The essence of fundraising is persuasion, and The Influential Fundraiser by Bernard Ross and Clare Segal is all about improving your persuasion game. No, the authors, co-directors of British nonprofit consulting group The Management Centre (=mc), aren't going to teach you how to hypnotize people. But they do highlight a number of techniques rooted in psychology and neuroscience that can inform your understanding and interactions with potential donors, regardless of their degree of resistance to your pitch. Did you know, for instance, that there are nine different ways to say "No," but only one of them really means "Go away"?

Although Ross and Segal reference applied psychology techniques ranging from Cognitive Behavior Therapy to Anthony Robbins' self-empowerment method, the centerpiece of the book is Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), an academic psychotherapeutic approach developed during the 1970s that has gained a following for its applications in the business world. In that context, NLP is a method of decoding subtle linguistic and facial cues to understand an individual's thought process and probable actions. Although it's tempting to think that such cues as looking right or left or raising or lowering the pitch of one's voice are highly variable, the authors have found through their work with clients in Sweden, Argentina, India, Thailand, Australia, and the United States that such modes of nonverbal communication are remarkably consistent from country to country and culture to culture. (Their book even goes so far as to provide an appendix on how to decipher the meaning behind specific kinds of eye movements and respond to them appropriately.)

The Influential Fundraiser delves into every form in which language is expressed — spoken, written, and nonverbal — to provide advice and specific tips designed to help fundraisers use it with maximum impact. The overarching approach, illustrated with a recurring diagram of five interlocking cogs, is called "the 5 P's of Influence": passion, proposal, preparation, persuasion, and persistence. Three of those are basic to any fundraising effort — you've got to package your pitch in the right format, say it with meaning, and follow up — but are explained with a clarity and thoroughness that most fundraisers will appreciate.

It is the book's exploration of persuasion, however, that truly stands out, and it's here that the "psychology" in the subtitle comes into play. While the majority of the book deals with the persuading of others, it also focuses on the critical need for self-persuasion. The chapter on building self-confidence, for example, is bound to strike a chord — and not just with fundraisers. Ross and Segal's advice about ignoring "the negative audio track running in your head telling you that you are going to fail" is something most of us should take to heart. And the techniques they describe — anchoring, modeling, and calling on mental mentors — will be familiar to anyone who has followed a step program such as Weight Watchers.

"You probably…use some of [these techniques and approaches] already — even if it's unconsciously," Ross and Segal write in closing. "What we have aimed to do here is to raise your current competence to a conscious level so that you can learn to apply your skills systematically." Whether you're new to the fundraising game or an experienced development professional, The Influential Fundraiser will help you do just that.