If your organization is considering a capital, endowment, or other major fundraising campaign, Are You Ready for a Capital Campaign? by Linda Lysakowski will help you assess: * Whether you have a donor prospect pool for major campaign gifts. * Whether you have planned adequately for the campaign. * Whether your board is willing to step up to support the campaign. * Whether your staff has sufficient time to devote to the campaign. * Whether you have the right policies and procedures in place. * Whether your community is ready for the campaign. * How well your software system can manage a campaign. Written as a workbook, it's designed to walk you through, step by step, the process of assessing your nonprofit's ability to run a major fundraising campaign. It can be used in conjunction with the book Capital Campaigns: The Basics and Beyond, also by Linda Lysakowski. This workbook is part of the popular CharityChannel In the Trenches series. You'll know an In the Trenches books, workbooks and manuals not just by their covers, but by their authors' fun, upbeat writing style. But don't be fooled by their down-to-earth approach and ample use of sidebars. In the Trenches books are authoritative and cover what a beginner should know to get started and progress rapidly, and what a more experienced nonprofit-sector practitioner needs to move forward in the subject. Linda Lysakowski, a philanthropic consultant since 1993, is one of approximately one hundred professionals worldwide to hold the Advanced Certified Fund Raising Executive designation. She has managed capital campaigns, helped dozens of nonprofit organizations achieve their development goals, and trained more than twenty-five thousand professionals in all aspects of development throughout most of the United States, Mexico, Canada, Bermuda, and Egypt. She is the author of several books on fundraising.

Leslie Flynn, a widow who moves to rural Nevada after her husband dies, has a mystical experience through which she is given three mandates by God, setting into motion a series of events that plummet her into the worlds of the Native American casino industry, a hi tech business magnate, and the Vatican hierarchy. Leslies experience begins when her duties as a travel writer take her to Bishop, California, to visit the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Trees, the oldest living things on Earth. She is drawn to the Matriarch, the largest of the Bristlecones alive today. As she approaches the tree, she is aware that she is on holy ground. She is drawn into the tree where she traces her entire matriarchal lineage, witnesses the strength and power of her ancestors and develops a great appreciation for the gifts she has received from each of them.

What if you could sit down with 25 successful consultants and ask them what makes their businesses tick?

In The Nonprofit Consulting Playbook: Winning Strategies from 25 Leaders in the Field, Susan Schaefer and Linda Lysakowski have compiled a first-of-its-kind insight into the everyday lives of consultants to the nonprofit sector. This collection of firsthand articles takes the reader on a journey that spans a consultant's professional life-from the decisions that formed the business to a detailed set of options for winding it down.

The beauty of this book lies in the honesty of its 25 contributors. They write openly about the decisions that guided their business models, their early mistakes, and their lessons learned. Even those in this business for decades have commented that their copies of The Playbook are strewn with highlights and bookmarks.

It's a fun, informative read that gets into the minds of people who have consulted for at least a decade. The Playbook's first-person storytelling has a style that will both inform and entertain. Most importantly, it has the power to transform your business-or your future business-in ways large and small. From insider retellings of client stories to state-by-state registration requirements, its contents will guide basic decisions for the life of your business.

Readers will find answers to these questions and more: What can I do to prepare myself before I start consulting? How should I determine my scope of business? How should I set fees and get off to the right financial start? Which marketing strategies work best? How do I close a deal with potential clients? How do I deal with angry, slow-paying, or demanding clients? How can I grow or reinvent my business? How do I regroup when business is slow? What information should I include in contracts? What state regulations might apply to my business?

The list goes on

The Playbook does not tell the reader what to do. Instead, itoffersindividual accounts that walk the reader through a businessperson's thought processes, actions, and reflections about a given subject. The main takeaway: there is no one path to success.

While directed at those who serve the nonprofit sector, The Playbook offers valuable lessons for all consultants. Even those who serve the for-profit sector will benefit from articles about naming your business, marketing, and closing the deal with prospective clients.

The Playbook is a must-have guide if you fall into any of these categories: A professional who is exploring a future career path in consulting. A staffer who is currently making the transition into full- or part-time consulting. A novice consultant who wants to get off on the right foot. A veteran consultant who wants to strengthen, reenergize, or reinvent your business.

Do you work for or serve on the board of a nonprofit that is thinking about or ready to launch a capital campaign? Capital Campaigns: Everything You NEED to Know will equip you to determine your organization's readiness for a campaign; help you decide if and when you need a planning study; show you how to allocate your human and financial resources effectively; guide you in creating a compelling case statement; provide you with the tools to evaluate your chances for success; give you how-to advice to plan every aspect of your campaign; and put at your fingertips ample examples of sample forms and charts. This is one of a series of "In the Trenches" books published by CharityChannel Press. You'll know an In the Trenches book not just by its cover, but by the author's fun, upbeat writing style. But don't be fooled by their down-to-earth approach and ample use of sidebars. In the Trenches books are authoritative and cover what a beginner should know to get started and progress rapidly, and what a more experienced nonprofit-sector practitioner needs to move forward in the subject.