These resources are among the most valued in my nonprofit bookshelf and have proven critical during the various stages of my professional journey. These books are literally on my bookshelf. I’ve read and continue to reference them all. I recommend that fundraising professionals consider these as they build their own fundraising bookshelf. I trust they’ll be valuable as you learn and grow in your career and your nonprofit bookshelf.
Recommended Books
Fundamentals for All Professionals
- The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations, (Kouzes/Posner)
- Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t (Collins)
- Good to Great and the Social Sectors: Why Business Thinking is Not the Answer (Collins)
- Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised, 12th edition (Robert)
- Kiss, Bow, Or Shake Hands: The Bestselling Guide to Doing Business in More Than 60 Countries (Morrison/Conaway)
- Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds (Gallo)
- How To Win Friends and Influence People (Carnegie)
- The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition (Strunk/White)
- The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition
Fundamentals for Fundraisers*
- Association of Fundraising Professionals Code of Ethical Standards (Association of Fundraising Professionals, Adopted 1964, revised Oct. 2014)
- Fundraising Fundamentals: A Guide to Annual Giving for Professionals and Volunteers (Greenfield)
- Achieving Excellence in Fundraising (Tempel/Seiler/Burlingame)
- The Practitioner’s Guide to Governance as Leadership: Building High-Performing Nonprofit Boards (Trower)
- The Five Life Stages of Nonprofit Organizations: Where You Are, Where You’re Going, and What to Expect When You Get There (Simon)
- Nonprofit Bookkeeping and Accounting For Dummies (Farris)
- Nonprofit Law and Governance For Dummies (Welytok)
Fundraising By Discipline*
Ethics
- Nonprofit Fundraising Strategy: A Guide to Ethical Decision Making and Regulation for Nonprofit Organizations (Pettey)
- Ethical Decision Making in Fund Raising (Fischer)
Annual Giving
- Donor Focused Strategies For Annual Giving (Williams)
- Conducting a Successful Annual Giving Program (Madvig/Dove/Lindauer)
Major & Planned Giving
- Conducting a Successful Major Gifts and Planned Giving Program: A Comprehensive Guide and Resource (Dove/Spears/Herbert)
- Planned Giving Simplified: The Gift, The Giver, and the Gift Planner (Sharpe)
Nonprofit Management & Campaign Planning
- The Jossey-Bass Handbook of Nonprofit Leadership and Management (Renz)
- The Fundraising Feasibility Study: It’s Not About the Money (Novom)
- Conducting a Successful Capital Campaign: The New, Revised, and Expanded Edition of the Leading Guide to Planning and Implementing a Capital Campaign (Dove)
Advancement Services & Financial Management
- Advancement Services: Enhancing Fundraising Success, 3rd Edition (Taylor)
- Prospect Research: A Primer for Growing Nonprofits (Hogan)
- CASE Reporting Standards and Management Guidelines for Educational Fundraising, 4th edition
- Pioneering Portfolio Management: An Unconventional Approach to Institutional Investment (Swensen)
- Wiley Not-for-Profit GAAP 2020: Interpretation and Application of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (Wiley Regulatory Reporting)
Leadership and Other Recommended Titles
- Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t (Sinek)
- New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World–and How to Make It Work for You (Heimans/Timms)
- Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self (Zomorodi)
- Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking (Cain)
- The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever (Stanier)
- Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action (Sinek)
- Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (Mckeown)
- Physics for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlines (Muller)
- Unlocking Creativity: How to Solve Any Problem and Make the Best Decisions by Shifting Creative Mindsets (Roberto)
- Leadership In The Crucible of Work: Discovering the Interior Life of an Authentic Leader (Shugart)
Recommended Websites
Recommended Media
- Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership (Patton McDowell)
- MasterMinds Series (DonorSearch)
- Fundraising Voices (Ruffalo Noel Levitz)
- Responsive Fundraising (Jason Lewis)
*Disclaimer: I served as a member and chairman of the Association of Fundraising Professionals Publishing Advisory Committee for John Wiley & Sons’ AFP/Wiley Fund Development Series. I was involved in writing book requests for proposal, reviewing proposals, recommending proposals to Wiley, editing final book manuscripts, and helping promote titles published through this program. Because of my role with AFP and Wiley, my name may appear in these books. However, I am not a party to any royalties or profit sharing for the sales of these books.
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