Eight Principles enables and empowers fundraisers, both volunteer and professional alike, to adopt the mindset that sees donors as people—like themselves—who want to invest in a worthwhile cause or organization.

With a straightforward, highly accessible, to-the-point style, Eight Principles focuses on helping organizational leaders reshape their organizations’ fundraising approaches and processes to relate to donors as the investors they see themselves to be. By applying the Eight Principles, nonprofits can make real changes now that will affect their fundraising futures in a permanent and positive way—ensuring fundraising success in the long term.

Click here to read an excerpt of the book.

Who Should Read This Book
It’s for anyone whose initial reaction when confronted with the task of raising money for their charitable passion is a mixture of anxiety and bewilderment.

It’s written for all of us who truly want to get others to join us in investing in the lives of others but are just a little unsure as to how to go about it.  Whether you’re a novice volunteer, board member or professional fundraiser, this book is for you.  After all, fundraising is about people; it’s not about money.

This book is written by a sexual abuse survivor who has twenty years of experience analyzing and researching the worldwide impact of sexual abuse and violence. Yvonne Rousseau is an advocate and has helped victims in the recovery process using the steps she highlights in this book. Her well-written book has helped me to better understand what a sexually abused person goes through from denial to flashbacks and the very difficult step of letting go of victimization.

This book is not filled with explicit anecdotes of what abused people have gone through. Rather, it focuses on the steps toward healing and they are well explained, helping both the victim and any therapist understand why a person must go through each step to fully heal. In the last section when Rousseau explains the restoration process, she discloses a little about her personal journey and how her faith in Jesus Christ has helped her heal.

It’s clear that Rousseau knows what she is talking about. Her voice is sympathetic but firm in her resolve to see others fight to stop the hurtful cycle of abuse. Because of my work experience, both my husband and I have tried to equip our own children with the knowledge of what is appropriate and inappropriate behavior of any adult (father, uncle, aunt, grandparent or friend) and what to do if anyone tries to touch them. This book only reinforced for me how important it is to teach our children these things.

I have the highest respect for someone like Rousseau who has made it her life work to help individuals take on an active role in their personal recovery, as well as familial and societal recovery. I would easily pass this book to anyone I know that could benefit from it either as a victim or support person. In addition, any interested person can also obtain the Beyond Myself Study Guide and the Beyond Myself Music CD.

-Laura Fabiani