Welcome To My Website

Your Non-Profit and Non-Government Organization’s Fund-Raising Resource

I have condensed nearly four decades of fund-raising experience into a step-by-step, concise guide---all of which is contained on my website. I hope you will think of my articles as on-line tutorials that will help you learn the process of fund-raising. I want you to feel that my material is as easy to use as a cookbook. If you follow the practical, hands-on suggestions---the "recipe"---you should see your organization’s contributed income rise as nicely as a chocolate soufflé.

Is This Material for You?

Do you help an organization to initiate or increase its ability to raise contributed income? Are you a:

• --- Trustee responsible for the annual budget;


• --- Chairperson of a fund-raising campaign;


• --- Volunteer who serves as a campaign solicitor;


• --- Development Director or other staff member;


• --- Fund-raising consultant;


• --- Individual, corporate, or foundation funder who wishes to make sure that your charitable contributions are well utilized.

I do not know the extent of your review of my articles in my "Fund-Raising Forum Library," but when you can give them a reasonably good study, I know that you will have the direction you are seeking and that you can readily develop your own fund-raising plans and tools to raise the money you need. To newcomers, I suggest that you start by reading a few of the articles. It will not take long. From my extensive experience conducting fund-raising workshops and seminars, I believe that I have successfully transferred the personal touch in print to be able to communicate and teach fund-raising by way of my articles, with application of the advantages that come with face-to-face discussions. So, please do read what I am suggesting, as I know the articles will be useful just as if we were together discussing your fund- raising needs.

The Fund-Raising "Road Map" to Success

Carrying out a fund-raising campaign is not magic. It is the clear-cut execution of concrete tasks in a logical and orderly sequence. What you will read on my website is designed for any non-profit or non- government organization: social service, education, health, arts & culture, and religious---no matter its size of operating budget or duration of operation, or if managed by staff or if totally volunteer-driven. In fact, I suggest that my articles, exhibits, and documents are reference tools that belong on the desk of every non-profit fund-raiser, no matter what your level of experience or responsibility and no matter the type, size, or age of your non-profit organization.

I feel confident that I will show you how to increase your organization’s contributed income while broadening its community support and promoting greater volunteer involvement. My material explains the ins and outs of how to develop plans for successful annual, endowment, capital, sponsorship, and underwriting campaigns. It will allow you to begin, enhance, and increase your organization’s fund-raising today. Step-by-step instructions teach you how to:

• develop a realistic campaign goal that balances need against resources;


• articulate a compelling case for support;


• identify promising funding sources;


• produce an effective solicitation kit;


• manage a campaign;


• assess results and produce progress reports;


• and much more.

An Introduction to Your Use of the Materials on My Website

Many people think of fund-raising as something incomprehensible, if not impossible. Others are willing to take on the daunting challenge, but are not sure where and when to begin. They all ask themselves at some point: "How can we ever expect to succeed?" That question is often the product of uncertainty and apprehension or an instinctive reaction to a failed fund-raising effort or the failure to begin one. The truth is that successful fund-raising is simply the product of hard work by dedicated people who are thoroughly prepared for the job.

A successful fund-raising campaign is not incomprehensible. It is, however, a comprehensive process. It’s critically important to know the significant difference between the meanings of those two words. One requires that we strive to overcome the mystery of fund-raising, while the other urges us to avoid being overcome by the details and regimen at work in any successful fund-raising campaign.

The "Nuts & Bolts" Are Applied Universally: Believe It

Non-profit fund-raising is a straightforward process of executing well-defined tasks that are arranged in a step-by-step progression. I know this to be so because I have seen it done over and over again. In fact, I have never found a fund-raising campaign to be an impossible task---if it is well-planned and well executed. And this is true whether an organization is all volunteer-driven with an expense budget in only hundreds of dollars or with a large staff and an operating budget in the many millions of dollars. I have found over many years that the major difference between those extremes is that one has more zeroes in its budget number than the other.

I used this process as volunteer Chair for the Annual Fund Campaign of our local Big Brothers organization before I began my career as a non-profit fund-raising professional. Our BB annual operating budget was $125,000. Later, I employed the same concepts as Director of Development of The Cleveland Orchestra with an annual operating budget of over $25 million. I found that for the Orchestra I simply needed to do much more of what I did with the Big Brothers---if anything maybe faster.

If You Still Question Whether This Material Is for You

I hope the following experience will be bolstering to you, should you doubt that what you can learn from my material could apply to your organization.

Over many years I have reproduced the fund-raising process in the form of a one-page printed outline/agenda that I have presented to countless hundreds of seminar and workshop attendees in the US, Canada, Mexico, and other countries over many years. They understood, accepted, and practiced the process. The first time I ever used that fund-raising workshop outline/agenda "handout" was over thirty years ago for a group of people representing major organizations---having annual operating expense budgets of at least $6 million. In the weeks following that workshop, I was scheduled to give a workshop to the Board of Trustees of a very small organization---its annual operating budget was under $100,000. I remember thinking that I would need to have the original outline/agenda handout reprinted with fewer components of the fund-raising process, that somehow, some of the forty-one steps in the traditional fund-raising process would not be relevant to the smaller, grassroots organization. As I carefully reviewed each of the components, I could actually see only three that might not apply to a typical "small" organization. Needless to say that I did not reprint the agenda, and I have kept it the same ever since.

Do It Yourself With Confidence

Believe me, those components are completely at home in the fund-raising plans for your organization. You will be able to develop the strategy and the tools just right for your needs and equal to your resources. My material is not just another Internet reading exercise, but more of a conversation. All of the plans, tools, and techniques are presented in exactly the same way as if we were together, in person, where I could know directly from you your needs and challenges, and where I could assess your fund- raising potential with you. I would then make my recommendations for your organization to consider. Do read my material in exactly that way, and it will work for you.

The best way for you to believe that and to begin your fund-raising campaign is for you to understand, then to explain, each of its components individually and in their proper order to your organization and to prospective donors. Taking these early steps helps you to establish your overall goals, divide responsibilities for tasks, and gain a measure of acceptance from people who may later be asked to provide contributions.

Positioning Your Organization for Success

The very first task you should undertake, therefore, is to lead the organization itself through an evaluation of its own capability to raise money. Of those steps in the traditional philanthropic-style, fund-raising process you will learn from my website, you may find a number of the elements missing from your plan (perhaps even all of them, if you are just starting up your organization). You may have others in place, but not to the degree they should be working. What can you do to install the new components and improve the others? You will learn all of that as you review and adopt from my website’s material.

The fund-raising process is simple in design and concept, but it is very hard work. Utilizing all of the above will allow you to be in a position to plan and execute your fund-raising campaign with command and control of each and every component in its operating progression, and you will be well on your way to success. I hope my website is of value and support to you as you conduct the successful fund-raising campaigns your organization needs and deserves in order to thrive.