The Quest for Belonging
How the Most Effective Nonprofit Leaders Understand the Psychology of Giving
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Jul 16, 2024
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- $19.99
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- Pre-Order
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
Discover the deepest reasons people give to nonprofits—and how fundraisers can tap into donors’ most potent motivations.
In The Quest for Belonging: How the Most Effective Nonprofit Leaders Understand the Psychology of Giving, Jeremy Beer draws from the latest social science to explain the primacy of identity—the need to know and affirm who we are—and belonging—the need to belong to something bigger than ourselves—as motivations for giving.
Beer argues that the better a nonprofit organization can speak to donors’ needs to construct and maintain an identity and to belong to something larger than themselves, the more successful the nonprofit will be in attracting supporters to its mission. He explains how nonprofit executives and fundraisers can effectively engage a donor’s identity and provide a sense of belonging in three powerful ways: by telling stories, by building genuine relationships, and by giving donors positive experiences with the organization and with one another.
The Quest for Belonging is packed with trenchant, useful, and sometimes surprising observations gleaned from Beer’s interviews with highly successful fundraisers, scholars, writers, and nonprofit leaders. This book is a trove of practical advice as well as a paradigm-shifting work on the psychology of giving and the art and craft of fundraising.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This disappointing guide from Beer (Oscar Charleston), cofounder of the consulting firm AmPhil, expounds on how conservative nonprofits can improve their fundraising efforts. Encouraging organizations to "put a name and a face" on the individuals they help in communications with donors, Beer describes how a Catholic hospital system used uplifting patient stories when raising funds. To maintain relationships with major donors, Beer urges nonprofits to meet at least once per year with every individual who gives more than $1,000 and to bond with potential benefactors by accompanying them to church. Unfortunately, Beer often drifts off subject, as when he claims, without evidence, that declining marriage rates have increased disconnectedness and decries the alleged stinginess of "snotty" socialists. Throughout, he wears his conservatism on his sleeve and draws examples from such right-leaning organizations as the National Review and Hillsdale College, limiting the volume's appeal beyond right-wing circles. Additionally, a significant proportion of the "effective nonprofit leaders" profiled work at Beer's firm, giving the proceedings a self-congratulatory feel. This is best suited for those who share Beer's politics.