If you’re starting with this as your first book in the series, Welcome! This is the most immediately practical of all the books. It’s the “answer key” that gives the bottom line of “how to do it.” If you’ve got a donor meeting tomorrow, you’re in the right place.
If you’ve made it through the previous books in the series, Welcome back! You’ve been on quite a journey.
The Storytelling Fundraiser started in a relatively ordinary world. Sure, some of the evidence might have been new. But the conclusions were probably familiar. Stories work better than statistics. Character works better than calculations. But then things got weird.
The Epic Fundraiser crossed a threshold. It entered a magical new world of monomyth and archetype. Maybe you felt some resistance to leaving behind the ordinary fundraising world. But you went forward. You continued the journey.
And then things got even weirder. The Primal Fundraiser looked at natural origins. It explored the hero archetype’s ethological mirror. It was quite a challenge. But you made it through!
And now, at the end, you return ... to the beginning. This final section returns to the ordinary world of fundraising. It’s the most practical one. You’ve got a job to do. What exactly, should you say? How should you say it? The final section looks at these answers. But the previous parts of the journey inform these practical suggestions.
That original world of practical fundraising is now different for you. The journey has changed your understanding. You know that the goal isn’t just to advance any story. The goal is to advance the donor’s hero story. You understand why some messages will resonate and others won’t. You’ve been transformed. You’ve won a victory.
But don’t stay in that magical world of myth, theory, and academia. (Unless you want to pursue your Ph.D. with me!) Now it’s time to return. It’s time to take your victory and make it a “boon” for your community. It’s time to finish the hero story!
-Professor Russell James
