Yours for the Asking: An Indispensable Guide to Fundraising and Management

I am a governance and leadership consultant. I train and speak to literally hundreds of trustees, CEOs, Directors, and other nonprofit professionals every year - this will be on the required reading book list! I purchased the book after hearing Reynold's keynote speech "Recession! What Recession? Raising Money in Tough Economic Times in Washington D.C. a couple of weeks ago. It was a great speech - Levy's charm, positive nature, and sense of humor won a very suspicious, cynical, and bail-out beaten nonprofit audience over. Who would have thought he could carry that keynote title off among a group of the nation's highest fundraising professionals? He was a cross between Woody Allen and Hugh Jackman with a little Sting and Coltrane thrown in. So - I bought the book. What woman wouldn't buy a book by a guy made up of Sting, Coltrane, Jackman, and Allen? I read it on the plane on the way home and have marked it, sticky noted it, and read it again. When my secretary saw it - she said, "Boy that one must be good!" I have read more than 200 titles on fund development, what I love about this one are the stories and the conversational style Levy brings to a tough topic - How to inspire regular people to ask regular people for money? Oh, and by the way, how to inspire not regular people (wealthy)to ask other not regular people (wealthy) for money is covered too. If you think having a wealthy board means they are an automatic friend-raiser - then you haven't been around enough leaders in the nonprofit sector. Many people of wealth would rather write 2 checks than ask anyone for money! I appreciated Levy's personal attention to and beliefs about the role of the Board of Trustees/Directors in a nonprofit organization's fund development strategy. It is clear he views the goal of ensuring adequate resources for the advancement of the mission as an equal partnership between the board and staff. And he has actually done it. Other books say the same - but many Executive Directors tell me the books read more like good theory than the reality they experience with their boards in many small nonprofit organizations. Many organizations at the level of Lincoln Center have small boards (7-9 or under 20) of very influential and affluent individuals. Not Levy. As you read the book it is clear he has mastered the "art" (pardon the pun) of developing a strong board network - utilizing a very large number of individual board members through careful recruitment, committee, and leadership assignments. That requires a leader who is not threatened by size and who either has a phenomenal assistant - or phenomenal time management - or both. In the book he claims he returns calls within a short time every time. I had a friend in Birmingham test him last week - he did! As I read the book I could imagine these smart committee leadership structures and Levy having a Board Chair who is like a "General" to a huge army of cultural soldier ants - - hundreds of ambassador

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There couldn't be a worst time to raise money for worthy causes and, for that reason, I can't think of a better book for anyone concerned about a non-profit's mission and financial viability. Levy has committed decades of experience into a compact and lively book that will be instructive for the professional staffs, board members and committed volunteers of almost any non-profit organization. The book balances sound practical advice with engaging and often humorous anecdotes from the author's own careers in business, philanthropy, and global public affairs. In the end, Levy demonstrates how fulfilling a professional life at the intersection of those three spheres can be.