Based on data from the most recent elections, this book examines state house races in four key states California, Texas, Michigan, and Virginia and creates simulations of campaign planning, strategizing, budgeting, fundraising, and winning in a variety of political contexts. The authors have not only researched and taught about these issues they have conducted campaigns, run for office, and served in government at every level from the local to the national. They have experience confronting questions of campaign ethics and crisis management, and they actively embrace social media in their work. Internet fundraising as well as campaign websites are among the many media subjects included. This is a book not just for candidates, campaign professionals, and students, but for all concerned citizens who want to understand the pathways of politics better.

Digital fundraising does not have to be a mystery. While technology and trends move quickly, there are fundamentals that rarely change that you need to know. From the Ground Up: Digital Fundraising for Nonprofits is a practical primer on the ways of understanding, building, designing and innovating an effective digital fundraising program. With a strong foundation, there's no limit to what you will be able to build. With this book, you'll have a firm grasp on the inner workings of: Digital tools, platforms, offers and integrations Websites that convert visitors into donors Email marketing and best practices for increasing email revenue Digital advertising strategies Analytics and conversion tracking for measuring ROI Design thinking for more donor-centric fundraising Social media for impact and meaningful engagement Introduction to donor journey mapping Systems thinking as a means to future-proofing your charity "Brock has taken solid fundraising strategy and brought it to life with a real-world guide to digital fundraising. In plain language, Brock is providing tactical and practical advice, rooted in insights that will drive results. This is a must-read for fundraisers." -Maeve Strathy This book is designed to be a handy, easy to use handbook that you'll want to have within reach. Ideal for someone starting out their career in fundraising, or someone that wants to bring their charity's digital program up to speed. About the Author Brock Warner, CFRE has well over a decade of experience that spans across every major nonprofit sector in Canada. He is a professor in digital fundraising at Humber College's Fundraising Management postgraduate program, and sought after presenter at fundraising conferences throughout North America. As a direct marketing account manager, he managed digital and print campaigns in healthcare, education, amateur athletics, humanitarian and domestic aid, and the environment. As a senior leader on the frontlines, Brock's efforts have largely been in international development and mental health. Brock completed his undergraduate degree at Wilfrid Laurier University, followed by a postgraduate certification in Fundraising and Volunteer Management at Humber College in Toronto. He is a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE), as well as a longstanding member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Greater Toronto Chapter. He has also obtained the bCRE-PRO designation for a professional-level proficiency in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge.

Political campaigns today are won or lost in the so-called ground war--the strategic deployment of teams of staffers, volunteers, and paid part-timers who work the phones and canvass block by block, house by house, voter by voter. Ground Wars provides an in-depth ethnographic portrait of two such campaigns, New Jersey Democrat Linda Stender's and that of Democratic Congressman Jim Himes of Connecticut, who both ran for Congress in 2008. Rasmus Kleis Nielsen examines how American political operatives use "personalized political communication" to engage with the electorate, and weighs the implications of ground war tactics for how we understand political campaigns and what it means to participate in them. He shows how ground wars are waged using resources well beyond those of a given candidate and their staff. These include allied interest groups and civic associations, party-provided technical infrastructures that utilize large databases with detailed individual-level information for targeting voters, and armies of dedicated volunteers and paid part-timers. Nielsen challenges the notion that political communication in America must be tightly scripted, controlled, and conducted by a select coterie of professionals. Yet he also quashes the romantic idea that canvassing is a purer form of grassroots politics. In today's political ground wars, Nielsen demonstrates, even the most ordinary-seeming volunteer knocking at your door is backed up by high-tech targeting technologies and party expertise. Ground Wars reveals how personalized political communication is profoundly influencing electoral outcomes and transforming American democracy.

Before I started pastoring, I knew the call of God was on my life. Like most young pastors, I felt it was my time or my season, as some say. Like most young pastors, God had given me great confirmation and assurance that this was his leading in my life. However, once I got into the deep waters of pastoring, I quickly realized I did not know how to swim. It almost appeared that God was not fair, blessing some but allowing others to suffer. Well, now I know that’s not true. Many pastors waste precious years learning, not knowing what to do. Due to a lack of training, tutoring, and teaching, they are stuck in the week-to-week cycle of just going to church. Join me for a journey in church growth principles, giving you the ABCs of church growth. All you need is a little information.

This is a philosophical treatise on war written by an Oxford grad who served in Afghanistan.

After decades of scholarship on the civil rights movement at the local level, the insights of bottom-up movement history remain essentially invisible in the accepted narrative of the movement and peripheral to debates on how to research, document, and teach about the movement. This collection of original works refocuses attention on this bottom-up history and compels a rethinking of what and who we think is central to the movement. The essays examine such locales as Sunflower County, Mississippi; Memphis, Tennessee; and Wilson, North Carolina; and engage such issues as nonviolence and self-defense, the implications of focusing on women in the movement, and struggles for freedom beyond voting rights and school desegregation. Events and incidents discussed range from the movement's heyday to the present and include the Poor People's Campaign mule train to Washington, D.C., the popular response to the deaths of Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King, and political cartoons addressing Barack Obama's presidential campaign. The kinds of scholarship represented here--which draw on oral history and activist insights (along with traditional sources) and which bring the specificity of time and place into dialogue with broad themes and a national context--are crucial as we continue to foster scholarly debates, evaluate newer conceptual frameworks, and replace the superficial narrative that persists in the popular imagination.

How did all species fit on the ark? Where is Jesus now? What is the purpose of heaven? These are questions many Christians have asked themselves, but they have also led many people to become atheists. This book doesn’t answer them; it shows how these questions are missing the point and explains how core Christian values arise naturally from the human experience and why these values are so important to live a life of contentment, despite all trials. This book combines knowledge in science (not pseudo-science) with understanding in wisdom texts including the Bible, Stoicism, and Taoism. It explains why forgiveness, optimism, gratitude, humility, and love are so important in our lives. Along the way, readers will learn about relativity, the size of the universe, the purpose of life, how to feel content, mental strength, and how Job expresses sentiments similar to Taoism. The book talks about Christian history, the effect of fasting on the body and mind, and stories such as the Frog in the Well. This book isn’t trying to convince the reader; it’s a journey through life, science, and religion that will certainly teach something new.