I'm using this book as a crutch in my volunteer activities with a local non-profit. It's excellently written and helps as a primer for both the strategic and tactical parts of our efforts. I highly recommended as a starting point and a reference for any individual or group that is looking for a good framework to help approach the highly-complex and difficult world of getting the fuel to make a non-profit successful.

The Jossey-Bass Nonprofit & Public Management Series adds another excellent resource with the publication of Mal Warwick's book, The Five Strategies for Fundraising Success: A mission-based guide to achieving your goals.

The central thesis of this nearly 300-page volume is that the way you raise funds for your organization can help you achieve your mission. Warwick finds that too often organizations tie their fund raising to short-term, fiscal year goals that require fund raisers to "get the money in the door now" rather than taking the time to cultivate donors for larger, future gifts.

In The Five Strategies, Warwick introduces the reader to the GIVES System, a method for analyzing, planning and evaluating an organization's fundraising strategy. The strategies are: Growth, Involvement, Visibility, Efficiency and Stability, hence GIVES.

In discussing Growth as a fundraising strategy, Warwick is not focusing on raising more money per se, but rather on broadening the donor base, having more donors next year than this year, and still more the year after that. A Growth strategy, according to this book, is dynamic and is characterized by audacious goals, bold leadership and low entry-level gifts.

Involvement as a strategy takes organizations beyond seeking gifts from donors to building stronger relationships with them. When supporters are active and committed, organizations can raise far more money. Organizations for whom public opinion is crucial are encouraged to adopt a Visibility strategy. Characteristics of the strategy are broad public interest, many stakeholders and brand identification.

Raising money at the lowest possible cost per dollar raised is the key to an Efficiency strategy. Planned giving, major gift programs, foundation and corporate grant solicitation and monthly giving are among the tactics that can be employed in an efficiency strategy. Warwick warns, however, that efficiency isn't always the best approach. A careful analysis of the organization's strategic choices is required.

Endurance is the core attribute of the Stability strategy. Among the tactics that can be used in a stability strategy are to build an endowment fund; employ electronic funds transfer (EFT) for fulfillment of donor pledges and engage in diversified fundraising activities.

Selecting a strategy must take into account the life cycle of the development program, the age of the organization, or both. For each of the five strategies, Warwick provides several real-life examples, not all of them success stories. This is very helpful for understanding how it might work and in identifying potential pitfalls. Warwick points out that a single strategy is not likely to remain appropriate for all time for any given organization.

The book provides details on how to pick the right strategy for your organization, common obstacles to implementing the strategies, what fundraising tactics will work with each strategy and how to evaluate your strategies.

My only disagreement with Warwick is in his definitions of vision and mission. He defines vision as why your organization exists and mission as what it does. I see the mission as clarification of purpose and an indicator of why the organization is doing what it does, while vision is what the organization aspires to look like after it succeeds in implementing its strategies and achieving its potential. That difference of opinion aside, I think the book is a wonderful resource for everyone involved in the fundraising effort, from CEO's to development officers to board members to donors themselves.

Warwick's previous books have been related to direct response fundraising and most are "How-To" books. If you are looking for a book that provides a formula or set of instructions, The Five Strategies is not it. What you will find in this book, however, is a way to think strategically about your fundraising efforts. Mal Warwick's hope with The Five Strategies is that he can help those who work for and on behalf of not-for-profit organizations understand the consequences of the resource allocation choices they face and do a better job raising money for a sector that never has enough.

A great reformer written from an honest perspective, well aware of our own culure... another great one for young and old alike!

I have read 3 or 4 biographies of Knox in the past ten years. Stanford Reid's *Trumpter of God* is considered the standard. But Wilson's is by far the most engaging.

Wilson has not attempted a comprehensive biography. Instead he hits the milestones and highlights what made Knox one of the most interesting figures in Western history. Wilson is very pastoral -- he makes contenporary, practical applications from Knox's that the reader will find very challenging.

After I read this book I bought three more copies.

An invaluable collection of empirical testimonies!

It is great to finally hear the silenced voices of the foreign born African Americans. These voices became loud and clear in this unique work of Obiakor and Grant. It is healthy when the tongue ceases to be docile. Hopefully, this will be the beginning of many good things to come and more and more silenced voices will snap out of docility. This is the beauty of America!

Be sure to know that there is a third edition (2001) available from the Foundation Center

This book by 'The Foundation Center' is indespensible for those interested in forming a nonprofit as well as current Directors who wish to have a reference guide on current developments in the structure and dynamics of modern nonprofits. There is a wealth of information in this book, and I rate it a 'Must Read.'

this book is very informative. it helped me become a better goalie . it also gives a brief overveiw of grant fuhr's career and accomplishments. i recommend this book to any aspiring goalies and their parents/coaches. it is also a great book for grant fuhr fans. i enjoyed reading it and still look at it years later.

THIS IS A EXELLENT BOOK FOR ANYONE WHO WANT'S TO BE A GOALTENDER .GRANT FUHR GIVE'S VERY GOOD ADVICE AND TIP'S FOR ASPIRING GOALTENDER'S. A MUST READ BOOK'

Michael Johnston's written the best guide on online fundraising around. Lots of detail and practical advice. Well worth reading.

There is no doubt that Johnston's book is the most thorough study to date about how nonprofits utilize the Internet. It's full of real examples, which is a rare thing in Internet literature. Usually, it's just about potential and hype. Now, we've got some real data.

This book gives a painfully honest account of the author's journey from physical and sexual abuse to Christianity. Its easy reading style will allow you to read the entire book in one sitting. I literally couldn't put it down. Using biblical verses and the analogy of scars and scabs, the author gives the reader tools to overcome hardship and despair and to find triumph in God.

An honest and realistic self-help manual for those who have been physically, amotionally and sexually abused. The books details one womann's journey from victim to victor. Using Psalm 23, as a thread she takes the reader through the healing process and shows the power of God's grace and its effect on her ability not only to survive the abuse, but to manage her depression and forgive those who had violated her.
Helpful scriptures are interspersed through the book to elevate the faith of those who have been abused and those who love them.
If you have been abused or know someone who has this will be an invaluable addition to your library.

Once again, Mike Venezia does a first-rate job of introducing young readers to the life and art of one of the world's greatest artists. This time around it is Grant Wood, who youngsters might be surprised to know did more than paint "American Gothic." Venezia explains how Grant Wood, along with John Steuart Curry and Thomas Hart Benton, developed the style of art which celebrated people and customs of the Midwest, which became known as Regionalism. We see examples of paintings by each of the three down during the same period of time. Venezia also shows how Wood developed his art style. After a trip to Europe Wood was influenced for a while by the Impressionists; we see a comparison of a painting by Camille Pissarro and one in a similar style by Wood. But Wood was also influenced by the old master painters of the 15th century, and we see examples of that as well.

Venezia also covers the biographical details of Wood's life, usually illustrated with humorous cartoons. My favorite is when Wood painted camouflage on tanks and cannons during World War I. This book is illustrated with ten paintings by Wood as well as an early sketch and a stained-glass window he designed. I think they will find "Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" to be the most striking and memorable. The last page has a special treat with his sister, Nan Wood Graham, and his dentist, Dr. B. H. McKeeby, photographed next to the "American Gothic" painting that immortalized the pair. I have enjoyed my education in Art Appreciation from Venezia, and this is one of his better efforts in the excellent "Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists" series.

As an elementary art teacher, I always keep my eyes open for power-packed, informative, interesting, art-related books. This book is excellent in helping children relate to the artist's individual style ("...his trees look like broccoli") and comparing Wood's style to similar styles of his inspirational fellow artists. The children especially love the fictional yet funny cartoons relating to the artist's life. This book successfully portrays Grant Wood's love of his homeland.

Great Pots: Contemporary Ceramics From Function To Fantasy by Ulysses Grant Dietz (Curator of Decorative Arts, The Newark Museum) is an eye-catching full-sized artbook showcasing studio ceramics ranging from the late 1930s down to the modern day. American, European, Asian, African, and Native American pots of all shapes and all colors, and ranging in design from elegant simplicity, to brilliant color, to intricate fine detail, are pictured on virtually every page by full-color photographs and accompanied by an extensive text commentary. Great Pots is very strongly recommended speciality artbook which would prove a seminal contribution to 20th Century Art History reference collections in general, and informative reading for either amateur or professional potters in particular.

This is the most beautiful book on studio ceramics ever produced! Not only that, it focuses on a collection that dates back two generations, but which most people have never seen published anywhere else. Of course the pictures and the design of this book make it worthy of any coffee table--but it's far more than that. The photographs are wonderful, but the texts (one long and one short essay) are both readable and informative. Perhaps the most "radical" aspect of this book is its point of view. There is no judgmental hierarchy about whether one potter's work is "more art" than another's. In fact, the author purports not to be talking about art at all. But it is all about art, in spite of those protests to the contrary. It shows how the traditionalist potters of the late 1930s worked their way into being modernists--and how they took their homage to Asia with them on that journey. The great radicals of the late 1950s--Voulkos, Autio, Price--are all given their due, but this break from tradtionalist potting is not seen as something inherently "better," nor is it portrayed as the be-all and end-all of studio ceramic history. Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that the great Japanese studio potters, and the great Native American studio potters, are given the same sort of respect and careful consideration as the European and American potters that most collectors today are familiar with.

The book is broadly divided into three thematic sections: the Beautiful Pot, the Useful Pot, and the Wise Pot. Each of these is then subdivided, by means of an easily flowing narrative, into about a dozen smaller sections. It is a well-written and lucid account of how the humble pot came to be great art, in spite of the art world and all its prejudice.

For anyone who likes pottery--even the plain old hand-made coffee mug from the local craft fair--this book will tell a great story about why people love to work with clay, and all the ways they come to express themselves with clay.

After 30 years in Texas banking, I've seen it all, done it all and thought I had heard it all.... until I read Jody Grant's book. Great inside story. A great book even if you aren't a banker or an ex-banker.

Perhaps the definitive work on the Texas Banking crash from someone who survived, but not without scars. Grant's attempt to save his failing institution is a lesson in crisis management. Furthermore, his insights into the reasons behind the banking crisis are particularly relevant in the high growth 90's. Finally, the detailed account of working with the federal gov't (particularly the FDIC) will force anyone considering working in a highly regulated industry to think again.