Customer Reviews

Fundraising Mistakes That Bedevil All Boards (And Staff Too): A 1-hour Guide To Identifying And Overcoming Obstacles To Your Success

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This book seeks to cure a very specific malady: the poorly informed board that works against its organization's own best interests, by inhibiting rather than promoting fundraising.

Kay's list of common mistakes made by many boards isn't endless, but it is discouragingly long: 44 mistakes in total. Yes, there is good news: all the mistakes are EASY to fix, and once you fix them, your fundraising income will start to improve.

For those new to the field who might not know Kay Sprinkel Grace by her formidable reputation, allow me to introduce you to a wonderful writer who has more than 30 years of frontline experience as a fundraising professional. Her client list includes powerhouse organizations like National Public Television. Yet the mistakes she writes about in this 2009 book, her latest, will resonate in EVERY board room, from grassroots newbies to well-established institutions.

This is a wise, knowledgeable, articulate book. And it makes this promise on the cover: "A 1-hour guide to identifying and overcoming obstacles to your [fundraising] success." I took it on a flight a few days ago and can verify the accuracy of this promise. Actually, I read it TWICE in about 1.5 hours. No chapter is longer than 3 pages.

Why did it work for me, a writer not a board member? While this book takes aim at boards, to correct their misguided ways, it's just as much about how to effectively speak to donors, to gain their trust and commitment; which is my writing specialty. Kay's book will help me make more money for my clients.

There's a lot of psychology and practical advice and common sense in Kay's book that you can't find anywhere else. And there's not a word of jargon in the whole thing.

My board read this book and it opened their eyes IMMEDIATELY to a slew of mistakes we've been making as far as raising money is concerned. It's a quick read, easy to understand, and digestible even for those new to fundraising.

This is one of those little books that anyone involved with fund raising needs to read about once a year. It'll only take about an hour to read, and I don't believe that anyone with any experience with fundraising can read it without getting at least one or two ideas to try.

The book is written in the form of 44 little short essays I guess you'd call them. Each one starts with the statement of a common belief that all of us have heard before, often beginning with the words WE CANNOT....

Then she spends a page or maybe three turning this around to WE CAN...

It's clear that she has been in virtually every situation described here, that she has gotten around the presumed problem and gone on to a successful conclusion.

This is not an overall guide to the fundamentals of fund raising, instead it's an avoid problems book. And all of us have had these kinds of problems in our non profits.