The Essential Nonprofit Fundraising Handbook
Getting the Money You Need From Individuals, Businesses, Foundations, and Government Agencies
By: Michael A. Sand, Linda Lysakowski
Published: July 2009
Format: Paperback, 224pp
ISBN-13: 9781601630728
Publisher: Career Press
"Many organizations that do not have professional development staff get caught up in a variety of activities that may not be appropriate for their organization, are time- and labor-intensive, and may not reap the expected financial benefits", write respected nonprofit development experts Michael A. Sand and Linda Lysakowski in their definitive and action oriented book The Essential Nonprofit Fundraising Handbook: Getting the Money You Need From Individuals, Businesses, Foundations, and Government Agencies. The authors Present a clear, and easy to understand multi-faceted fundraising development system, that covers all aspects and avenues of raising money. The book and its powerful advice is useful for any size of nonprofit organization, but the information is especially targeted to smaller organizations, that need funding on an ongoing basis.
Linda Lysakowski (photo left) and Michael A. Sand are both very experienced fundraisers with years of experience with the nonprofit sector. They recognize the crucial importance of fundraising for nonprofit organizations, and that need for cash is even more critical today, in a world of corporate and government budget cutbacks. The need to reassess how funds are acquired, and where to get that needed money, forms the core of this timely book. The authors start with outlining how to create a workable organizational development plan. Without that action plan in place, to serve as a guide for the board of directors, the staff, and the organizational volunteers, very little will happen. For that reason, the book contains several valuable chapters on planning for fundraising needs in both the short and longer terms.
Michael A. Sand (photo left) and Linda Lysakowski understand the process of fundraising as well, within the structure of a nonprofit organization. The authors describe how to get the board of directors to approve fundraising campaigns, and to incorporate the development plan into the overall direction of the organization. The book contains advice for staff members to do their job in supporting the board and the volunteers in carrying out the plan. Every nonprofit organization has a corps of volunteers as its backbone. The authors describe how to find good, dedicated volunteers, and how to include them in all aspects of the fundraising process. The third portion of the book outlines the various sources of funding, and unique approach required for effectively raising money from each of these groups, whether individuals, corporations, granting agencies, or governments.
For me, the power of the book is the very comprehensive approach taken by Linda Lysakowski and Michael A. Sand to the under studied concept of fundraising for nonprofit organizations. The authors take the reader through the entire process from developing an overall development plan, to finding and positioning the right people to carry out the required assignments. Very crucial to the strength of the book, is the important and often overlooked insight, that not all sources of funding should have the same approach for money. The authors know from experience, that obtaining funds from governments, foundations, or granting agencies is very different from requesting corporate support. At the same time, the book covers the many different ways that individual donors, both large and small, should be asked for funds as well.
I highly recommend the essential and must read book The Essential Nonprofit Fundraising Handbook: Getting the Money You Need From Individuals, Businesses, Foundations, and Government Agencies by Linda Lysakowski and Michael A. Sand, to anyone in the nonprofit sector who seeks to improve or overhaul completely, their organization's current fundraising program. Whether the need is to develop an overall plan, find and motivate the right volunteers, or identify the best way to receive optimum support from any funding source, this book holds the answers.
Read the definitive and organization transformational book The Essential Nonprofit Fundraising Handbook: Getting the Money You Need From Individuals, Businesses, Foundations, and Government Agencies by Linda Lysakowski and Michael A. Sand, and begin the journey toward a fully developed fundraising plan for your not for profit organization. The survival and growth of your organization, and the achievement of its goals may depend upon it.
