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The Fundraising Masterminds Podcast
100. Top 5 Fundraising Books Every Nonprofit Leader Should Read [Development 101]
00:34:50
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- [00:00]
A
You're listening to the number one podcast for nonprofit leaders getting your nonprofit fully funded. This is the Fundraising Masterminds Podcast.
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B
Chances are you probably have a lot of major donors, or at least more than you think you do, sitting in your mailing list right now. You're losing out if you neglect that relationship with people. You're losing out if you don't have that connection with them. They miss that and you miss that.
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A
Welcome back to another episode here at the Fundraising Masterminds Podcast. I am Jason Galasinski, and with me, my co host, Jim Dempsey.
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B
Hi, Jason.
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A
How are you today, Jim?
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B
Oh, it's a great day. I love it. Love September.
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A
Yeah, it's great to have all of you joining us again for another episode. We've got an interesting one lined up. Today is our 100th episode. Can you believe that?
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B
I cannot. It's amazing. What's celebration?
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A
Yeah. And so we thought that we would start a new series on our 100th episode called Develop Development 101. And this isn't going to be like every week, but every once in a while we're going to come back to a development basics development 101 type episode. And whenever we do a topic like that, we're going to kind of start building a playlist for you guys so that hopefully over time, we'll have a little bit of a Development 101 resource built up. So this is going to be our first episode on the topic, and we thought it would be great if we could just go back and look at some of the top five most influential books that impacted your journey as a development director. Jim?
- [01:39]
B
Well, I did, and I've found over the years that some of these books especially are in the top five of all development experts. And so some of the ones that impacted me, I know and feel confident will impact you as well.
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A
Well, today's episode is called five Fundraising Books that Every Nonprofit Leader Should Read. You're definitely gonna wanna stick around to the end because we put together a PDF that you can download that just kind of has the photo, a summary of the book, and a link for you to buy them if you are interested. So we're gonna show that at the very end after we've talked through it. Well, Jim, I've got a stack of books here, and these are. You pulled these right off of the shelf of your own library, and these have been on your shelf for quite a while. Some of these books go back, you know, 20, 20 years or so. So they're not new books, but you would Refer to these as development classics.
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B
Well, timeless classics. Absolutely. Yeah. They so many of these things because they deal with relationship building. They are timeless.
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A
All right, well, let's talk about our first book. So, first book is called Donors are People Too by Tim Smith. And Jim, why is this on your first recommended book to read as a development director?
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B
Well, from my standpoint, I think what. And I've known Tim for a lot of years, what he was trying to do was he was trying to overcome the fear that many nonprofit leaders have of major donors. We put. We. Because people have money, we tend to put them on a pedestal. And. And we tend to think that their lives are different somehow. They think differently, they breathe differently, they, you know, just do things differently than we do. And Tim's premise really is that they're real people, just like us. They put their pant leg on one leg at a time. It was just that they have. They're motivated by the same kinds of things we're motivated by. They need to understand the same kind of things that we understand and that it is not as intimidating as we like to make it seem that they really are very approachable and that we can get those gifts from those people. So the aspect of donors are people too. They're not a different breed or they're not a different kind of animal in a sense.
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A
Right. So the full synopsis of the book is that Tim Smith draws on nearly four decades to show why major partners matter and how organizations engage them. Yeah, most donors give through mass media, but some signal deeper interest, and the smart organizations invest accordingly. So it's the idea of just investing in what we would refer to as the critical few.
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B
Right.
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A
A lot of the mindset that we have in the Winner's circle programs where we talk about keeping major donors engaged, they came from books like this. But, Jim, maybe you could go over just a couple key points about this book that you really got out of.
- [04:31]
B
Yeah. You know, Tim does such a great job of emphasizing so many of the same principles that we emphasize. And I think it's so important, certainly from a major donor standpoint, finding out what interests our partners. You know, as I said earlier, our major donors, those major partners are motivated by the same kinds of things we are. They're motivated by results. They're motivated by changed lives. They're motivated by the impact that's going to happen. And Tim outlines that so well. He outlines their motivations, what they are excited about and focusing in on having that connection with them, that connection, that bond with that, and any like Any connection and any bond. It takes time. And we oftentimes, as nonprofit leaders, don't give it the time, don't give it the attention that we need. A long time relationship. And Jason, you know, you and I have always used the marriage situation, the marriage as a great example that it takes time. You get to know someone, you have a courtship, and building a relationship over time is so important. And that's what we're definitely looking for in those kinds of things.
- [05:50]
A
Yeah. Whenever I, whenever I'm on a call with someone and they're trying to understand, you know, what, what is, you know, the perfect vision dinner, what is, you know, your development model, how does it all work? I always start with explaining the difference between friend raising and fundraising. And I love to use the analogy of dating, as, you know, like we've jokingly said in the past, you know, what's the likelihood of you getting married if you approached all the people that you were interested in back in your teenage years with a ticketed event to get to know you, you know?
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B
Right.
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A
Like, hey, Diane, I'd really like to get to know you, but, you know, I'm checking out a few other girls and, you know, I, I typically have a ticket price of $50, you know, for you to come to get to know me, you know?
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B
Right, right.
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A
I don't think that would have worked so well.
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B
That's, that's exactly right. Yeah. And the, the thing that Tim emphasizes in this book so much is just the importance of getting to know people. And, and I understand, I realize that nonpro listening are busy and we would love to just get money from people without any connection, without any effort, without building any long term relationship. But honestly, you're, you're losing out if you neglect that relationship with people. You're losing out if you don't have that connection with them. They miss that and you miss that.
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A
All right, well, the next book on our list is by a man named Gerald Panis. He wrote one of the most influential books called Mega Gifts. And Mega Gifts is probably one of the most top recognized. And some organizations consider this book like the bible of fundraising.
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B
Yeah, it is J J Pan. Gerald Panis or Jerry Panis, is, is a legend. He's the Jason, he's the top of the heap. So for those of our listeners who have never heard of Gerald Panis, get your hands on any book by Gerald Panason. To be honest with you, is really tough for me to choose the best of the best. But Megagifs, after all the books that Gerald Panis has written Megagifts is the best.
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A
Yeah. So the idea of this book is, with Megagifts, is that he really wanted to understand the motivation of why major donors give. Right. So he went and interviewed, went right to the source, went and interviewed and said, why did you write a check for $100,000? Why did you do this? What was your, what actually drove you this? And so he collected a bunch of thoughts on the motivations behind Mega Gifts and compiled it into this amazing book.
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B
Yeah, absolutely. I. One of the things, of course, you know, as, as almost anything in marketing, you've got to go to the source. You got to find out what the motivation is behind that. What motivates someone to buy a product, what motivates someone to read a book, whatever it is, he went to the source, went to major donors and interviewed them and said, why do you give, what made you give this gift? What were the sources? Why? Why did you do what you did? And then, as you said, he compiled it, all those findings and took the things that were most similar, most prevalent and put those in this book. And he really, from my standpoint, what makes it such a great book is that we, he really gives us a great understanding of those things that you need to do and gives you a practical gu. That these are the things that motivate them and these are the things that we need to do. So the practical steps behind that. So if you are interested in understanding what a major donor wants, what motivates them and how to get a gift, that's the book. This is the book you need to go to for sure.
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A
Well, one of his points was that donors care deeply about who is asking and how they're approached.
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B
Right.
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A
So that's kind of interesting. Right?
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B
Yeah.
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Can you unpack that a little bit?
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B
Absolutely. I, you know, I think that's so important to understand. You can't just send anyone in to have a major donor appointment. Now, I don't say that, that leaders should be intimidated, but a couple of the things that he highlights is that it should be a leader, if not the top leader of the organization, because that really impacts those individuals. Major donors and mega donors want to know that they're talking with, with the decision maker. They want to know that it's a key influencer, that if they're going to give the money, that the person they're talking with is the one who's going to make the decision on how that money is spent. And it's so important that you are sending the right person in there and you may think, oh, golly, I don't know how to have a conversation with a major donor. I don't know what to say in front of them. It's so important then if you don't feel confident that you get trained in what to say and how to think. And this is the kind of book that you would read to understand that.
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A
Yeah, well, some of us along what you were just saying, thinking about, well, what do I say or how do I what, what kind of presentation do I say? One of his key points is that listening is actually more important than having a lengthy sales pitch.
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B
Oh, I. Jason, I couldn't agree more. And you know, of course that that really is the bottom line in so many ways of what you and I teach, especially in our course, Major Donor Mastery, because I just, I always feel like you've got to listen twice as much as you speak because your Meg are going to give you feedback, they're going to give you cues that will allow you to step forward on things. I often, you know, think it's, it's like they're opening the door for you and now you get to come into the house. It's amazing how much they will reveal to you by simply asking the right questions and then listening. You know, people of influence love to tell you about themselves and asking those questions. Too many nonprofit leaders walk into appointment and just start their sales pitch. And Jason, I think I use this analogy years ago of a real life experience of an individual who is a colleague of mine who when our organization first started getting into the Internet, we had a website that is now been viewed by hundreds of millions of people. But at the time it was very new. It was called Every student dot com. And so many individuals were coming to Christ, so much so that when we get in front of a major donor or a mega donor, they just bought into it. And one of my colleagues just assumed that these people would just buy into it instantly. So he just went into his sales pitch, didn't ask any questions at the end. And those of you who have followed our broadcast for years, remember those two, those words, that response from those major donors. Well, my wife thinks the Internet is of Satan and I think it's even worse. Those were the early days of the Internet and they if my colleague had just listened, he would have learned that early on and instead he left with his tail between his legs and learned a valuable lesson. But these are the kind of things that Jerry Panis puts in his book, is that you've got to listen.
- [13:22]
A
Right? Well, that's definitely a good one to pick up. So if you don't have mega gifts in your library, definitely check it out. And like Jim said, any book from Jerry Panis is going to be worth reading.
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B
It is.
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A
Let's go to our third book that we recommend every nonprofit leader check out. This one is called Money, Possessions and Eternity. It's written by a man named Randy Alcorn. Randy is a Christian author known for blending deep theology with practical Christian life.
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B
Yes.
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A
So the premise of this book is essentially that God cares about how we handle money because it deeply shapes our hearts.
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B
Well, many of our listeners probably remember the book the Treasure Principle. And I debated about including the Treasure Principle instead. But all of Randy's views and ideas and thoughts on the Treasure Principle. The Treasure Principle was one of those small books, very much like the Prayer of Jabez was. That just was just hard hitting and an easy read. This. In this book book, Randy Alcorn outlines and unpacks the biblical roots, the biblical principles of the thinking that we have. Jason, you know that you and I really like to back up everything we do in fundraising by going back to scripture. We look at. In fact, you were having a conversation with me not long ago about the fact that one of our individuals who we've coached said to us, wow, this is really impressive that the principles that you're using, I found these things right in scripture. And you know, the answer is yes. Yes, it is. That's why we use it, because it really comes back to scripture. Randy has just masterfully just unpacked all the biblical principles of money, possessions and eternity all going back to scripture. And the principles that we just, that are the, the bedrock of what we believe and what we feel is all outlined in Randy's book.
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A
This book is a little bit more focused on theology. It talks a lot more about God and money and how God views money. But a lot of people just generally they tend to think about money as something that they, that belongs to them. Like they worked hard, they earned money. That's mine.
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B
Yes.
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A
Because it's mine. I can spend it on whatever I want. That's right. So if I want to go out to dinner, well, I earn that money. That's my money. I'm going to go out to dinner. If I want to buy a new, you know, Mercedes Benz, well, I worked hard and I get to do that because I deserve. You hear that a lot in the world. You deserve to go on this vacation or you deserve that new car because you worked hard and that's your Right. To spend your money. That's not really how God views money, though, right?
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B
No. And the thing is, I think it's important to understand the perspective that Randy's coming from. Randy is a pastor, and so he is. You know, he really has done a deep dive in the scriptural basis behind things. And of course, we've always talked about that God owns it all. And that's where some of those. For me, that was a. You know, I had heard some of those things. But Randy, in this book, did a great job of just unpacking and really us to understand that God owns it all and that we are just stewards of those resources. And I think in what you were trying to say and what Randy outlines essentially, is that we tend to think, okay, we own 90% and we give 10% of it away. And in a way, I think what Randy is trying to do in so many different ways is to flip that, to say, can we essentially live on 10% and give 90% away? So, in other words, God owns it all, and we need to be about the business of not only being good stewards of the resources that he gives us, because we're not owners, we're stewards. God is the one who owns everything, and so he's given it in our stewardship, but we are looking for ways to give it back to the Lord through his people and his ministry.
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A
Yeah, and we're not advocating that, you know, we should all be, you know, poor street people, you know, begging on the streets because we gave away 90% of everything we made, and we can't afford to, you know, pay our rent or anything. I think your idea on stewardship is that's definitely the principle there. So just as a practical example of exactly what you're saying, so when my wife and I bought our house that we currently live in right now, one of the first things that we did after we moved in is we got on our knees and we said, lord, you enabled us to, you know, purchase this home, and we're very grateful to be here, but this home belongs to you. This is your home. And we want. We are stewards of the home. We are your caretakers, but we dedicate this home to you. We want it to be used for ministry. We want it to be used to raise our children. You know, we want it to be used in any way, shape, or form that you could use it to build your kingdom. And so it's just. It's just kind of like holding it with an open hand. Right? Whatever God wants to do. And for a while, you know, we were having church meetings in our home. You know, we have Bible studies in our home. You know, but just however, whatever. Whatever way that God opens up doors for ministry, we. We offer our home quickly because, you know, we know that it's not ours really. We're really just stewards of it, and it's God's ultimately to use. Right. And that's. That's kind of the idea, I think, that Randy is tapping into is that he wants us to look at everything we possess in the sense of, like, we are just caretakers of our possessions, but they. They belong to us from a legal perspective, from a worldly perspective, but really, we know that, you know, we're just passing through, and the things that were. That we're blessed to take care of are just all because of him anyways. Right. So how does that change your approach to fundraising?
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B
Really, to add to that is that I think so many people who have wealth, you know, they're. They're buying extra cars, they're buying extra homes, they're buying extra boats, and that realistically, if they sat down and looked at it, many could live very well just on 10%. And taking that money instead of buying extra homes and extra boats and things could put that into something of value. I remember one time I was at a dinner for a Young Life organization, and I remember one of the videos said that a man had bought a. All at the same time. He had bought a plane, he'd bought a boat, and he had bought a Young Life Camp, and the plane was in some plain graveyard. At this point in time, the boat had been, you know, had been wasted away with salt water, and things ended up, you know, it's on the scrap heap. But the one thing that he invested on that had an intern, had an eternal value was that camp. And he said, if I had to do it over again, I would have bought three camps instead of those other things. And that's what we've got to look at. How can we invest it in. In that way? So it's so important.
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A
Everything else is temporal and passes away, but the things of eternity really last. I'm sure he really got to see the impact of buying a Young Life Camp.
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B
Right.
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A
That probably blessed him in the long run far more than a lot of change.
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B
Well, getting back to your question about how does that affect us in. From the fundraising. Fundraising standpoint, I believe that affects us greatly because as we are going out, talking to people, letting them understand, and, you know, Jason, part of our job is Educating our major and mega donors. And you'd be surprised how many conversations I've had with people who don't understand these concepts, these biblical concepts. And when they understand them, they become much more, much better partners. Much better.
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A
That's an interesting idea because like, when is it appropriate to do that? I mean, like, if you, how does that play out practically? Like you go in for an appointment with somebody and you realize they're not thinking biblically about their money.
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B
Right.
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A
Is that an appropriate time to be like, let me educate you on proper use of money.
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B
Right.
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A
How, how do you work in those kinds of moments?
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B
Well, it really comes down to how you educate them. If you educate them that I'm much smarter than you. I wish you have gone to seminary like I, I wish you would have taken a Bible class like I did and let me educate you. Well, it's not going to be, but I think if you can just flip it on them and let them start to think about, you know, have you also, Mr. Donor, have you also thought about the eternal value that your gifts have? It really helps them a lot. I, you know, I think about a real life situation that I had with a major donor of mine who is, he and I are very close and I couldn't have had this conversation with everyone, but he showed me a picture of a race car that he was going to buy and it was going to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. And I lovingly, caringly said to him, john, instead of buying that, have you considered putting that money into missionary work where rust and moth don't wear that out, but it has an eternal value. And about six months later, he called me into his home and pulled me into his den and showed me this race car software that he bought. He said, I bought this software instead with this little steering wheel. And I put the rest of the. In missionary work. And I thought my, my job is done. I, I was able to communicate that message to him and I was so proud of him and let him know how proud he was. So it's important that we come about it with a, with a very humble heart, but we can educate our people.
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A
Yeah. Now on this topic of like major gifts and mega gifts and stuff like this, and you know, it might, you might be listening to this and you're, I know some people are just extremely skeptical because it's so hard, you know, to listen to anything modern nowadays without there being some kind of conspiracy or something. Right. I could just, yeah, I could just hear people going, oh, come on, give me a break. You know, like, you're benefiting from these major gifts somehow. I mean, he's paying for your salary, so you're just manipulating him into.
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B
Or you're just liking him to get his money or whatever.
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A
But that's really not. Not where you're coming from.
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B
Right.
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A
Because we're coming from a Christian perspective. We know that. That this life is just temporary and that we're just passing through. Ultimately, you know, we're all preparing for eternity. And there's a passage of Scripture in First Corinthians, chapter 3, where it talks about Jesus bringing the things of life to the judgment seat. And the things that were made of wood and stubble and chaff, it all kind of burned up.
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B
Right.
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A
But the things that were presented, of gold and silver, those things stood the test of the fire. They stood at the end. So the idea there, the principle is that we want to invest in things that are focused on eternity, which is, you know, my wife often says, you know, we can't take our stuff, we can't take our money, we can't take our possessions with us. You know, we. We came into the world completely naked. We're leaving the world completely naked. We can't take anything with us.
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B
Right.
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A
The only thing we can take with us are other souls.
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B
Right.
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A
And so why don't we invest in those souls and bringing them along with us? And that's really what ministry is all about.
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B
Yeah. And. And the old adage that you've never seen a hearse pulling a U Haul, and it's. That's so true because you don't take those things with you, that's for sure.
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A
But let's go on to the fourth book. So this book is called. It's Not Just about the Money. It's written by Jeffrey Schoenfels and Richard Perry. Now, these guys are founders of the group called Veritas. And it's a. They. They specialize in major strategy, major donor strategy. So the key theme with this book is you already have major partners. You just need to find them and engage with them.
- [25:57]
B
Right.
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A
So it's kind of this idea that, you know, we've. We've got a mailing list of maybe 10,000 people, and we. We keep looking for. I gotta find these major partners. They're out there somewhere. There's, like, elusive, you know, Steve Jobs character I need to find that's just gonna. He's just gonna give a $10 million.
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B
Check, solve all your problems with one gift.
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A
And I think the premise of this book is that you already Know people that can write big checks. You just haven't engaged with them in the right way.
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B
Yeah.
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A
So tell us a little bit more about why this book is on your top five.
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B
Yeah, well, for various reasons, but you're absolutely right. All of us have a mailing list and we know what people have given. We just don't know what their capacity is oftentimes. Now, of course, there's software packages and products that you can buy. You can do a Zillow search on people to find out what the value of their homes are. There's so many different tools. But the bottom line is that chances are you probably have a lot of major donors, or at least more than you think you do. Right. Sitting in your mailing list right now. And this book helps you identify who those individuals are and helps you engage them. And what I love about this book is that it's so practical. This is a step by step. This is not just a lot of theory, a lot of thinking about. This is a major donor. This is what a major donor looks like. But it's okay. Here's how to find a major donor. When you do, here's what you need to do step by step by step. And I think the practical principles of this make it such a valuable book.
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A
Thanks for adding that one to our list. So check out It's Not all about the Money. I think that'll be a good one. And then the final book on our list, and we're going to talk about this one a little bit more on the next episode is Development 101. And Jim, you refer to this book a lot. Yes. You. This quote is written by a man named Jim Dempsey. Don't know who that guy is. Whether you're new to development or a seasoned pro, this book is for you. I'm going to be giving this book out to all my colleagues and it will be required reading for my staff. Absolutely made a good impact on you.
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B
Well, I love really is outstanding, but John and I cut our teeth together. John and I go back to some of our early education through an organization called Development association of Christian Institutions. And John and Scott did a tremendous job of going down to the basics. So many of the principles that you learn in our materials and information we had passed along from some wise sages. But John was the first one to really put a lot of those principles into a book. And I said, no use reinventing the wheel. John's got it covered here. And I give it to every one of our new staff in development because it just highlights so Many, many of the biblical principles, the basics of development, win, keep and lift, and other principles.
- [28:56]
A
That are so important. It's a comprehensive, biblically grounded roadmap for building healthy, sustainable development programs that align leaders, strategy, and theology.
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B
Absolutely. And, you know, it's. It's funny because it always seems like people just, you know, they always want to get. They want to skip 101 and 201 and immediately go to 301. Because I'm a leader. I'm an executive director. I'm not about the basics. And I always love to go back to the old quote by Vince Lombardi, who was a Super bowl champion before there were Super Bowls. He won national championships with the Green Bay Packers. But every year he used to start training camp, even with these seasoned vets, and say, this is a football. And he was jokingly, one time, one of his players said, coach, can you go a little bit slower? But it's so important that we go back to basics and that you understand the solid, the basics. In sports and football, it's called blocking and tackling. Those are the basics. And in development, this is the book to read if you want to understand the basics and set up a firm foundation. You and I, Jason, are all about a firm foundation because it's. If. If your house is not built on rock, if it's built on sand, it's going to sink. But these principles are going to get.
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A
You back to that. Well, I mean, so many people that we talk to, you know, they're. They're coming at it from a fundraising perspective. You know, you're running a nonprofit, and you're just thinking, I just, I'm out of money. I need to raise money. And they just, they just think, like, how can I get money from people? They don't think about development. They don't think about the long term. They're not thinking about a strategic vision or a plan. They're not trying to get to know people. And so a lot of times when I get on a phone call with somebody and they're talking with us, the first time I go back to these principles of these books, right? It's like the first thing that I go to. If you ever have an opportunity to talk to me on the phone, I'm not going to give you the opportunity to sign up for one of our programs without first making sure you don't understand the mindset of what's in these books. Because if, you know, we always start with the mindset that builds our program. So we talk a lot about fundraising versus fundraising. We talk a lot about win, keep and lift, but it's not about the money per se. It's about building partners and giving people opportunities to invest in the kingdom, work to invest in the long term of what you're doing. And just so often the way that you frame things changes, you know, everything.
- [31:39]
B
Your whole perspective on things.
- [31:41]
A
So. All right, well, we put together a PDF that you can download. You can click on the link in the description or in the comments section and that will take you to a page that will allow you to have a put together list of all the books, the description of what they are, some links of how to purchase them if you're interested in. And so I would encourage you all to click that link and get that PDF and print it out, bring it to your next board meeting. This would be a great thing for board members, especially if you've got a board that's unengaged or just kind of has more of a, we're the experts, we're going to tell you how to run your organization. Or they're more of a board of references where they're just kind of rubber stamping everything. If you're looking for something to, to really challenge people's thinking, definitely print out that PDF, bring it to that next board meeting and really strongly encourage your leaders to read these books. I mean, maybe it's one of those things that, you know, over the next five months you just say, hey, we're going to read together one book a month over the next five months and talk about it.
- [32:48]
B
Yeah, and I've done that with my staff, is that we just agree to read a chapter a week and we can, we can get a lot of things covered.
- [32:57]
A
Yep. So. Well, Jim, this has been really fascinating. I'm definitely wanting to review and look at these books a little bit more closely. I hope that our listeners are feeling that way too. So thank you for bringing these books to our attention. Thank you for all your decades of wisdom and being able to kind of bring forth the best of the best. It's going to save us a lot of time. You know, there's, there's probably, probably thousands of books out there and it's sometimes when there's so much, it's hard to know, like, where do I start? So thanks for just bringing the best of the best to the top and I hope that you guys learn a lot from these books as well. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and also be sure to pick up the PDF that I mentioned in the comments and Also, if you feel like there were other development books that you've read along the way that kind of of like, well, I really liked this one book that really did it for me. Put the book in the in the comment section below and let us know. Jim, any last words that you wanted to mention? I know you, you said you had a few honorable mentions that you wanted to throw in there.
- [34:01]
B
No list, Jason, could be complete without three honorable mentions that didn't quite make our top five list. The first is Giving Yourself Away by Larry Onan. The second is the Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn. And the third, money for Ministry by Wes Wilmer and contributors. Those three books are also books of great value that I highly recommend.
- [34:29]
A
Well, that's it for this episode of the Fundraising Masterminds podcast. We will see you on the next one.
- [34:33]
B
Take care.