The Fundraising Reader

"Fundraisers inspire generosity, which fuels the work of millions of charities worldwide. Historically an altruistic role performed by those paid to work on behalf of a charity, it is now becoming increasingly taught as well as professionalised. Several European governments have stepped in to ensure tighter regulation and promote better practice. The UK's Institute of Fundraising was granted chartered status in 2020, offering formal recognition of fundraising as a profession. But the action needed to build a systematic body of knowledge is limited. To ensure this complex and skilled role is taught and delivered to the highest standard, with autonomy, self-regulation, ethics, altruism and systematic knowledge, the work in this area needs to be synthesised and understood in its totality to create a future generation of fundraisers better equipped to inspire generous societies. Answering this urgent need, The Philanthropy Reader draws together a body of empirically grounded literature to establish the body of knowledge needed in one place to ease the work of tutors leading academic courses in fundraising, as well as aid those who seek professional development in fundraising. The book contains a compilation of internationally sourced essential extracts of key writing on fundraising, with a comprehensive introduction that explains the relevance of the content of the chapter to the academic and professional study of fundraising, provides a commentary on the selected texts and describes the contours of core debates. Each chapter also contains an introduction that discusses the relevance of the selected texts to the academic and professional study of fundraising and ends with suggestions for how to incorporate the texts in the classroom, as well as example reading questions"--