Grassroots fundraising classic returns in an updated second edition
Howard Lake | 3 April 2026 | News
A practical, step-by-step guide to raising money for causes and communities, now fully revised by Stephanie Roth and new co-author Haley Bash, The Accidental Fundraiser is back for a new generation of non-professional fundraisers.
First published in 2005, The Accidental Fundraiser: A Step-by-Step Guide to Raising Money for Your Cause became a useful resource for volunteers, community activists, and charity staff who found themselves responsible for raising money without a formal fundraising background. The original edition, by Stephanie Roth and Mimi Ho, is already listed in the UK Fundraising books section.
Twenty years on, Roth has teamed up with Haley Bash, a fundraising trainer and founder of Donor Organizer Hub, to produce a thoroughly updated second edition, published in June 2025.
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The new edition retains the original’s nine proven fundraising strategies, all designed to be accessible to people with no prior fundraising experience, with very limited budgets, and working in a small team. It covers how to choose the right fundraising approach for your goals, who to ask for support, and how to build a volunteer team around a fundraising effort.
New content and updated examples reflect how the fundraising landscape has changed since 2005, including digital communications and shifts in how communities organise and mobilise around causes.
Although published by Donor Organizer Hub, Bash’s US-based organisation, the book is rooted in the grassroots fundraising tradition associated with Kim Klein and the Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training, and its lessons translate readily to the UK charity context. Indeed, since the first edition, Stephanie Roth’s consulting practice has developed into Klein & Roth Consulting, a partnership with Kim Klein.
The second edition is available in paperback and ebook from Amazon.com (US $29.95) and selected independent booksellers. It is not currently distributed through Amazon.co.uk, so is not listed in the UK Fundraising bookshop.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.