Here's an excerpt from the Chronicle of Philanthropy article Feb. 3, 2005, "Challenging Times Ahead. Fundraisers strain to capture attention of donors" by Holly Hall. The excerpt is about Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southeastern Pennsylvania, one of the groups trained by Raising More Money.

With fund raising growing more competitive, charities of all kinds are lavishing attention on individuals who have the potential to make significant gifts—especially after such efforts paid off handsomely last year.

Big Brothers Big Sisters Southeastern Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, raised $1.1 million in donations and pledges at a spring breakfast gathering. That event, plus a similar one in December that raised $312,000, helped the charity raise 40 percent more last year than it did in 2003.

The spring breakfast featured a youth choir and testimonials from both a Big Sister volunteer and the 16-year-old she helps. The event worked because board members invited friends and colleagues to the breakfast who were greatly impressed with the program, says Linda Jacobsen, the group's fund raiser. "We let the people whose lives have been changed by this work do the talking." Sixty percent of the nearly 250 people who attended, she notes, made a gift to the charity, many for the first time.