Customer Reviews
A must for any fundraiser - By: sam, 15 Dec 2006 
Ken's style of a user friendly writing style means that this book will suit anybody involved in fundraising. It presents easy to implement, but seldom put into practice, ideas which quite literallly are 'timeless' since most of the ideas have been around for as long as fundraising has. It is this timeless 'Zen' which appeals to me the most since most of Ken's ideas are basic commonsense but unfortunately for one reason or another these ideas are either neglected or misunderstood.
Throughout the book Ken places a strong emphasis on donor care & although this may seem obvious, how often is it that the charities we support fail to engender within us a level of trust in their activities? This book is a guide for every fundraiser on how to get the basics right & how to ensure that the rights of donors are looked after.
Ken's ideas present themselves as an ideal checklist which any fundraising manager can use to audit his or her charity's donor care activities. I would therefore strongly recommend this book to any fundraiser serious about ensuring that the rights of donors, & therefore of beneficiaries, are looked after.
Speaking professionally... - By: J. Swinhoe, 15 Jun 2006 This book is a snap shot of everything that works in donor relationships - & some good advice about things that don't. It's about building a relationship that reallly means something to the donor as well as the charity they are donating to. And it's also about being proud to be a fundraiser - stand up & be counted!!
Through a writing style, which stays light right to the last few pages, Ken manages to capture the essence of a lot of jargonese which penetrates the fundraising world. This is a simple book - but not for simple minds. If you like the snap shot style of American quick fixes then this is a great introduction to relationship fundraising & a whole lot more. At the end Ken makes some personal points & a bit of a plea for better customer service - well made, & if only half the advice in this little book is put into practice, there would definitely be a shift.
Just try one simple thing which Ken outlines - I would suggest a fundraiser working on their own would reallly benefit from number 17. Reallly understand your donors - no amount of consultancy & research by other people can ever replace that one!
If you are new to fundraising, then take advice from number 71 - Be proud to be a fundraiser - & number 76 - `Be respectful of your donors, & show that respect even when they're not present' - & lastly number 78, which gives the ultimate in reading lists for fundraisers, both old & new.
The fact that Ken points us in the direction of best practice from a great variety of sources - big household names from the UK such as the RNLI but also from across the globe is great. Reading this on the London Underground was ideal, it is possible to dip in & out & I enjoyed creating my own `fundraising menu'. Recommended is a number 78, 72, 48, 22 & 17. Oh & definitely 87, the outlawing of killer phrases such as `'That won't work' & `There isn't time'. But then again...
Written as it was for an American publisher - & the author is upfront about that - occasionallly the American `English' grated. But that shouldn't put you off reading it & then looking for those books to add value & depth where something captures your imagination.
Thoughts on the Zen - By: Dr. A. Sargeant, 26 May 2006 I've admired Ken Burnett's work since the mid 1990s when I first encountered a copy of Relationship Fundraising, which has since become required reading for anyone truly serious about fundraising. He is one of the most lucid, accessible & entertaining writers on the fundraising circuit, able to blend humour with the practical knowledge gained from a career's worth of both agency & client side experience.
The Zen of Fundraising is classic Burnett, but unlike Relationship Fundraising can sit neatly in your pocket to be thumbed on your travels or when there are a few moments to spare. The bite sized chunks that comprise this text make it ideallly suited to this purpose.
An odd title though? As Ken says in his introduction, the term Zen has come to mean `thoughtful wisdom & insights' & there are 89 of these `timeless ideas' in this text. No more than a page & half is devoted to each so they come at the reader at quite a pace. Not alll are new, extensions only of common sense, but it is always amazing how much of `common' sense turns out not to be common at alll. Conference speakers, for example, have stressed the importance of thanking donors appropriately for as long as I can remember, yet as a donor, I'm frequently surprised at how few organizations manage to do this well. The Zen offers a number of suggestions for improvements here.
The Zen also offers a poses a number of suggestions that are altogether more thought provoking; suggestions that will hopefully prompt readers to review the way they approach their supporters & thereby improve the quality what they do. At a number of points in the text Ken refers to a `90 degree shift'. Again, a simple idea but one with profound implications. Rather than managing the communications the organization sends out, Burnett argues that fundraisers should consider the relationship the donor perceives. To use Ken's words the 90 degree shift `is putting yourself in your donor's shoes, seeing your communication & even your role as a fundraiser through your donor's eyes rather then through the eyes of your CEO or your head of finance or fundraising.' All too often we can make entirely inappropriate assumptions about why people support us & what they want in return for this support from the organization. Understanding donor needs & thinking through how best to respond to these needs lies at the core of securing loyalty & therefore at the core of this text.
There are precious few reallly first rate texts on loyalty. I'm often asked to recommend some at conferences. Resisting the temptation to recommend my own, I steer readers towards Penelope Burk `s Donor Centred Fundraising or the aforementioned Relationship Fundraising. The contribution of the Zen of Fundraising is reallly to distil this & other knowledge down into a series of bite sized chunks that can be easily digested by anyone, even if they have only a few minutes to spare at each sitting. I doubt they will regret the expenditure. The book is designed to simultaneously entertain & educate, something that Ken is able to do better than any other fundraising writer I've encountered.
With 89 ideas there reallly should be something for everyone in this text. If you find just two or three of them to be worthwhile implementing, this little book will have paid for itself many times over.
