The Zen of Fundraising - What will work?

Why hello!

I decided it was time to write a little, even if it was a bit generic and... well, let's be honest, uninteresting.

Today I will write about two books, both being read for upcoming book clubs that I am in.

The first is called Daughters of the Samurai by Janice P. Nimura. We will read this at our upcoming JETAANY book club meeting in November. Although I haven't actually started reading it yet, I think that it will be quite good - more than half of our group voted on this one over our other choice. I'm waiting for the book to become available from the library on my kindle before I get started. I will let you know what I think once I have finished!

The second book on the list is called The Zen of Fundraising by Ken Burnett. Although I was a little put-off by the title, I'd say that it was worth the read. I am currently working at a non-profit doing fundraising in Individual Giving. I never thought I would end up here, and have no formal training for the position. One of my personal/professional development goals for the current fiscal year is to read a full-length book on fundraising, and this one was recommended in a webinar training that my boss and I participated in several months ago. I then convinced my boss to let me organize a departmental "book club" session so that we could discuss it as a team. Our team currently is just three (well, 2 1/2 since our intern is only part-time), however I think it will be fun to sit down and discuss some ideas that the book generates in a few weeks. I'm also thinking of trying to get us out of the office to do this in hopes that it will enable us to sit together and really discuss the issues, rather than just rush through the meeting and get to all of the other pending projects.

In general, the book is about how to ideally manage and fundraise for "your" non-profit. It is digestible, and doesn't go too far into over explaining the specifics. The point is to get you thinking about what can work for you. I jotted down a lot of advice from the book that I'd like to use in the marketing side of our operations. Many of his points however refer to non-profits that are raising money to help people in need, while our organization is a cultural arts institution. I wonder what the differences are like fundraising for these different causes?

Well, if you are inspired to read either of these books, please post about your experience below! I think "The Zen of Fundraising" was a bit misleading with the title, and not very indicative of the contents, but worth the time it will take to get through it if you are in this field. It was pretty short, and I think you could skim and still get some ideas for your own team. What were they for you perhaps? Did they work?

Hear from you all soon!

-Lana