Our Favorite Fundraising Books for Nonprofit Management (Updated July, 2015)
The Double the Donation team loves Netflix as much as everyone else, but we also love books. Our interests range from The Hunger Games to Anna Karenina to Harlequin romance novels. What we all have in common is a fervent interest in reading about the nonprofit industry, and a recent conversation got us thinking about our favorite nonprofit books.
The discussion got heated. Tape dispensers went flying. Water was spilled. One of us had to break out a band-aid because he got a paper cut while trying to do some actual work.
The following list did not come easy, but the Double the Donation team endorses each of these books. They’re informative, fun, and necessary texts for anyone who wants to learn the ins and outs of the nonprofit space.
NonProfit Crowdfunding Explained: Online Fundraising Hacks to Raise More for Your NonProfit
Author: Salvador Briggman at CrowdCrux
Who’s it for?: Nonprofits interested in creating a crowdfunding campaigns that actually raise money and meet their goals.
What’s it about?: The ways nonprofits raise money are changing at a record rate. And Sal is leading much of the discussion around the new methods nonprofits are using to engage with donors.
A few nonprofits have cracked the code to crowdfunding but for those of you who haven’t there isn’t a better book than Nonprofit Crowdfunding Explained.
Preview NonProfit Crowdfunding Explained: Online Fundraising Hacks to Raise More for Your NonProfit.
Fundraising with Businesses
Author: Joe Waters at Selfish Giving
Who’s it for?: Nonprofits who want to take advantage of established relationships with businesses.
What’s it about?: Joe is up front about his book being inspiration. Every strategy he details requires hard work by nonprofits. While hard work may sound, well, hard, Joe provides a wealth of ideas, from collecting change to donations at retail check outs to leveraging social media. They’re money making strategies that work, and he provides real world examples to demonstrate how to get them started for your nonprofit.
Preview Fundraising with Businesses: 40 New (and Improved!) Strategies for Nonprofits.
Ask Without Fear!
Author: Marc Pitman from The Fundraising Coach
Who’s it for?: Nonprofits who need to do a better job of connecting with their most important donors.
What’s it about?: Marc teaches normal people how to build relationships and pursue major gifts in a no nonsense fashion. He provides step-by-step guides, details research tools that really work, and exposes things that many nonprofits do wrong with fundraising, so you can do them right. This book is a comprehensive guide to how to get your fundraising campaigns fully funded.
Prospect Research for Fundraisers
Author: Jennifer Filla of Aspire Research Group and Helen Brown of the Helen Brown Group
Who’s it for?: Front-line fundraisers who want to learn more about the intricacies of prospect research.
What’s it about?: How to raise more money with prospect research. From overviews to detailing specific skills, Filla and Brown cover the full gamut of research tools and techniques. The book comes with a companion website and a host of online tools to help readers to implement key concepts.
Preview Prospect Research for Fundraisers.
Hank Rosso’s Achieving Excellence in Fund Raising
Author: Eugene R. Tempel of the IU Foundation
Who’s it for?: General fundraisers and nonprofits looking to learn the basics of fundraising.
What’s it about?: This book dives into the principles, strategies, and methods of fundraising. It provides concrete examples and reasoning to prove what and why certain actions work. The narration adds a level of philosophical insight that makes the book far more entertaining than a dry textbook.
Preview Hank Rosso’s Achieving Excellence in Fund Raising from Amazon.
Relationship Fundraising
Author: Ken Burnett
Who’s it for?: Fundraising professionals who want to learn better donor communication strategies for the 21st century.
What’s it about?: Through illustrative case histories, donor profiles, and more, Burnett demonstrates how to get creative about donor communication. This book wants to teach you how to build relationships and to better understand donors in order to increase fundraising in the 21st century.
Preview Relationship Fundraising.
The Nonprofit Marketing Guide
Author: Kivi Leroux Miller or The Nonprofit Marketing Guide
Who’s it for?: Nonprofit organizations looking to understand or improve their marketing.
What’s it about?: A book that teaches marketing, the text’s principles could be applied to almost any industry. Leroux provides both a big picture look and details cost-effective, proven tactics specifically geared towards nonprofits. This is an ideal resource for small and medium-sized nonprofits.