Profit The Books

I found some very good insights in this book, however felt it missed a few things. Firstly, some of the insights were very good - eg. "once a heading develops display advertising, in-column ads can no longer compete" and "do not buy an ad more than one size bigger than the competition" (both page 126). But then, in the copy section for example, it only has a few paragraphs on developing and communicating a unique selling proposition - that is, why a customer should do business with you and not your competition. I would have thought that this deserved more attention than just that! Further, I recently did a long copy style advertorial for a cleaner that pulled in 9 times more response than the client's dot pointed ad the previous year (yet this book only talks about the dot point style)... admitedly, advertorial does not always work... but I would have thought this option may have at least got a mention. Finally, there are only a handful of ads in this book... if they do another edition of this, more sample ads (for us to swipe) really helps us learn better... bottom line, this book is worth the price, but it did miss a few points and needs more sample ads to help you translate theory into operation... but I was perhaps a bit dissapointed because it just didn't live up to my expectations...

I wasn't expecting much from this book. It's written by a former Yellow Pages salesperson, so I expected a sales letter in book form. But then I found out it was the BEST Yellow Pages salesperson, and I decided to order the book. 300 pages of pure information. Mr. Mahar shows you why Yellow Pages advertising may NOT be for you. That was a surprise.
You get several studies that show which types of businesses profit most from Yellow Pages advertising, and which don't.
He gives a convincing rational for which directories to place your ad in (assuming your area has several).
You also get sample ads to use as templates.
This book covers everything about Yellow Pages advertising. Yellow Pages advertising tends to be the largest advertising expense for small businesses. Using the ideas in this book will easily pay for the cost of the book the first month in the Yellow Pages.
The only flaw I found was that, if Mr. Mahar has Seminars on Yellow Pages advertising, I probably wouldn't go; I just don't see what I could learn that isn't already covered in the book.

When small businesses think of advertising, they think newspapers, billboards and expensive media campaigns. Since the invention of the telephone and the yellow pages, there are other, less expensive options, but only if you know what you're doing.

Barry Maher takes the guesswork out of how much ad space to buy and what categories best fit every business in "Getting The Most From Your Yellow Pages Advertising". Maher shows the most cost effective way to advertise, which yellow pages are the best bet for advertising, who is and who isn't being truthful, and gives the straight low down on how to maximize advertising dollars for every type of business, small or large.

Color or black and white? Saving money or betting the farm? Maher details the ins and outs of every facet of yellow pages advertising, from art work to strategies and headings to scams. Turning years of experience in buying and selling advertising into a simple, easy to follow guidebook, Maher demystifies yellow pages advertising in a concise, easy to understand compendium that no business should be without.

If you don't know anything about yellow pages advertising this book will give you a good starting point. If you have some marketing experience and are hoping to get invaluable insights then you will probably be disappointed. Certainly the book is well written and helpful. But for the price, I was expecting a lot more.

I would have never thought a book titled GETTING THE MOST FROM YOUR YELLOW PAGE ADVERTISING would make for compelling reading, but I was wrong. Author and former yellow page rep Barry Maher grabbed my interest on the first page and held it firmly to the end. I would consider this book essential for small business owners or anyone who is interesting in producing yellow page copy.

Though certainly geared toward business owners, writing professionals will also find a tremendous amount of applicable information. Maher gives a brief history and evolution of yellow pages, then moves through a logical progression of determining need and on through the process of the finished product. For writing professionals, read through this and then thumb through the yellow pages and see the enormity of a market just screaming for professional assistance. I believe this a market largely untapped by commercial writers.

An outstanding feature of this book, and one found far too seldom, is an abundance of margin space for making notes and good, thick paper that highlighting doesn't bleed through. Business owners will pay for the price of this book a hundred times over and copywriters will find a resource for a niche market rich with possibilities.

This is a very deep book on fundraising and the content (short of the use of the internet) is very comprehensive. A very good reference and deep read.

I'm disappointed in this textbook because it does not provide much bang for the buck. I believe that the text could have been half as thick, half as expensive and provide no less information than it does.

Whether you've been in the fundraising profession for 10 minutes or 10 years, do yourself a favour and read this book. It will make you proud to be part of the tradition of philanthropy. It will inspire and guide you. You will see yourself and the volunteers and donors you work with in a whole new light. Don't put it in your library. Keep it on your desk. The first time you read it, and you will read it joyfully from cover to cover, keep pen and paper handy. You will find yourself making a list of things you need and want to do. Achieving Excellence in Fundraising is thoughtful and thought-provoking. It is the place where the theory, practice, philosophy and spirituality of a great tradition meet.

Like many in the Jossey Bass series, Tempel's work is thorough and well-written, covering all important aspects of fundraising. A great introductory guide.

I liked this book. It provided me with my introduction to the nonprofit world and fundraising for nonprofits back in 2004. It's not written by one person. And as a result, it is not tightly written. In fact, I think there are 27 different contributors to this book. Maybe I counted wrong? But this book is an excellent introduction to the ins and outs of fundraising in America as we know it today. It has 7 chapters:

1. Fundraising: Context and philosophy
2. Fundamentals of successful fundraising
3. Building blocks for successful fundraising
4. Sources of fundraising
5. Successful fundraising methods
6. Managing successful fundraising
7. Ethics, stewardship, and the future of the fundraising profession

I have read other books written by the following contributors to this book: Mal Warwick, Kim Klein, Kay Grace, and James Greenfield. And I've met and listened to Ted Hart who runs the nonprofit ePhilanthropy Foundation. I have gotten things from reading or listening to all these people. And my favorite fundraising book of all was written by Ms. Grace: Beyond Fundraising (ISBN: 0471707139). Kim Klein's "Fundraising for Social Change" (ISBN: 0787984558) comes in a close second.

What I liked the most about this book was the quality of writing and the breadth of coverage. It talks about annual giving programs, captial campaigns, endowment campaigns, and planned giving. It also covers ethics that fundraisers should adhere to. There is a lot to the art and science of raising funds for nonprofits. And this book seems to touch on much of it.

Don't expect to learn the specifics of how to do "an ask" in a major gift setting. Don't expect to be told how to manage a successful capital campaign, or to adeptly use the Internet as a fundraising tool. And I was happy there wasn't much if any coverage of grants and grant writing. Phew! But this book covers enough about everything that you can intelligently search out other books to supplement your read of this book. 4 stars!

Barbara Brabec has really put it all in this one. She covers the basics and more...everything you could need to know or she'll tell you where to go. Her writing style and sense of humor make her book fun to read and learn from. I've been checking this subject out for a while and this is the one book that seems quite complete. THANK YOU BARBARA BRABEC!

This is THE book for anyone thinking about creating a home based business. Includes a crash course in business basics, up-to-date tax and legal info, nitty gritty marketing strategies, and a wealth of resources that will help you select, start, manage, and market a business at home.

     Every day countless numbers of people go into business for themselves from the comfort of their own homes. With the advances being made in computer and communications technology many are finding this a much easier task to accomplish. Barbara Brabec has written Homemade Money to provide detailed help to those persons desiring to work at home so they can set up and successfully operate their own businesses.

     Readers will find Barbara Brabec's book an inspirational guide to help them establish a home-based business. She helps her readers to determine if a home business is right for them. She proceeds to guide them through the process of assessing their own situations, determining what kind of home business is right for them, developing an effective marketing strategy, and maintaining control once they get started.

     Barbara offers readers recommendations on some of the home businesses they could start. According to her there are two kinds of businesses, product-oriented and service-oriented, both of which can be successfully operated from a home. She provides extensive listings of the possibilities that are available. Perhaps her readers could come up with some ideas of their own!

     Barbara offers readers other important information they need to get started and to continue operating with as little trouble as possible. Essential information on topics such as copyright infringement, a crash course in business basics, concerns about MLM's (multi-level marketing), city ordinances governing home businesses, and taxes is provided to help readers avoid some of the pitfalls they could very well face. Extensive resource directories at the back of the book provide information about books, periodicals, organizations, and government agencies that can be of tremendous help to new business owners!

     This is a well-rounded book that will inspire anyone to consider going into business for themselves at home. Barbara's desire to help others, a wealth of business ideas, tips and suggestions, and personal testimonies from her readers contribute to a very fine business book. Members of the online community will benefit from the help this book has to offer even though it does not specifically deal with online business practices. Highly recommended reading for anyone thinking about starting a business at home!

This is easily the best book on starting & running a small business out of your home. Everything's there -- from marketing to taxes to family issues to copyright to going out of business and so much more. All the info is clearly laid out & indexed, which makes it a great reference book. Highly recommended for anyone considering a home business.

This book is a great job. This is a kind of encyclopedia of home businesses. You can really find how to select, start, manage, market, and multiply the profits of business at home. But almost all the reference information ablolutely useless outside the United States. Maybe, for foreigners from all over the globe this Barbara Brabec's book is an inspirational guide to dare to create your own home business. But for the first you need to collect extra corresponding reference information for your local country -- on law, banks, accounts, bookkeeping and so on.

This is a great how to book in getting started in a new non-profit. Wish I would have had it earlier in my career.

If you're after a lot of theoretical hocus pocus, please look elsewhere. If you aspire to revel in charts and graphs, this book isn't for you. But if, by chance, you are looking for a straightforward, concise, and easy-to-digest discussion of what leaders in nonprofits (the most effective ones) actually do, I encourage you to read this book. Moreover, if you are an educator looking for a text-based catalyst for classroom discussion about nonprofit leadership, Leaders Who Make a Difference should be on your short list for consideration.

The text is well organized, with each concept building on the next. There is no wheel reinvention here, with the authors instead boiling down some of the more prescient literature to a smattering of leadership roles, offering a listing of the more extensive works for the reader's consideration under "Additional Readings."

For educators, the text's focus on some of the more mission-critical roles played by nonprofit leaders--visionary, strategist, change agent, coach, politician and campaigner--provides a good platform from which to integrate guest speakers who exemplify these roles, and who can amplify upon these roles in a classroom setting. As the course for which this reviewer used this text (among others) included students with significant nonprofit leadership experience, others with none, and everything in between, the authors of Leaders Who Make a Difference provided a reading reasource that was digestible and meaningful for both the experienced and aspiring nonprofit leader.

I'm trying to read this book but it is getting harder and harder to do so. It's preface and first chapter (The Leadership Challenge) were fine. However, the second chapter (The Greater Good) was awful. It spews a lot of anti-capitalism garbage served up as fact without backing any of its statements. Stuff you'd expect to hear from a socialist that is a professor in the fairyland of academia. First, you do not raise yourself up by tearing down others. Second, the author (singular because it is obvious Dobbs just lent his name and this book is all written by Nanus) essentially condemns capitalism and individualism and praises socialism and the collective. What a fool and a moron. Seriously. He acts as if there was still a debate over this issue. Third, he begrudgingly acknowledges anything positive that capitalism has done for society and only presents non-profits as doing the best things for society. He doesn't present what damage non-profits have done. In America, it was non-profits that did the greatest damage to society with the Prohibitionist movement. This unbalanced view greatly hurts what little good this book offers. Leaders of non-profits have to work with reality and not fantasy. And that's not the only thing that is off about this book.

The author just doesn't understand management at all. Now the book is about leadership, but, contrary to the author's stance, leaders are managers. He views them as two separate jobs and anyone that has actually lead an organization (I being one of those) knows they're not. Again, the author comes across as not being connected to reality ... like a professor. And I won't even touch the silliness of his E=mc^2 statement.

And his "organizational capital" is another example that he really doesn't understand business. He thinks he's coming up with some new form of capital that no one else has but when he lists what his "organizational capital" is, you can easily identify the items on his list as really belonging to the other established forms of capital that he just listed.

Now since I've read it this far, I am going to try to skim through the rest of this book and see if there's anything worthwhile in it. If you don't see a second review by me here, you will know that I didn't find anything that other books have done a better job of covering.

Whenever you buy a book about business (and non-profit organizations are businesses) and you see one of the authors is a professor, my best words of advice is to always put the book back up on the shelf. I've yet to read a business book by a professor that was worth reading. Sadly, this book is another example of that. What little solid information that I've read so far in this book is what others have said numerous other times and is the only reason why I didn't give this book a 1 out of 5. What new "information" this book presents is just fantasies you'd expect to hear from someone insulated from reality on a college campus.

There is a dearth of leadership literature aimed at the non-profit and public sectors. Leaders Who Make a Difference by Nanus and Dobbs helps to fill that void. It is a very valuable leadership guide and reference book for leaders in the non-profit sector. Their synthesis of the leadership literature and their emphasis on shared vision, strategy, and team building with tools and guides is very valuable to students of leadership as well as current mangers who are enhancing their leadership skills. The roles of a leader that are emphasized - visionary, strategist, change agent, coach, politician, and campaigner - are useful reminders to leaders in all sectors about the importance and complexity of leading well with a full set of skills. This book is being used in the curriculum of an International Family Planning Leadership Program with great success - so it has global relevance and appeal. Our fellows have found the book to be full of tips and tools that serve to validate the skills that they already have as well as guide them to devleop more facets of their leadership. I highly recommend this book to leadership development programs and practitioners in the non-profit and public sectors.

"As Editor of the Not-for-Profit CEO Monthly Letter, I had occasion to review "Leaders Who Make a Difference" for our readership, which consists almost entirely of executive directors and board members. I recommended it enthusiastically, telling our readers that `this volume should be on your desk; not in the book case, but on your desk.' After the review was published, I received the following letter from a nationally known consultant to not-for-profit boards." George B. Wright, Editor, "The Not-For-Profit CEO Monthly Letter," C3 Strategies, Portland, OR

"The challenges today's nonprofit organizations face make effective leadership a critical need. By combining relevant theory with case studies that exemplify leadership excellence, Nanus and Dobbs have created an invaluable and much-needed resource for all nonprofit leaders." Kathleen D. Edwards, consultant and author, Bowman-Edwards & Associates, Seattle, WA.

"Losing Our Democracy" begins with a wry observation: "Much has been written about Bush's war for democracy abroad, but what about his war on democracy at home?" Green goes on to observe that while Bushites may question evolutionary Darwinism, they love Social Darwinism. But because of imperfect information, oligopoly power, corruption, deception, laissez isn't always fair.

Republicans have been brilliant in marketing their brand. Per Thomas Frank: "Vote to stop abortion; receive a rollback in capital gains taxes. Vote to make our country strong again; receive deindustrialization. Vote to stand tall against terrorists; receive Social Security privatization." How do the Republicans do it? Serial manipulation of information has confused and misled millions of Americans. Then there's the disproportionate influence of corporate dollars (1% give move campaign dollars than the other 99% and receive 40% of all recent tax cuts). Another distortion is created by the fact that 45% of Americans (eg. low population Red states such as Wyoming) elect 55% of our Senators.

Gerrymandering (plus enhanced fundraising ability) results in 98% of House members being re-elected. Other abuses include the Republicans running Congress basically without Democrat input, threatening Republican members with primary opposition and lack of funding if they vote against the President (House members do so 84% of the time), holding votes without allowing members time to read the proposed bill, and totally rewriting bills in conference committee with little member input.

Green then goes on to list abuses in other areas. The 2005 "Consume Fairness Act" moved class actions from state to federal courts, resulting in them being much more likely to be thrown out as "unmanageable." Then there is corporate accounting fraud (Enron), grossly biased stock evaluators (Henry Blodget)

One word I can think of that best describes this book is "thorough". Mark Green is an accomplished writer who knows a lot about politics. This is an essential read for all Americans, but especially those who blindly follow the "leader". Green aptly quotes Teddy Roosevelt, "To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public". This, then is the lesson of the book. Green covers nearly all of the relevant domestic issues, and cites examples of how the administration is undermining our democracy. Because the book is fairly lengthy, this is quite despairing information. With this quote in the book from Louis Brandeis, "We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both", author Mark Green hits upon the very core of what became of our American Republic. Please read. Please respond!

our new government
by the lobbist
for the special interest


everything is cheaper than it looks,
don't get to close

Green neatly encapsulates the essential struggle we face as Americans, and sets a clear direction for what we need to do if America is to remain truly free. Many of his points will resonate with those made by authors like Thom Hartmann, and Green's perspective both pragmatic and compelling.

Reading this book I found it both frustrating and frightening how accepting greedy corporations have made us to the precursors of the destruction of our democracy. We are now a country that has been conditioned to accept with a disinterested shrug the change from representative democracy (one person, one vote) to "corporatocracy" (one dollar, one vote). We have co-mingled democracy (a political system) with capitalism (a form of economic organization). As citizens we've been weaned away from having a "say" to merely having a "voice" and are now, thanks to the power of corporate "free speech" well on the path to not being heard at all.

Read Green's book. He brings forth the simple truth that core American values (honesty, fairness, faith in facts and reason, tolerance, belief in the commons and the common good, preservation of nature and preserving for the future, and shared sacrifice for the well being of our fellow man (or woman)) are all being displaced by the one value that out of control global corporations and crony government can understand -- the dollar value.

If you're at all curious as to why after 9/11,the best presidential advice we received was that that we all "keep shopping" lest the terrorists win, this book is for you! Bravo, Mark Green.

Mark Green touches upon how Bush is condemning the true notion of democracy in its birthplace while hypocritically proclaiming of his efforts to spread democracy to the rest of the world. The book is eloquently written and allows the readers to logically follow through Mark Green's reasoning of how Bush had sabotaged people's freedom in the US. Losing our democracy must be read if you want to know the current situation of our government and how it had led to the prevalence of cronyism in our country.

Since the day Amazon delivered my copy of Johnson and Broms' Profit Beyond Measure,I have taken delight with every page. This book is a wonderfully brilliant, masterful book that may be the serious business book of this decade in the way Senge's Fifth Discipline was for the 1990's. Insightful writers such as Margeret Wheatley and Danah Zohar have artfully open our eyes to the potential of viewing organizations as naturally evolving living systems. Notwithstanding their powerful insights, the actual application of these ideas left a lot to the imagination as to how they would actually be applied. Johnson and Broms, however, provide the substance and put the meat on the bones of the many complexity and chaos theory books available today. Johnson and Broms tell us with precision and in entaintaining detail the stories of Toyota and Scania Truck and how, respectively, they have gone forty and sixty-sixty years without losing money---how, they manage by means, as part of living systems, not trying to orchestrate management by the results (a notion of believing that you can fix future events to happen within a management plan) as America's Big 3 auto companies have over the past century. Johnson and Broms take us inside of the Toyota and Scania plants and board rooms, helping us see how they produce only according to actual orders, how they design and set up assembly and modulated processes to avoid waste (not eliminate it, avoid it in the first place!), how they treat their employees, how they see customers and market and more. Drawing from the principles articulated by Gregory Bateson, Johnson and Bohms help us see the unique milieu and overriding philosophy and work culture that is reflective of an open, living system, that relies on "balanced, cyclical patterns of continuous flow of the work for every person in the organization." Before reading this book, I only had a vague notions of how chaos, complexity, and new science theories applied to the emerging organizations of today. As a result of reading this book, however, I believe I now can grasp what it means, in real and substantive terms, for an organization to exist, evolve, and succeed as part of living system. This is a book for the new century. Every business can learn from this book and those that don' will perish while Toyota, Scania, and others of this fabric will thrive in our increasingly complex and interdependent world. I recommend this book to any one interested in business theory, organizational development, or building a better organization. Tom Coens

From my blog(which is why it is written this way)

I finished reading "Profit Beyond Measure" subtitled "Extraordinary Results through Attention to Work and People" by Johnson and Broms. Good book. I have learned many things at SYNNEX. One of the great learnings is attention to detailed numbers and cost accounting. This has tremendous value and the SYNNEX system is truly awesome on granular numbers. This book reinforces the need for good cost accounting systems as long as they are logical. A lot of the book is about having the right systems. As a Systems Design Engineer, I really appreciate the books attention to systems and interdependence. Part of the problem with measuring is that interrelations are often overlooked.

A part of me at times feels that sometimes we are not totally on the right track though. Profit Beyond Measure reinforces what I already know about intuition. It will help me hold firm in areas where I know in my heart we are right to change (or not). Some of it comes back to my continual short term vs. long term dilemma.


Jim Estill CEO - SYNNEX Canada

I've always found the notion that businesses should 'maximise profit' to be naive, but to come up with a better business rationale seems to get real messy, quickly.

This book uses some concepts that moved me when I read Fritjof Capra's 'The Web of Life', and applies them to effectively and realistically running a business in a competitive environment.

In integrating living systems concepts with management control issues, this is the most philosophically thoughtful book I've seen written by someone who understands accounting.

For manufacturers the 20th century was the story of Ford and Toyota. The story of the transition from mass production to lean production has been told many times, but often focusing on the techniques, not the strategy. Professor Johnson has developed a profound insight into the strategy behind Toyota's approach, framed as management by means, rather than management by results.

This is the most important insight into the Toyota Production System which has come my way in the last ten years. Johnson demonstrates why the Toyota Management by Means approach gives superior long term value to customers, shareholders and employees.

Profit without Measure is essential reading for any manufacturer building a strategy for World Class Manufacturing.

Comments on Profit Beyond Measure by Tom Johnson:

Tom Johnson's overview of business thinking is astoundingly clear, the beginning of the revolution that Dr. W. Edwards Deming demanded for so many years.

The Toyota story is told beautifully in chapter 3; now I begin to understand what happens in that Kentucky facility.

Chapter 4 is the weakness of the book; there is no there there. The Scania "secret" is not in the same universe as that at Toyota. What more evidence do we need than the sale of the company?

Chapter 5 is fascinating. Tom Johnson the heretic! A modern day Martin Luther! No one on Wall Street will want to know about orderline analysis. However, if those using it prosper...

The stock market vanish? That is precisely what will happen if Tom Johnson's thinking catches on. And that can't happen too soon. It may already be too late to preserve our culture as we know it. But then, it may be time.

Most in business will not want to hear the last two chapters. But no one wants to hear that they have cancer either, right? This patient (the world economy) has cancer, and no one knows if survival is possible.

I can't wait for the next iteration of this "stuff." The books that Johnson (and a few others, like Dr. Ed Baker) are going to write could make all the difference in our future. Dr. Norman Borlaug and his cohorts are trying to feed the world in spite of potentially deadly water shortages; Johnson and a few like-minded intellectuals are trying to feed the world correct thinking in spite of potentially deadly shortsightedness.

Cheryl Clark inspires the potential grant seeker with a thoughtful and innovative process for fundraising.

A fundraising consultant, trainer and short story author, Clark argues persuasively that fundraising -- and specifically proposal writing -- should incorporate the techniques of storytelling. A story sets a scene, has characters, and builds tension. A good proposal does the same.

Most people recognize a great story. Grant makers are not unique. By crafting your proposal as an opportunity to tell your story, the process becomes more enjoyable for both the writer and the reader. By allowing your passion to pervade the proposal's prose, becomes more enjoyable for the reader. It becomes more likely to be funded.

Story telling is powerful. Grant seekers need every edge. Cheryl Clarke does both grant writers and grant makers a favor by sharing the power of this age-old technique with them in this well-written and effective book.

Sarah S. Brophy

Storytelling for Grantseekers: The Guide to Creative Nonprofit Fundraising is a solid basic proposal-writing book with a twist on how to develop a compelling narrative. Clarke writes in the Preface "I believe that grant seekers will be more enthusiastic about writing proposals, and that their proposals will be more passionate and consequently more effective, when grant seekers begin using the storytelling techniques described in this book."

Sometimes the author works a bit hard at her storytelling metaphor (with attendant heroes, antagonists and main characters), but she is careful not to lead you into the land of superheroes. For many readers a story-like style is preferable to a legal document, but take care that your proposal reads like a good New York Times piece, not fluff.

For those new to proposal-writing, the first three chapters address how to collect necessary information for a solid proposal; screen funders for a good donor-project match; and manage your relationship with a potential funder. The final three chapters cover budget description and the basics of how to format and package the proposal. Each is thorough, easy to understand and helpful.

The four middle chapters address storytelling in the narrative. They are great advice for beginning writers yet speak to next-level professionals hoping to coax their own style away from creeping grantese. Sample proposal text is very often excellent.

The author makes good points about an environmental scan to place your project in context for the reader and to strengthen your case; that the key need must be your clients' not your institution's; and how to make good use of data for reinforcement.

Storytelling for Grantseekers is a fine book to keep in your library for training new writers and for coaching colleagues in the proposal process. Anyone in a larger institution could very well make this book required reading for colleagues who say "I need a grant to do this". It is a comfortable read that will train them to give you good information for doing your job.

I've been involved with fundraising for over 25 years (from
the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston to the Bermuda Biological
Station
for Research in Bermuda) and this is, without a doubt THE
BEST BOOK on nonprofit grantwriting I have ever had the
pleasure
of reading! It has everything - it's intelligently written
with clear concise, step by step directions on how to bring
passion,
creativity and success to any fundraising/grantwriting effort! It is
"short" - just a little over 100 pages - so it can be read,
digested and put to
use by everyone - from the director on down to volunteers
and staff. It's entertaining, practical and, I would think,
an absolute
must for anyone involved in raising money. They say everyone
loves a good story - well I not only love a good story, BUT
also
- a great book on how to effectively and enjoyably write grants that will bring in the funds!
Bravo Cheryl Clarke!

Most grantwriting books cover the basics which, if you know how to read and apply grant application guidelines, you already have down.

Imagine yourself, for a moment, on the other side of the table, sifting through tens of hundreds of grant proposals to determine which ones your foundation will fund - and every proposal as tedious as the last.

BUT, if you want to craft truly compelling FUNDED proposals that ENGAGE the reader, "Storytelling for Grantseekers: The Guide to Creative Nonprofit Fundraising" is a mighty fine start. In an enjoyable read, author Clarke shows the reader how to bring passion to their writing - an often missing, yet crucial element to the most successful writers.

Highly recommended!

An approach to grantseeking that can lead anyone with a good idea through the often complex process of putting a grant together. Storytelling is an innovative approach sure to achieve results!

This is a great book for anyone who is in charge of either annual fundraising activities or an upcoming capital campaign. Capital Campaign planning requires a diverse skill set which involves planning, relationship building and conveying a compelling story that resonates with all different personality types. This book helps provide tips, stories and guidance on many areas which can help both the novice and expert fundraiser.

Written from his decades of experience, Thomas D. Wilson leads the field of non-profit fundaraising. Designed and written to engage all readers, Mr. Wilson has found the key in turning his award-winning methods into a format that can apply to fundraisers and donors alike. I currently and will continue to personally reccomend this book to all of my clients.

Fund raising is all about relationships and Winning Gifts provides an insight in both the art and the science of fund raising. The book is an easy and fun read with comprehensive detail on the critical aspects of bringing the donor home. It's also a good reminder of the strategy needed in not only securing the gift but also the importance of laying the ground work for future support.

For those who have made development their career it is clear that the ask is a small percentage of the overall strategy. Winning Gifts helps bring into perspective the importance of all the activities and planning that go into securing support. This book provides a good overview for seasoned professionals and all the other good folks who support campaigns. This is not a quick read book in one day but rather an excellent presentation of the importance of working with and treating donors as a treasured resource.

I found this book an upbeat guide to a field that can seem offputting and depressing to the inexperienced. While not necessarily a step-by-step recipe for every stage of the fundraising process, it nevertheless made dozens of salient points and offered a way to get into the mindset of success. It leaves many of the details to the individual reader to apply to her own situation. This book helped often through "case studies," or examples of specific situations.

Winning Gifts is a great book on major gifts fundraising. Wilson incorporates humor and his personal experience to create an excellent guide to successful fundraising. Winning Gifts covers all stages of securing a donation from finding potential qualified donors to keeping up with the donor after receiving the gift. He explains text-book basics of fundraising, of gracefully approaching a donor for a major gift and making an appealing, memorable case. But Wilson goes beyond this institutional approach to a customer focused approach and nails it. Wilson has obviously perfected the art of building a relationship with donors, and his emphasis on "people centered fundraising" shows that he really cares about making people happy. He writes of satisfying the donor first, straying away from institutional fundraising to really care and understand the donor. He hammers in the concept of listening to donors with a comprehensive lesson in becoming a better listener with helpful tips and exercises. I especially enjoyed this section and my listening ability has dramatically improved from this book. It is rare to see fundraising professionals focusing so much on what the donor wants, without the underlying financial incentive. This book offers a unique perspective on the subject, focusing on the donor first, everything else is secondary. Winning Gifts is informative and enjoyable, a must have for any fundraising professional.

What do James Madison, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Peter Drucker, the Book of Exodus, Robert Frost, Vince Lombardi, T.S. Eliot, Dr. Spock and Albert Einstein all have in common? They are all quoted in Russ Linden's new book, "Working Across Boundaries: Making Collaboration Work in Government and Non-Profit Organizations." Linden ties them all together in an entertaining and instructive manual for managing in today's work environment.
Linden's book is for practitioners, a group that includes me, since I have been practicing at this profession for almost 30 years. He holds true to the purpose he has set for the book, which is to help practitioners address the hurdles to collaboration and adopt strategies that lead to succesful collaboration, in order to achieve better outcomes for their customers and communities.
What I like best about the book is the use of stories to instruct and inform. Stories are the core tool in relationship building....I know that my bosses, often rely heavily on the stories told them by their constituents to make critical policy decisions....Linden's stories about the collaborative work of the Baltimore Child Advocacy Center; the National Marine Fisheries Service; the City of Charlotte, North Carolina, and others provide practical examples of how his models work in the real world.
He not only suggests numerous techniques for establishing practical, collaborative efforts. He also adds a series of four "resource" chapters at the end of the book with illustrations of how these techniques have been applied, the most-asked questions about collaboration together with their answers, an assessment tool, and a summary of the situations in numerous organizations that have served as the basis for his conclusions and models.
I especially liked Chapter 6 on "Forming Open, Trusting Relationships Among the Principals." It gave me some helpful hints on working with my council.
Linden's book is a must-read for anyone trying to overcome the obstacles he says were created by James Madison and his buddies , who "consciously designed an inefficient government to keep men free." This "built-in" inefficiency and fragmentation cries out for the cure of collaboration.

Todays managers must use numerous skills and resources in order to be effective and successful. And although there are numerous tools and techniques available to assist managers in their daily jobs, sometimes the best solution is simply working together. Or in other words, collaborating. This is what Russ Linden's new book, "Working Across Boundaries: Making Collaboration Work in
Government and Non-Profit Organizations" ultimately encourages and demonstrates. Russ Linden has provided numerous case studies throughout the book to assist the reader with relating to particular issues confronting organizations. He also provides a wealth of resources including sample agendas, contracts, assessment tools and programs used by a variety of agencies and individuals.
The author has taken on the challenge of documenting the benefits, techniques, and tools needed to successfully implement collaboration in the workplace and with outside organizations. I highly recommend "Working Across Boundaries" to all government managers. Congratulations to Russ for a great book on a difficult subject.

"Working Across Boundaries" is a glimpse into the future of how "virtual government" is evolving in the dawn of the 21st century. This book isn't full of academic concepts. Russ Linden paints a picture using real examples of the dynamics to which public sector leaders will need to respond in order to be successful. Practitioners will be able to pick up this book and start applying its principles immediately.

Every year brings forth a new crop of books relating to business management or operations. Many are overpriced, a large number are worthless (`How to Manage Like Jack the Ripper'), and a minority are actually very good. This book published in 2002 is one of that minority.

Russell Linden has chosen to specialize in the study of collaboration and collaborative processes. Over the course of over twenty years of analysis and application he has developed some very sound ideas on what makes collaborative efforts work and what causes them to fail. One dose not have to read very far into this book to see that effective collaboration in an age of globalization is absolutely essential for business successes. It also becomes clear that collaboration is the cornerstone of knowledge based enterprises, which includes most government agencies.

Linden has developed a collaborative model composed of four elements: 1) the basic requirements for collaboration to work (shared goals etc.): 2) the necessity for building effective relationships; 3) the establishments of mutually recognized `high stakes' (i.e. recognition that collaboration will produce significant benefits); and 3) building a constituency for collaboration (people committed to making collaboration real). In the course of discussing his model, Linden, provides important insights on the important role of champions and the concept of institutional culture. He also illustrates his discussion with well chosen case studies to drive home the functionality of his model. Linden also provides good information on he often lost art of
internal collaboration as well.

This book is particularly relevant to the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) where barriers of secrecy, a culture of insularity, and a belief that information is power has long prevented real inter-agency collaboration and worse has encouraged building barriers against collaboration even within single agencies. See "Spying Blind" by Amy Zegart (2007, Amazon.com).

Anyone who has worked in government has probably experienced the twin frustrations of people protecting their turf on the one hand while covering their rear with the other. But being effective these days means working in teams, often across the old hierarchical reporting structures of agencies, divisions and units.

Linden's book uses a variety of case studies to explore how collaboration can work, and what the pitfalls can be. He defines collaboration initially as what "occurs when people from different organizations (or units within one organization) produce something together through joint effort, resources, and decision making, and share ownership of the final product or service." His examples range from land management to criminal justice to education to intelligence--all areas where multiple agencies or organizations had to collaborate in a high stakes environment.

High stakes is one of the four keys for Linden. There must be something important enough to motivate the collaboration. The other keys are strong relationships among the collaborators, the existence of a constituency for collaboration, and what he calls "the basics" -- openness, skillful facilitating, etc.

What makes it all work is collaborative leadership--individuals who can pull others along with them into a productive team effort. One chapter discusses the qualities of effective collaborative leaders, who must subordinate their own egos to ensure that all participants have a real stake.

If "Working Across Boundaries" has a fault, it is that he has many good ideas and observations that don't fit neatly into the four-element structure, but that he doesn't want to leave out. Every chapter includes some of these "extras" and many of them are grouped in a separate chapter, "More Keys to Successful Collaboration" (including such things as measuring results, using each party's strengths, etc.). Since it is almost all good advice and worthwhile reading, this is really only a minor structural complaint.

Also useful are the resource materials at the end of the book, including a sample agenda, a collaboration "contract" and some assessment materials. These are good templates for anyone starting a new collaborative effort.

In describing the qualities of successful collaboration, Linden is also aware of the structural and personal challenges that collaborations often face. Budgets, for example, are usually built in line items to specific organizations; in fact, organizations are largely defined by their budgets. So sharing resources across organizations requires trust and mutual commitment. Accountability, too, both at the level of the individual employee and at the organizational level, is especially challenging when the outcome is the result of a cross-agency collaboration. On the other hand, when collaboration produces better results, as it often does, participants can all share in the glory.

I'm surprised this book received so many high reviews. It's not a bad book. It just seemed to me that all this information was previously available. I could have saved the $18 and found out everything with some minimal research on the internet.

Open My Eye

Nice Book..I very much enjoyed his radio show. 101.5 KGB San Diego,California. I had to see this book. I was happy, Nice book. Amazon, made it easy to get this book.. Good work. Like to see more books for this writer.

Wow, What a great book.

Seen it on Oprah. Now 20/20 ABC I had to see it for my self. Found in Amazon.com I learned some things in life I needed to know. There is a need for more books like this out there.

Reading this book has opened my eyes to a lot of things I never knew before. Mr. Brassard Has done an excellent job in his writings and his research as well. I feel lucky to know someone is on the go for all of us. This book tells you so much you just might flip the first time you read it. I myself have read it several times, learning more and more each time. If I could give this book 10 stars I would do just that. I hope more people will buy this book and read and learn as I have. Mr. Brassard to you I say BRAVO!!!! I hope to see more writtings of Ed Brassard in the near future!

Mr. Brassard has explained the important, yet somewhat gruesome facts of organ donation and medical research, in an informed and interesting manner. With a good mix of statisticts, stories, information and a touch of humour. By representing both sides of this often debated issue of "body for Sale", he has given us some answers and options to the all important question "of what will happen to our bodies when we die" I can only hope that in the end the only people to profit from these practices, whether monatery or more importantly "life", will be our children.