The Little Book of Gold: Fundraising for Small (and Very Small) Nonprofits

I am a new fundraising coordinator for a small non-profit, and my experience is on the other side of the table, as a grant administrator. This book has given me a great framework for planning and implementing a fundraising initiative at my small non-profit, beginning with a goal of 100% board donors. He also covers small donations, direct mail, and cultivating relationships with businesses and individuals for large donations. A lot of what he says was common sense to me, but it's good to have it confirmed by someone who seems to know what he's talking about! Plus he gives real examples of how to implement those common sense things. One of my favorite pieces of advice was not to "buy" donations with swag. We give away far too much stuff to attract donations and I bet a lot of it is just a waste of our money. Another of my goals since reading this book is to keep more of what we raise, and not buying donations is number one on the to do list.The book is easy to read, very accessible, and like the other reviewer I'm recommending it to my director and other staff at my organization. It's a great asset to anyone who's inexperienced at fundraising.

OUTSTANDING! I'm going to add my rave review to all the others left here. In fact, I'm using (and attributing) some of his great ideas in a chapter of a book I've written--it's that good. Man, authors don't usually give such specific advice (and especially, when it's for a subject that is so small, like a micro-nonprofit). It's like other authors worry that you'll steal their ideas, or that nonprofits are all competing with each other and we shouldn't share ideas. Instead, Erik Hanberg gives specific examples for specific context that totally resonates with anyone who has a board (and any nonprofit is always up for fundraising more money). It's funny, the way we see the world and the way the world actually works are often two different things, and this book shows how nonprofits don't just run themselves and exist from the easy goodwill of people's good hearts, rather, it takes actual work on the part of the employees of a nonprofit to gently steer clients, board members, and donors to do what is best for both themselves and the nonprofit (thus setting up a win-win-win-win...). It's so easy to talk only in terms of huge nonprofit organizations, like most books do, rather than the realities of a small nonprofit, and I LOVE that this book goes into such detail and such specifics. WELL DONE!!!!

This is a great reference for anyone new to fundraising. Even if you've been working in and with nonprofits for a long time, this text puts things in succinct, helpful terms that are useful for strategic planning. in other words, you might not learn anything that will dramatically change your approach, but you might learn some tricks to streamline the work and help in communicating some of the concepts.

Just completing my 1st year on the Women's Council of Realtor Board as Secretary and was just elected as President-elect - incoming new position for 2021 - after a wild and rocky 2020 year of near no-contact - I felt it was very important to learn as much as possible so I could hit the ground running and be an even more important part of my Board. Low & behold - found this book (and the other 2 that go with this one) - AMAZING Read and I shared with my colleagues who also say this is a very informative book (actually, all 3 are) so, thankful for finding this - Very Helpful!!

I read this and thought it was so awesome, I'm having the rest of my non-profit's board read it. What makes it awesome is that it's thin on theory and heavy on specific methods and details. The author gives links to tools he's developed -- nothing too technical, just spreadsheets and stuff -- and his advice is both well-written and makes sense. I feel like reading this has saved me time in not pursuing stuff you think of as non-profit money making (like most fundraisers), ways to go about asking people for money including really simple formulas for how to arrive at the best number, how to ask people for big donations, when to have networking events, who your best bets are (not who you think!), and what role the board in an organization should play.The author has very good real world experience, and the information feels genuine and trustworthy. The book is short and concise and worth the read.

Pretty boring book to read. I didn’t extract any useful knowledge or insight until the last few chapters.Pretty much repeats, automatic payments, raising prices, requesting higher and more frequent donations from people who already contribute to include board members

I loved the little book of gold. It had so many practical tips in it. I especially loved the story about Linda and how it weaved through the whole book and gave so many actionable tips.As a consultant working with small nonprofits, I could absolutely relate. This book helped steer the little guys away from doing things they shouldn't be doing and kept them focused on what they should! And of course as a recurring gift guru, I loved the fact that it referred to making recurring donations as a great way to help provide sustainable revenue. Thank you Erik!

Ummm…it gave me a few ideas about fundraising and defined some things. There wasn’t anything magical in this book that solved all my problems, but it gave me a few ideas.

Some great information here.

It's a little specific, concentrating on a certain model, but it does have some genuine insights about how to grow your donor base in a practical way (100% board donors, avoid time-consuming events etc...) And it's mercifully short. For people at the small-scale end of the non-profit spectrum I think it's definitely worth a punt.

A fairly short read but probably of limited wider application.

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