Customer Reviews

Raise More Money for Your Nonprofit Organization: A Guide to Evaluating and Improving Your Fundraising

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This workbook is aimed at the leader of a nonprofit organization that is raising funds or plans to engage in fundraising. I read it from the perspective of a board member for a nonprofit that desperately needs to raise more funds, and I found it very helpful. I recommended that our executive director get and use this workbook.

The workbook is jointly sponsored by the Center for Philanthropy at Indiana University and the Department of Public Administration at Baruch College/The City University of New York. It was tested anonymously with organization executives to help them improve their fundraising before being published.

As the author states, "This guide is for nonprofit leaders who are not satisfied with the amounts of money their organizations are raising." That must be about everyone.

The book works in three areas: (1) assessing your present fundraising to see what you can do to improve on it (2) using your analysis to convince your board or other executives that spending time and money to improve long-term fundraising capability is a good investment and (3) getting in the habit of using self-assessment of your fundraising.

The initial self-assessment is broken up into three parts: your general structure and management; your fundraising readiness; and the effectiveness of your fundraising efforts now.

You then use the results of the initial self-assessment to get support based on what was learned. If your assessment is strong enough, you can go on to look more closely at various areas for fundraising in the second set of self-assessments: directors, major donors, direct mail campaigns, corporations, foundations, government agencies, special events, federated fundraising organizations like The United Way, bequests and planned giving, and telethons. Each area has its own set of self-assessment questions.

I found the questions to be very effective in diagnosing why the nonprofit I serve with makes progress in some areas and doesn't in other areas. If we choose to, we can use these lists to pick our opportunities and organize our actions. I hope we do that.

Even if you plan to use a fundraising consultant, I think this workbook would be a good background to use first to put yourself in perspective for the advice your consultant will give you.

The book also has a very thorough appendix of resources (tied to each subject), an extensive bibliography, list of periodicals, and resource groups you can draw on. My only concern was how up-to-date this information is, given the age of the book. One of the resource organizations can probably help you with that if you cannot find something or someone.

Overcome your stalled thinking about how you should raise funds, become more effective, and serve all humanity more effectively as a result!

Use this guide to evaluate and improve your fundraising. The handy checklists cover getting support from government agencies, foundations, corporations, planned gifts, direct mail, and special events.

Ideal for Board Members and Management use before launching a development campaign.