RelationShift: Revolutionary Fundraising

Michael Bassoff and Steve Chandler
Robert D. Reed Publishers (2001)
ISBN 1885003935
Reviewed by William E. Cooper for Reader Views (2/07)

Have you been involved in a campaign or a cause, and have stalled while trying to raise money, or have failed to raise what it will take to succeed?  Have you and your team struggled for ideas on how to get the capital necessary to move forward?  Have you made more phone calls and knocked on more doors than you care to remember, and still didn’t meet your goal?  If that’s the case, then add this book to your repertoire of strategies and plans.  It is a must-have.  When you’ve read the book, you’ll know what to do and how to do it.  You’ll know where to go and when to go there.  You’ll know who to talk to and what to say.

Michael Bassoff and Steve Chandler individually have outstanding experience, education, and abilities in terms of establishing relationships and fundraising.  Combined, they are an unbeatable team.  They are a first actually – they joined forces to create a strategy that really works.  Their approach has people asking you how much money you need rather than you asking them.  It significantly reduces those “out of your comfort zone” problems you encounter when asking for donations.

I have an entire career in public service, having served nearly 30 years in law enforcement, and retired as a Chief of Police.  As an administrator it was my responsibility to prepare the department’s annual budget request – essentially ask for new dollars every year.  Having read this book, I wish I’d had it as I stood before the City Council every year.  Now, however, I am in the initial stages of campaigning for elected office in the county where I live.  Now, I do have their book, and I do have a new strategy for raising the necessary dollars to succeed.  I want to say thank you to these fine authors for “RelationShift: Revolutionary Fundraising.”  They’ve written a clear and easy to understand book, one that every person involved in any cause needs to get and read.  I hope these fine men collaborate on other works.  If they do, I’ll be reading them.  Well done.

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