Functional and Funded: Securing Your Nonprofit's Assets From The Inside Out

You're a staff member, board trustee, community volunteer or consultant doing the hard work to rai$e money so your nonprofit can keep going, keep pursuing its mission. Maybe you're thinking about chasing after grants, scattering proposals around, or trying to figure out whether you should set up that crowdfunding campaign, or... Whatever you're up to, it's not getting any easier out there with all the other groups competing for attention and money. This is where Harvey Chess comes into your picture. His ongoing work is in and around nonprofits, including grant makers. He's best known as a seasoned trainer delivering highly regarded funding proposal development workshops for years. He fully understands the challenges you confront in trying to support your organization - and has distilled his experience into a one-of-a-kind book for you, the revised edition of Functional and Funded, Securing Your Nonprofit's Assets From The Inside Out. His book concentrates on helping you overcome resource development and sustainability challenges. You'll have the opportunity to front and center tactics that separate your nonprofit from the crowd by distinguishing it as substantial, enterprising and resilient. Putting aside much of what passes for conventional wisdom in fundraising, you're presented with a potent alternative - business as unusual - when making the case for financially supporting your nonprofit. Everyone reading and then applying the uncommonly strong strategy at the heart of this book will upgrade skills to secure assets for their nonprofit while strengthening the organization at the same time. How? Still not convinced? Read on. First, the days of only seeking grants are over! The book's Nonprofit Engine contains the diversified components of financial assistance your organization must now seek out to keep running. You'll be offered the tools to develop absolute clarity in building the sharp core funding proposal to use and refine to tell your nonprofit's story every time you reach out for funding. At the same time, you will discover - or rediscover - that the characteristics of a strong nonprofit organization and a strong funding proposal share common ground. You'll come away from business as unusual with a strong nonprofit inside; a strong proposal outside. You want nothing less when it comes to competing for resources. The book includes three real life funding proposal variations, along with comments about what makes sense and what doesn't in each. A chapter, The Funding Marketplace, details how and where to locate sources of potential financial support for your organization. You'll find external links to facilitate solid, detailed follow-up research. Finally, there's a Tool Kit - the components of which you can and should reproduce - intended to bring to life the book's sub-title, Securing Your Nonprofit's Resources From The Inside Out. "...what you get here is invaluable practical advice distilled from a distinguished career as a fundraiser, grant maker and trusted advisor to nonprofits of all types and sizes," along with "... delights in challenging conventional wisdom..." Tom David, consultant in the craft of grantmaking, philanthropic strategy, evaluation, and organizational learning

About the Author :
Harvey B. Chess's years in the nonprofit sector have usually involved the give and take between organizations with grants to give and nonprofits that compete to get those grants. This began in the original Federal War On Poverty and culminated with his highly regarded, well travelled workshop for nonprofit grant seekers. In between he was consultant to several grant making foundations and Program Officer for a large Community Foundation. The breadth of his experience allowed him to settle into a theme of challenging people to re-examine the basis for their nonprofit organizations' existence, always with an eye on strengthening them - and their strategies for pursuing needed resources. Much of what he has come to learn, practice and value forms the basis for his less nomadic existence as the author of the revised edition of his book. He considers this book his legacy in gratitude for a lifetime among so many remarkable souls seeking to improve their communities at the grassroots.

Review :
Harvey Chess represents a distinctive voice apart from the burgeoning grant seeking industry. He's not selling magical formulas...what you get here is invaluable practical advice...Hedelights in challenging conventional wisdom...and keeping it real. Tom David, consultant in the craft of grantmaking, philanthropic strategy, evaluation, and organizational learning Great material. Great insights-practices that make a difference. Your sections at the end on what to avoid and what to do are excellent. The content is great-if I was teaching nonprofit administration, I would recommend using this book. Rich Callahan, Professor, Univ. of San Francisco; Editor, International Journal of Public Leadership This book conveys your commitment to the nonprofit sector and your great humor throughout. It really is a book anyone in the nonprofit sector should read. Jan Stohr, retired director, Nonprofit Resource Center, Sacramento, CA