January 15, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
NEW BOOKS
The Influential Fundraiser: Using the Psychology of Persuasion to Achieve Outstanding Results
by Bernard Ross and Clare Segal
“Donors want authentic, one-to-one, personal contact that inspires and motivates them to support a cause,” write Bernard Ross and Clare Segal, directors at the Management Center, a nonprofit consulting and training organization in London.
In this book, the authors suggest a systematic fund-raising approach built around “five stages of influence: passion, proposal, preparation, persuasion, and persistence.”
Each chapter corresponds to one of those stages. For example, the preparation section includes a chapter on how fund raisers can build self-confidence by modeling their behavior on people they admire, listening to certain kinds of music, and visualizing a calm, collected, confident mental state.
The persistence section includes a chapter on what to do when a donor says no. The authors break down the nine types of donor objections and how fund raisers can respond to them. For example, when a donor says no to a solicitation, it may be that the fund raiser asked for too little or too much. Once the fund raiser determines that to be the cause of the “no,” he or she can ask what sum might be more appropriate.
This book includes several appendices, including ones on how to influence a group, and on how to use more vivid language when making a pitch.
Publisher: Jossey-Bass, 10475 Crosspoint Boulevard, Indianapolis, Ind. 46256; (800) 762-2974; http://www.josseybass.com; 320 pages; $39.95; ISBN 978-0-7879-9404-4.
