Let's Throw a Party

Most nonprofit fundraising events lose money. They burn out staff, exhaust volunteers, and produce marginal results that barely justify the effort. But they don't have to.
"Let's Throw a Party: The Insider's Guide to Events That Actually Raise Money" cuts through the fluff and delivers hard-won wisdom from the trenches of nonprofit fundraising. Written by Jordan H. Poole, who transformed Paradise Garden from a "helplessly hopeless situation" into a nationally recognized preservation success story in rural Georgia during the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, this no-nonsense guide reveals what actually works when everything is on the line.
This isn't theory from consultants who've never had to make payroll. It's practical strategy from someone who pulled a folk art site made of discarded materials out of the mud and turned it into a model for sustainable nonprofit success-in the most economically distressed county in northwest Georgia, against all odds.
Learn to understand the five primary donor types and what actually motivates people to give, choose event formats that align with your mission and organizational capacity, create realistic budgets that account for hidden costs that kill most events, build sponsor relationships that provide genuine value to business partners, leverage technology without losing the human connection that drives giving, and develop post-event systems that transform one-time attendees into lifelong advocates.