The Secret to Fundraising ― It's Not About Asking for Money

Are you a non-profit organization tired of feeling like you're competing and begging for money and feeling ineffective at engaging your board members? Are you a school district struggling to grow and maintain student enrollment, or unsure how to build the corporate partnerships needed to provide students with hands-on learning opportunities? Are you a church struggling to grow and engage your members and rethinking your outreach programs? In this book, Deborah Lukovich offers a brand new way of thinking about resource development PLUS a user-friendly three-part formula for getting better results no matter your resource needs. Throughout the book, the author helps the reader understand how his or her own thoughts limit results, and that's why she begins by sharing her philosophy of eternal optimism + genuine relationship building. "It's not about a brochure, a a fancy website or expensive donor recognition," Lukovich has been known to say. "It's about YOU!" The author begins by bringing the reader's attention to how he or she might be thinking about resource development (or fundraising, student enrollment, volunteer recruitment, etc.), sharing a story told in the words of a client about how two Christian schools realized they were operating in an environment of scarcity, which showed up in their fundraising results. After adopting Lukovich's approach, the schools' reported a 400% increase in fundraising results and story after story about brand new community members offering support. After inspiring the reader to understand that there are resource opportunities right in front of him or her, the author moves on to teaching her three-part formula for achieving sustainability through community engagement = Story + Direction + Relationships. As she walks through the formula and the application of the formula in great detail, she teaches the reader how to inspire people with their stories, be clearer about what they need and how people can help, and build genuine relationships without an agenda. People and organizations that have fully embraced and applied the author's philosophy and formula have been pleasantly surprised by their new and bigger results. "All I did was . . ." are common words that lead to a story about results. You will enjoy real inspiring stories and concrete samples and examples that illustrate how the authori's philosophy and formula work, and you will find it easy to try it for yourself.