Learn From My Experiences: A Collection of Essays on Fundraising
for Professionals, Lay Leaders, Volunteers and the Public by Norman
B. Gildin is a three-year work intended to help not only
development professionals, but also lay leaders, volunteers, and
anyone who is involved in fundraising. This is not an exhaustive
description of every kind of fundraising. Rather, it addresses the
major categories of giving, namely, annual campaigns, capital
campaigns, planned giving, and endowment fund giving. Moreover,
this book is a hands-on experience that also details how to think
quickly on your feet as fundraising campaigns do not always go
according to plan. Part of it describes ingenious solutions to some
of the author’s projects that went wrong. He presents his campaigns
that operate under the dictum that proper prior planning prevents
poor performance.
True to his hypothesis, Norman B. Gildin gives invaluable insight
into the world of fundraising and where it fits in a world that has
been drastically changed by the pandemic. This is why Learn From My
Experiences is an indispensable resource for anyone engaged in or
is considering venturing into fundraising. Gildin’s hands-on
experience as a fundraiser is armed with principles of strategic
planning that give you feasible ideas for creating a sustainable,
scalable fundraising campaign to help you grow and stay relevant in
today’s ever-changing world, where many have suffered from
diminished fundraising. The best part of this book is that it gives
you realistic expectations by making you understand the state of
the economy and what key components are needed by nonprofits to
make it through. I highly recommend this book for its relevance and
transparency.
