Funding Your Vision: New Hope for Non-Profits

by Gerald H. Twombly

Book Overview

The organizations Gerald H. "Jerry" Twombly has served reads like a Who's Who in the World of Philanthropy that include international giants Campus Crusade for Christ (CRU), The Salvation Army,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0884692434
• ISBN13: 9780884692430
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Bmh Books
• Length: 115 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Relational Development 101

My friend 'JT' has written this brief book in order to present in narrative format the gist of his life-long work empowering non-profits through his firm DMA, Inc. If you are particularly skeptical of friends' reviews (which you should be at least a little bit), you may wish to stop reading now. You could sign for one of DMA's two- or four-day seminars and get Jerry's approach with concrete application to your own non-profit organization and its fundraising needs. That would be the Mercedes approach at a Toyota price. Or you could read this book and work through its exercises for price more akin to that of, say, a Kia. Either way, you'll benefit. The author would be the first to declare that fund-raising is not rocket science. Rather, 'relational development' plays upon the key concepts that are familiar to DMA trainees: the need for relationships, identifying our prospects, qualifying our prospects, emotional vs. rational giving, bringing people into your house, tracking the development of relationships, turning activities into events, sustaining your constituents, etc. Twombly repeatedly encourages his seminar attendees that they already have the basic skills of fundraising, which are relational. It's a matter of developing a system where those native interpersonal skills will serve the resource needs of their organization. The uninspiring but pedagogically effective format of this book is a series of conversations between 'The Frustrated Man'--your basic Fundraiser Dude in search of a technique--and 'The Visionary', whose uncanny ability to lead the slightly dim Frustrated Man dude in sage directions drags the reader along with him. Don't expect Churchillian rhetoric, but do prepare to reconfigure our understanding of non-profit development. If you regularly engage in fundraising for a non-profit organization, you'll want to have this little book within arm's reach for easy and repeated scanning as you move forward after a first read.

Easy read; Step-by-Step Guide to Fundraising

Gerald Twombly, the President of Develpment Marking Associates, Inc., has provided an excellent, easy-to-read, book on fundraisign for not-for-profit organizations. While such material easily be dry and make one's eyes glaze over, Twombly actually succeeds in making his book a (mildly) exciting page-turner--quite a feat for a fundraising book. This brief (111 pages) book essentially chronicles fifteen weekly meetings between Frustrated Man and the Visionary. Frustrated Man runs a not-for-profit agency which does great things for many people, but Frustrated Man dreams of taking it to the next level--which he can't do without increased, steady funding. Frustrated Man is thus becoming increasingly...um...frustrated. The Visionary is a man who knows Frustrated Man's problems well and spends several weeks holding brief meetings with Frustrated Man in order to show him, step-by-step, how to increase his funding and achieve the dreams he has for his organization. Twombly must be a master at organizational fundraising as he makes this complex task seem easy and exciting. Never having been in a position that required me to raise funds, Twombly's book not only made me believe that I could do it well, but that it would actually be enjoyable cultivating relationships that involve my regularly asking for money! But while Twombly makes fundraising seem possible and enjoyable, the book pulls no punches when communicating the idea that effective fundraising will require a shift in priorities, systemic change, and hard work, but big changes are presented in such a way as to make it seem managable and worthwhile. While I recommend this book (which only requires a couple hours of time to read), I did find relatively little that a parish pastor would probably find helpful. This book seems geared more toward organizations like homeless shelters, retirement homes, community activist groups, etc. Pastors can, however, find many things to glean from this "Funding your Vision."