster and disappointment all 'round.

Gail Perry understands this, which is why her book is targeted at Boards of all levels. One has to remember that Board members are people, too, and that they want their organizations to succeed. What they need to succeed is the support of their professional staff, whose job it is to let them know that they are valuable to the fund raising process - and that WHAT they are asked to do on behalf of the organization as a Board member/fund raiser is both time-tested and - most of all - doable.

Ms Perry also understands that certain points can't be repeated enough if they are to really sink in. Her experience as a fund raiser and her skill as a writer show through as she weaves her common themes for success throughout the various chapters of the book. These serve as an anchor, bring the reader back to a few really important tenets that are - in effect - looked at from different vantage points, vantage points that anybody involved in non-profit fund raising will recognize immediately.

For the fund raising professional, this book presents a blueprint for personal and corporate success. Ms Perry provides a number of innovative strategies for getting Boards energized and involved with the fund raising process. I especially like her idea of "task forces" within Boards and board committees whose job it is to address short-term challenges with reachable and time-sensitive goals. Fired-up fund raising is built not by reaching for the brass ring and the brass ring only, but in achieving those little victories that add up to GREAT things over the long term.

The same must be said about her emphasis on thanking donors as often as is humanly possible, and the value in keeping connected with donors by letting them 1. know how their donations are being spent, and 2. how their donation has helped the organization. Her strategies in this important "follow-up" aspect of fund raising are a tour de force in how to get Boards involved in a process that too often ends up on the desk of the overworked development officer.

The book is an easy read. Because of that, my only caution would be to guard against reading it *too* quickly, as many of Ms Perry's insights may fly by without the reader actually absorbing them. That's a common problem when one is shaking their head in agreement with the logic and simplicity of that which is flying off the page (while at the same time one is wondering, "why didn't I think of that before?!").

Read this book. Then, buy a few extra copies and loan it out to your most-active Board members. The results are there for the taking.

This quick book is full of how-to's and provides immediate help for non-profit board fundraising. It's the rare book that is equally helpful to both seasoned non-profit professionals and board members looking for ways to be more involved in fundraising. A great tool for all in a very digestible format.

I'm nearly thirty pages in, and the book has not picked up speed. It is astoundingly redundant and so far has offered little more than a long string of nebulous questions and platitudes about motivating Trustees to raise funds. There must be a better book out there.