BOOKS: Where The Money Is: A Fund Raiser’s Guide To The Rich
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1993:
Where The Money Is: A Fund Raiser’s Guide To The
Rich (2nd edition), by Helen Bergen. BioGuide Press (POB
16702, Alexandria, VA 22302), 1993, 257 pages, $29.95.
Two items in this issue of ANIMAL PEOPLE indicate the
value of attracting wealthy benefactors: a $4.1 million bequest received
by the Fund for Animals, more than the Fund’s total worth just a few
years ago, and the death of Doris Duke, who left more than $1.2 billion
to charity. Helen Bergen underscores the point repeatedly in Where The
Money Is by citing similar examples, noting that a third of the funds
raised in the typical campaign come from the 10 to 15 biggest gifts. Her
volume is dense with hints on donor research and development. Her
investigative methods are sound (familiar to reporters as well as fundrais-
ers), but they are time-consuming, her text is oriented toward education-
al charities, and there’s little here pertaining to the peculiarities of
fundraising for humane work, one of which is that most big bequests
apparently come not from the wealthy, but rather from people of ordinary
means who have no children and have long relied upon animals for com-
panionship. Humane groups will probably raise more money by develop-
ing means of providing longterm quality care for pets left behind than by
pursuing the rich, no matter how aggressively and astutely.
––M.C.
