It's Not Just About the Money: How to Build Authentic Donor Relationships

by Veritus Group, Jeff Schreifels, Richard Perry

Revised and updated! Are you searching for the next big idea in fundraising to help your organization soar? It’s actually right under your nose in your database. Major Donors. Right here, right now, you have the donors who have the capacity to give five, six, and yes, seven figure gifts. This book tells you how to find them, and what to do once you have them. Richard Perry and Jeff Schreifels tell you everything you need to do to take your organization to a new level of performance in major gifts. This book is packed with easy to implement ideas and strategies to create, build, and manage a robust major gift program. You won’t put this book down. You’ll be entertained and helped. You will learn how to create a culture that puts relationships with donors above everything else. You will be left inspired to succeed; because, ultimately, it’s NOT just about the money.

218 pages, Paperback

Published February 6, 2020

Reviews

[Scott Vandrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

A useful overview of why human connection still drives effective fundraising. You get a steady push to talk to your donors. You get constant reminders to build genuine relationships. That guidance supports anyone who works in development. This essay-book stays committed to a single message about permission-based, human-centered fundraising. The advice holds value, but repetition reduces its impact. The larger nonprofit structural issue receives no attention. Fundraisers spend hours researching donor preferences and designing strategies to persuade wealthy individuals to fund solutions to problems built on concentrated wealth in the first place. The book avoids the topic, and rightly so; it’s not pretty.

[Karen Wrobbel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is geared towards fund-raising professionals and, as indicated by the title, focuses on the importance of building donor relationships. The authors emphasize the importance of qualifying a donor to be included in the caseload of a major gift officer, and of understanding the donor's motivation, interests, etc.

[Matthew Hodge · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first third of the book is a passionate plea for what kind of organisation would work to be a great environment for fundraisers, so unless you're a CEO and can directly impact the culture, it's probably a bit aspirational.

But the rest of the book on how to think about donors, build relationships with them and thinking about asking - this was all super-helpful stuff.