The Mercifully Brief, Real-World Guide To-- Raising $1,000 Gifts by Mail

It's all been said - and better than I could. Mal Warwick is simply the best results-oriented writer in the field of nonprofit fundraising today! The genuis behind Mal Warwick's incredible success lies in his ability to marry tried and true marketing techniques with the oftentimes straightlaced field of nonprofit development. You simply can't go wrong with his approach.

This book was a little shocking, to be honest. I raise money through the mail practically every day, but this book lays out a completely different approach that I am definitely going to try. It takes a lot more work, and I think it should only be used for very special programs, but it sounds like the high-dollar approach promoted in this book could work for just about any organization. The book, unlike most fundraising books, is very easy to digest and written in a breezy style that makes it easy to get through. You can finish it in one sitting, easily. There are a lot of illustrated ideas from successful campaigns, and the author makes it sound easy. It's not, I don't think, but the book certainly encourages you to try.

As someone who has been raising money for many years, I was dubious that this book would tell me something I didn't already know. I was right and wrong. Much of what Mal says in his latest book on fundraising is not new to fundraising professionals. BUT, the book presents everything you know in a new and useful way that is focused on high dollar fundraising. It is well written, easy to follow, and provides great examples and techniques that will challenge even the long-time fundraising professionals to rethink their fundraising programs. I'm making it madatory reading for my fundraising staff!

Today we are inundated with so many ads and appeals by unknown non-profits (usually on the phone during dinner time), that it is remarkable that any fund raising efforts are successful. This book, written by a professional fund raiser and head of his own fundraising and marketing agency since 1979, gives several examples fund raising efforts that have not only been profitable, but have raised large amounts of money from relatively few doners. The book is a combination of tutorial with descriptions of various campaigns that have been successful. The techniques of raising high dollar amounts from few contributors requires a different mind set, different techniques than the standard #10 envelope, bulk rate, and mass mailings. Instead the appeal package is usually more expensive ($5 each - no not a typo), and the mailing list is very selective. Not every organization is ready, or even capable of raising money in these kinds of appeals. But when the right appeal is made to the right audience, the rewards can be great.

Fundraising is an art and a science, and Mal Warwick is a master of both. Warwick has been helping non-profit organizations, charities and political parties raise, collectively, billions of dollars for more than 40 years. As Founder and Chairman of Mal Warwick & Associates, in Berkeley, California, Warwick helps clients raise money by mail and, through his other companies, by phone and the internet. He has authored 17 books on fundraising, and his most recent, The Mercifully Brief, Real World Guide to . . . Raising $1000 Gifts by Mail gives up the secret he has known since he started his company in 1979: charities can raise gifts of $1000 or more through the mail. Warwick stresses his methods are different than those of typical direct mail fundraising. High-dollar donors, as Warwick calls them, are well-educated, wealthy, rational thinkers who want to invest in solutions. Warwick has crafted direct mail packages for them that are masterfully written, with personalized proposals akin to those used in major gift fundraising. He invites donors to invest at a level that's higher than their previous gifts, in special projects that will have a significant impact on advancing the charity's mission. He insists that charities, in turn, must do their part in adequately acknowledging, informing and engaging the donor in the cause. This special treatment and the initial higher investment in the smaller print runs of more specialized direct mail packages and information pieces pays off, big time, according to Warwick's results. The effort creates long-term, loyal donors, who will be ready and willing to make more generous major gifts and planned gifts in the future. Raising $1000 Gifts by Mail is indeed mercifully brief - and non-technical. It is a must-read for fundraisers who know their donors deserve more than the standard ask that arrives in the mailbox. Warwick has done philanthropy and the charitable sector a great service by sharing the art and science of high-dollar fundraising my mail.