Community Engagement ACTION KIT

The Community Engagement Step-by-Step Action Kit will introduce you to the practical side of Community Engagement - a no-nonsense approach that will make your programs AND your community stronger - all at the same time! ORDER NOW! 

If your Board Members hate fundraising, they will LOVE FriendRaising! Do you wish your organization had an Army of Friends? Friends will support your mission in every way imaginable - volunteering, advising, making connections, finding speaking opportunities, and yes, even giving money. And FriendRaising is an activity board members will love! ORDER NOW! 

Picture the worst board members you’ve ever known, and remember - someone recruited them! This step-by-step manual will help you create a strong recruitment and orientation program, putting your board on the road to increased effectiveness. Whether your board needs minor tweaks or a major overhaul, you will find yourself coming back to this common sense guide again and again.  ORDER NOW! 

Don't be fooled by the fact that this book is the result of an in-depth academic study. This is a hugely practical review of what makes NonProfit boards successful. The book covers a broad variety of topics that affect boards, testing all their recommendations with real-life groups. You will recognize your board on every page. We use many of their tips in our own board development work, and we hope you will be enticed to try them yourselves!
 ORDER NOW! 

If your Board Members hate fundraising, they will LOVE FriendRaising! Do you wish your organization had an Army of Friends? Friends will support your mission in every way imaginable - volunteering, advising, making connections, finding speaking opportunities, and yes, even giving money. And FriendRaising is an activity board members will love! ORDER NOW! 

Even the most novice of novice speakers can turn public speaking into pure gold for your organization. This workbook is a veritable grab bag of tips and tools to help you and your organization in ways you never thought possible! Let this jam-packed workbook start helping your organization right now!  ORDER NOW! 

Andy Robinson has done it again - found a way to make a complex subject understandable and immediately usable. Aimed at small nonprofits for whom gifts of $500 to $5,000 are major gifts, this short guide acknowledges you may never have done anything like this before. It will show how to create a prospect list from folks you already know; how to create a gift chart; how to determine where to meet. And most importantly, it will show you how to ask for the gift in a way anyone can comfortably do - really! Robinson clearly understands the needs and fears of small organizations, and this book speaks directly and effectively to them. We can be sure you will want one of these books for every member of your board. ORDER NOW! 

Wouldn't it be great if each grant proposal we wrote was a winner? This book is a must-use in every proposal-writer's arsenal. Homing in on the "writing" part of the proposal process, Barbato and Furlich have filled their book with tips and survival skills from writers and fund-raising officers at nonprofits of all sizes. Whether you are writing proposals to individuals, foundations, or corporate donors, they have tons of examples for doing it right. The last section alone - The Gotta-Get-It-Out-Right-Now, How-Late-Is-FedEx-Open? Down-and-Dirty Proposal Kit - is worth the price of the book ORDER NOW! 

It's hard to know where to start and stop recommending this book. If we were to just say, "This book focuses not just on writing the proposal, but on all the things that should happen before and after you write that proposal," it wouldn't begin to tell the story. The book contains 4 sample proposals critiqued line by line. And the appendices - there's a comparative analysis of 8 computer-based grant research services; a whole section on the legalities of nonprofit advocacy; a section on raising money from faith-based sources... Oh this book is a gem! And on top of all that, Robinson has made all the exercises and worksheets in the book available on line for free! If grant-seeking is part of your life, you won't keep this book on a shelf - you will use it till the spine disintegrates from wear. ORDER NOW! 

If you do direct mail appeals - annual appeals, ongoing appeals, etc. - do not start writing your next letter without Mal Warwick’s step-by-step guide. Chock-full of examples of not only solicitation letters but follow up and thank you letters as well, this has become the industry favorite for direct mail letter-writing. ORDER NOW! 

Don’t be fooled by the title OR the stated purpose of this book. Because this has become the bible for educating donors on what to look for before investing their donations, it is an amazing tool for NonProfits to use in reverse - to know what funders are looking for! The chapters on donor motivation provide great fundraising and marketing insights. And the chapters on performing due diligence (“Ten Warning Signs: Where to Look for the Bodies”) make a fabulous checklist for ensuring your organization’s ducks are in a row. (P.S. We’ve used this book as a guide so often, the spine is completely shot!)
 ORDER NOW! 

Community Engagement ACTION KIT

The Community Engagement Step-by-Step Action Kit will introduce you to the practical side of Community Engagement - a no-nonsense approach that will make your programs AND your community stronger - all at the same time! ORDER NOW! 

If your Board Members hate fundraising, they will LOVE FriendRaising! Do you wish your organization had an Army of Friends? Friends will support your mission in every way imaginable - volunteering, advising, making connections, finding speaking opportunities, and yes, even giving money. And FriendRaising is an activity board members will love! ORDER NOW! 

Even the most novice of novice speakers can turn public speaking into pure gold for your organization. This workbook is a veritable grab bag of tips and tools to help you and your organization in ways you never thought possible! Let this jam-packed workbook start helping your organization right now!  ORDER NOW! 

Ron Hoff contends that you can be more effective in 6 minutes than a longer speech. Once you try his formula, you might well agree. Very practical, no nonsense. He even cuts a 12 minute speech by former president Bill Clinton into a 6 minute speech - for a powerful effect! We cannot recommend this book enough. It will change how you think about speaking - from your own staff and board meetings to that keynote address at your annual industry-wide conference. ORDER NOW! 

This book is what it says on the back: everything you need to know to win publicity for your organization. It is a practical guide, including checklists and questions to ensure your readiness - for instance, a checklist of 100 items to prepare you for getting publicity via television. If you use this book, and I mean really use it, you should need no other source for gaining publicity. It’s that good.
 ORDER NOW! 

Unlike selling tires, NonProfits really sell the invisible - the intangible - making it hard to wrap a tidy marketing bow around what we do. Unlike other business marketing books that focus on selling “things,” Beckwith’s book is great for NonProfits. His thought process is terrific, and every page is alive with great approaches and ideas. Highly recommended.
 ORDER NOW! 

The L.A. Times called Guerrilla Marketing "a veritable plum pudding of marketing techniques and secrets." Written for small businesses with little or no money to conduct a marketing campaign, Guerrilla Marketing is the best source for practical, lively, low cost marketing tactics and tools for your organization.
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One of the rules of Marketing is to know what your target audience wants. And there is no better way to learn that than to read Renata Rafferty's guide to helping donors get the most bang for their charitable buck. Using this book in reverse, you will have more than enough ammunition for creating your marketing plan. What messages do donors want to hear? What proof do they want to see? Is there meat behind your message? Since this book came out, we haven't done any major NonProfit marketing efforts without this book in hand.
 ORDER NOW! 

Most time management books are written by folks for whom planning, prioritizing and list-making come naturally (Hildy, for instance). Not this one. This is the time management book for the rest of us (Dimitri, for instance), who have been made to feel that if we don't fit the list-making mold, that we are somehow defective. McGee takes a refreshingly uncondemning approach to those who have never cut it in the world of "time management." You will laugh out loud as you recognize yourself and your coworkers in every chapter. But the bottom line is that it works so well, we've adapted its techniques for use in creating implementation plans for major projects.  ORDER NOW! 

Before we give you any details, we have to admit we've each read this book (or listened to it on audiotape) three times, and there is a good chance we'll go back for another round. Collins and Porras researched eighteen visionary corporations, from 3M to Disney to Sony, and found what it is that makes truly exceptional companies different from other companies. This book is a blueprint to building incredible and prosperous organizations - a stimulating and invigorating must read. ORDER NOW! 

The guilt-free way to organize, energize and maximize your life. This book takes a refreshingly compassionate approach to those of us who just can't seem to get our act together. The artist among us, Dimitri, has always leaned towards the "unmanageable" side, and he will tell you that the tips in this book actually work! (We have even included these techniques when creating implementation plans for major projects.) The book is a fun read, and you will laugh out loud as you recognize yourself and your coworkers in every chapter. But bottom line - it works. ORDER NOW! 

"Whack" has become a classic for unleashing the creative potential inside us all. Von Oech's premise is simple - "that creativity is fun, necessary, and accessible to all of us." The book is filled with puzzles, anecdotes, exercises, cartoons, questions, tips - plenty to free your mind to "go beyond what's worked in the past and come up with new approaches." Great fun - and it works!  ORDER NOW! 

Also check out the Creative Whack pack - 64 flash cards, each with a different creativity strategy, to kick-start your creative process.

Yes, this is a guide for donors to get the most bang for their charitable buck. BUT it is also an amazing tool for NonProfits to use in reverse. The chapters on donor motivation provide great fundraising and marketing insights. And the chapters on performing due diligence ("Ten Warning Signs: Where to Look for the Bodies") make a fabulous checklist for ensuring your organization's ducks are in a row. (P.S. As organizational effectiveness consultants, we've used this book as a guide so often that the spine is completely shot
 ORDER NOW! 

Before we give you any details, we have to admit we've each read this book (or listened to it on audiotape) three times, and there is a good chance we'll go back for another round. Collins and Porras researched eighteen visionary corporations, from 3M to Disney to Sony, and found what it is that makes truly exceptional companies different from other companies. This book is a blueprint to building incredible and prosperous organizations - a stimulating and invigorating must read. ORDER NOW! 

Even the most novice of novice speakers can turn public speaking into pure gold for your organization. This workbook is a veritable grab bag of tips and tools to help you and your organization in ways you never thought possible! Let this jam-packed workbook start helping your organization right now!  ORDER NOW! 

Ron Hoff contends that you can be more effective in 6 minutes than a longer speech. Once you try his formula, you might well agree. Very practical, no nonsense. He even cuts a 12 minute speech by former president Bill Clinton into a 6 minute speech - for a powerful effect! We cannot recommend this book enough. It will change how you think about speaking - from your own staff and board meetings to that keynote address at your annual industry-wide conference. ORDER NOW! 

This is the bible of writing, the touchstone, the masterpiece - the fundamentals of writing plain old English. The Boston Globe has said, "No book in shorter space, with fewer words, will help any writer more than this persistent little volume." If you write anything at all, this book will answer your questions and save your butt every time. ORDER NOW! 

A story for every occasion, from Aaron (Hank) to Zog (King of Albania). Robert Oppenheimer's words upon seeing the first test of the atomic bomb; Harriet Beecher Stowe's explanation of who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin; and Calvin Coolidge's interest in the mating habits of roosters. Warning - it's easy to get lost in this great trove of quick stories. ORDER NOW! 

Irreverent quotations to pepper any speech, article or book. Broken down by topic and by speaker, you'll chuckle or shake your head at every page. Try this one by Lily Tomlin: "The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat."  ORDER NOW! 

If you do any training, facilitating or speaking, this practical guide will help with just about any type of difficult participant. The tips are broken down by participant type, and they clearly come from practical experience. We leaf through this useful book every few months, invariably finding a tip that proves handy in our training sessions and facilitations.
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“How do we make long-term thinking automatic and common, instead of difficult and rare?” This book is such a refreshing look at our work and the chance we have, every day, to affect the future. Its short chapters will leave your mind thinking a million thoughts at once. For visionary thinkers, we cannot recommend a book more highly than we do this one.
 ORDER NOW! 

Before we give you any details, we have to admit we've each read this book (or listened to it on audiotape) three times, and there is a good chance we'll go back for another round. Collins and Porras researched eighteen visionary corporations, from 3M to Disney to Sony, and found what it is that makes truly exceptional companies different from other companies. This book is a blueprint to building incredible and prosperous organizations - a stimulating and invigorating must read. ORDER NOW! 

"Whack" has become a classic for unleashing the creative potential inside us all. Von Oech's premise is simple - "that creativity is fun, necessary, and accessible to all of us." The book is filled with puzzles, anecdotes, exercises, cartoons, questions, tips - plenty to free your mind to "go beyond what's worked in the past and come up with new approaches." Great fun - and it works!  ORDER NOW! 

Also check out the Creative Whack pack - 64 flash cards, each with a different creativity strategy, to kick-start your creative process

Wondering how anyone could make ends meet on $7/hour, Barbara Ehrenreich left her cushy life and traveled about, taking what jobs she could find - cleaning woman, Wal-Mart sales clerk, nursing home aide - and reporting on life after Welfare Reform. Nickel and Dimed reveals low-wage America from the inside out, bringing the lives of the working poor sharply into focus. If you work in the social service field, this is the best education you can provide to your staff, your board, and your donors - the reminder of why we are all here, doing the work we do.  ORDER NOW! 

This is not just a great book about how to make more money with your consulting practice (which it is). It is also a great book about creating meaningful relationships with clients, to the benefit of the client. If you are a consultant, or are thinking about getting into consulting, Alan Weiss will change the way you think and feel about all you do. He is the guru, the master. Incorporate his principles into your practice, and both your revenues and quality of work will grow - guaranteed. ORDER NOW! 

A story for every occasion, from Aaron (Hank) to Zog (King of Albania). Robert Oppenheimer's words upon seeing the first test of the atomic bomb; Harriet Beecher Stowe's explanation of who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin; and Calvin Coolidge's interest in the mating habits of roosters. Warning - it's easy to get lost in this great trove of quick stories. ORDER NOW! 

Irreverent quotations to pepper any speech, article or book. Broken down by topic and by speaker, you'll chuckle or shake your head at every page. Try this one by Lily Tomlin: "The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat."  ORDER NOW!