March 9, 2006 | Read Time: 1 minute
How to Get Anyone to Do Anything
by R. Philip Hanes
R. Philip Hanes, retired chief executive officer of the Hanes Companies, the textiles and underwear conglomerate, shares his ideas on how to use personal connections, take risks, and raise money to solve social problems. Part memoir and part how-to guide, this book recounts his experience as a businessman and a founder of three conservation groups.
Using passages from the Bible, terminology from card games, and personal anecdotes, Mr. Hanes writes that persuading others to help is the best way to achieve a goal. He recommends doing background research on anyone who may be of use to an organization. In putting together special events, he says, build a group of well-known figures and use their names to attract other people to the cause.
Chief among his methods of persuasion is ignoring uncomfortable feelings, such as indebtedness. Discussing his fund-raising tactics, for example, he urges fund raisers not to feel that by asking for a gift they are placing a burden on the donor, but instead to recognize that a big contributor already has a proven commitment to the organization.
Asking for more money in times of financial distress cultivates the group’s biggest donors’ vested interest in the effort, he adds, because they may feel an organization’s health hinges on their ability to help.
“The best sources of additional funding will often be those who have already given more than their share,” he writes. “Learn to become indebted, but don’t forget to show your continuing appreciation.”
Publisher: Ten Speed Press, P.O. Box 7123, Berkeley, Calif. 94707; (510) 559-1600 or (800) 841-2665; fax (510) 559-1629; order@tenspeed.com; http://www.tenspeed.com; 184 pages; $24.95; ISBN 1-58008-667-5.
