What is a fundraiser? Depending on who you ask and where you work, the answer may differ. It is usually the person charged with the responsibility to raise funds for your organisation.  There may be many fundraisers, but there will likely be one ultimate Fundraising Director.

In some countries the Fundraising Director may be called the Development Director, the Business Development Director, the CEO, the Head of Philanthropy or just ‘that fundraising woman’.  Whoever you are, you’ll know because everyone is looking to you to raise the money your organisation needs.

The Fundraiser’s Handbook helps you to find your way through the corridors of success and dead ends that make up the great fundraising challenge.  So if you are trying to raise money for your organisation, there will be something here to help you achieve your goal.

Our site will introduce you to the Fundraiser’s Handbook because every fundraiser needs a plan, a blueprint that helps him or her get where they want to go and know how they are going to get there. Whether you have a fundraising campaign to develop, a board to answer to, an emergency to respond to or you’re simply looking for like-minded inspiration from people who’ve been where you are today and know how to get you moving in the right direction.

Please enjoy this journey into one of the least understood and most undervalued skills of the 21st Century: how to fundraise successfully.  As you commence on this odyssey, we’ll leave you with our first piece of guidance. As they say in that other well-known handbook, by Douglas Adams, The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy: “Don’t Panic.”