Advancing the Profession of Fundraising: We’ve Come a Long Way in 25 Years

When does an occupation become a profession? Are we there yet?

In a New Directions in Philanthropic Fundraising issue in 2004, editors Lilya Wagner and Paul Pribbenow stated, “It is natural … to examine from time to time how much progress is being made in achieving professionalism in the field.”¹ Their conclusion: “Clearly, this march to fundraising professionalism has continued: philanthropic fundraising has grown significantly as a profession.”

There is general agreement that the critical elements of a profession, as cited by Harland Bloland and Eugene Tempel, are a body of applicable expert knowledge with a theoretical base, acquired through a lengthy period of training (preferably in a university); a demonstrated devotion to service; an active professional association; a code of ethics; and a high level of control over credentialing and application of the work.²

To get a sense of how far fundraising has come as a profession, and how AFP has contributed, I asked several dedicated fundraising professionals to answer the question, “What for you have been the most meaningful AFP initiatives to advance fundraising as a profession?”

Credentialing

Dwight Burlingame: A credentialing program is an important criterion of professionalism. NSFRE (AFP’s forerunner) was an innovator in establishing the Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) program. The practice analysis and exam helped to establish a recognized body of knowledge on fundraising, moving the practice of fundraising from a voluntary to professional status.

Barbara Levy: From my early association with NSFRE as a chapter president, I knew that it was critical that we in the field needed to be regarded as part of a legitimate profession. Having been part of developing both credentialing programs was a step in the right direction. The development of the written exams for the CFRE and adding the oral exam for the ACFRE (Advanced Certified Fundraising Executive) were important steps. Each question required documentation from the literature. Having those questions documented made it clear to the Professional Testing Service, who reviewed the test construction, that there was and continues to be the required component of a growing body of literature.

Erik Daubert: AFP’s ACFRE certification challenges fundraisers to grow professionally. Becoming an ACFRE introduced me to an incredible group of people and opportunities. After earning my ACFRE, I was approached to write a book by Wiley/Jossey-Bass and join faculty of schools that I admired, and I have the opportunity to work with incredible people doing amazing things to try to change the world—for the better.

Body of Knowledge/Education and Training

Barbara Levy: The dictionary project was a significant step forward. When originally asked if I would chair a committee to take on the existing glossary of fundraising terms, I was hesitant. The little glossary was woefully out of date, and the idea of editing a “real” dictionary was truly daunting. But once I found a lexicographer and recruited a terrific committee, the project got underway. It was astounding to all of us participating that there appeared to be an explosion of new terms! What had been a paper-bound pocket glossary had become a 201-page “real” dictionary. It was three years in the writing, resulting in the 1996 publication of The NSFRE Fund-Raising Dictionary, published as part of the NSFRE/Wiley Fund Development Series. The original has been edited twice, most recently completed in early 2017. Both editions (now under the AFP name) can be found on the AFP website. With each edition, there were literally hundreds of changes, all a sign of a growing profession.

For me, the final proof that we have arrived as a profession occurred in 2013, when I was asked by the Department of Labor to help them define the fundraising profession. It was a matter of filling out many pages defining the various types of abilities required—the personality requirements of fundraisers, the technical requirements, the scope of work, and all aspects of what a professional fundraising professional might be required to demonstrate. The resulting document is in print in the Library of Congress.

Richard Chobot: The general thrust of my response focuses on initiatives to support the training and professional development of fundraising practitioners.

The first example was the development of an AFP fundraising core curriculum. Upon joining AFP, I was struck by the fact that what training was available, mostly the First Course and Survey Course, appeared to have been designed and updated by committee. As an instructional designer, I worked from a robust framework for course design and development, based on a valid task or practice analysis.

This was the norm for both the CFRE and the ACFRE certification programs. However, the practice analysis that undergirded these programs was geared to the target audiences for these certifications: the journeyman (five-year) and the advanced fundraising practitioner. The Professional Advancement Division sought to create a comprehensive frame for course development, to include all levels of the profession, and to determine whether practice varied significantly between U.S. and Canadian members.

The rationale for this effort, which included participation by a number of highly regarded AFP members as subject matter experts, was my understanding that AFP wished to maintain a leadership role in professional education for fundraisers.

This one-year initiative resulted in the creation of a fundraising core curriculum. The core curriculum was intended to serve as a resource for AFP chapters, undergraduate and graduate programs, and other entities serving the profession and to provide a valid framework to support the development of training and other resources starting from a valid dataset of fundraising tasks and related knowledge and skills to perform these tasks.

A related initiative, which was the brainchild of Jan Alfieri, a colleague in the division, was the AFP Audioconference Series. This allowed for the inexpensive dissemination of timely information on fundraising topics in a technically simple and cost-efficient manner. Elements of the core curriculum were beginning to be linked to the Wiley Fund Development Series of books and a newly created AFP Ready Reference Series. However, the fundraising core curriculum faded as other resource demands impinged on the association.

Lilya Wagner: For me, the best aspect of AFP has always been the local chapters and their meetings. No other association of which I am a professional member has that service for its members. Especially when I was a fledgling fundraiser, having the contact and collegiality of my peers and friends really boosted my growth and success in my work. Eventually, I became involved in local and national committees, which allowed me to use my knowledge that I attained gradually, and I was able to benefit others through my involvement. Collegiality is one of the foundational purposes and functions of AFP.

Dwight Burlingame: Development of higher-education curriculum related to resource development has helped provide legitimacy to the field of fundraising. Twenty-five years ago, there were only a few nonprofit management programs in colleges and universities. Now, there are more than 200 universities that offer these programs. AFP members have been involved in establishing courses about the role of philanthropy in society and how fundraising contributes to advancing philanthropy. This education is vital in developing nonprofit leaders of the future.

Jay Love: Fundraising has become a part of academic degree programs, improving the overall level of professionalism within the nonprofit sector.

Robert Fogal: The education of fundraisers is very different from 25 years ago. Hundreds of academic institutions offer courses on fundraising, many of them taught by fundraising practitioners. Practical as well as theoretical knowledge is important in the education of fundraisers.

Robbe Healey: AFP has gone from being the only credible source of information for professional fundraising to being a curator of information about fundraising. Today, there are many sources of information on fundraising. It is AFP’s responsibility to filter and promote the best thinking in the field. I feel it is important for AFP to ensure delivery of education about fundraising on a high-quality level. During my tenure as vice chair of professional advancement, I was involved in the creation of the Faculty Training Academy (FTA). FTA has trained more than 200 fundraisers to be great teachers and communicators.

Another AFP activity in the last 25 years was the dialogue that led to the creation of accessible fundraising education in Latin America. AFP sponsored the first Hemispheric Congress in Mexico City in 2003 and later, in partnership with Tec de Monterrey, developed online fundraising courses that have had a profound impact on Spanish-speaking fundraisers who work in Latin America.

Paul Pribbenow: The most meaningful AFP initiatives to advance fundraising as a profession are, for me, twofold efforts: to improve the practice and craft of philanthropic fundraising through research and practice and, at the same time, to keep in front of us the ethical claims to serve the public good. Certainly, the international conference and the work in chapters and regions to provide meaningful educational experiences for fundraisers at all levels were critically important. But so was the work of the Research Council and Ethics Committee to build a body of research-based knowledge and to ensure that the AFP code of ethics was understood and followed.

Research

Dwight Burlingame: The establishment of the AFP Research Council is a significant element in elevating the leadership role AFP plays in the professionalization of fundraising. By promoting and disseminating research about fundraising and philanthropy, the council helps to establish a theoretical basis for understanding giving behavior rather than relying on anecdotal information.

Janice Gow Pettey: Successful initiatives thrive on research. Fundraising needs research to thrive. AFP’s Research Council may not be as well known as other committees, but the volunteers and dedicated professionals like Cathy Williams have been behind the scenes promoting research in fundraising since 1990, the year the AFP Research Council was created. I have never been a fan of “best practices” as a predictor of success in fundraising. Research that is data-driven and well defined is essential for any development operation. One particularly successful initiative, supported by AFP’s Research Council, is the Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP), which provides fundraisers with data on the acquisition and retention of thousands of donors. FEP, in conjunction with participating donor management software firms, can now provide the profession with valuable information on retention and giving.

Wesley Lindahl: The Fundraising Effectiveness Project is one of the top AFP initiatives. For years, the profession lacked the data from across the nation to demonstrate in (almost) real time what giving looks like. It was ingenious to involve the various software companies, since they control the data and could provide reports that show whether the gifts are from various donor groups. The second ingenious idea was to highlight the retention issues for particular organizations and for the profession as a whole. We’re losing donors every year as we continue to bring new donors into the fold. As an academic researcher in the area of fundraising, I selfishly wanted to have the data to look at to try to make sense of it. My background also included being a practitioner for many years, so I understood how this project might also help those in the field.

Erik Daubert: Through Growth in Giving (GiG)/FEP, we have gone from having an interesting idea with some impact to creating the largest database of philanthropic gift transaction information in the world and reports that are used extensively in support of North American fundraising. With this information, we can better understand and track philanthropy in the United States, and the model is being considered in other parts of the world as well.

Bill Levis: The GiG/FEP project has made progress toward providing nonprofit board members and decision-makers with information that helps them make informed decisions about investing more resources in fundraising. We developed tools such as the Fundraising Fitness Test to help nonprofits measure their fundraising performance over time and among fundraising methods. And our extensive database allows nonprofits to compare their fundraising performance with that of like organizations. A major breakthrough is that we now have data to illustrate the Pareto Principle and other fundraising maxims for various sizes and types of organizations using actual numbers and in current time.

GiG/FEP has been made possible by the active involvement of several major donor software firms. We hope other software firms will join in the effort to provide up-to-date information on giving for nonprofit decision-makers and the general public.

Jon Biedermann: In a spirit of “coopetition,” our firm has been involved with several other software firms in GiG/FEP since it began in 2016. We understand there is tremendous value in providing anonymized data that will help the nonprofit sector understand giving. It’s not sufficient to say that total giving increased from one year to the next. What’s really important is to understand what’s happening behind the totals, looking at numbers of new donors, lapsed donors, and increases or decreases in gifts. Through this project, we are developing standardized fundraising metrics and much-needed current information about donor retention and trends in giving. If our efforts could help nonprofits raise just 0.1 percent more charitable dollars, it would result in a tremendous increase in the resources available to carry out their philanthropic missions. And the gift transaction data in the GiG database is opening a new world of possibilities in research on giving. We hope that other industry leaders will join us in this effort.

Jay Love: AFP’s efforts in publicizing GiG/FEP and in educating nonprofits about how to use the data generated from the project have been critical to its success.

Ethics

Janice Gow Pettey: Members of AFP are required to adhere to the guidelines, code, and standards of ethical fundraising. AFP has evolved from a professional association serving fundraisers who worked in advertising or community organizing to an international association with members from all corners of the development sector. In the last 25 years, AFP educational initiatives have shifted from workshops on ethics focused on the right answer to multiple choice questions on ethical dilemmas to ethical reflection and emphasis on engagement rather than seeking clarification based solely on legalities, codes, and standards. The nonprofit sector in 2017 stands on the foundation of civil society, which Bob Payton described as “voluntary action for the public good.” AFP has provided its members and the world of philanthropy with an unwavering commitment to the promotion and education of ethical fundraising.

Jay Love: The AFP Ethics Committee and judicial process for handling ethical complaints are critical elements of the association’s contribution to professionalism. Very few organizations put teeth and guidelines in place to hold people accountable to an ethical code. AFP does an outstanding job.

I also asked fundraising professionals, “What motivated you to become involved in these initiatives?”
Many respondents cited the rewards of giving back to a profession they love. “I’ve never volunteered when I didn’t learn more than I gave,” said Robbe Healey about her volunteer experience with AFP. “Serving as chair of AFP’s Ethics Committee was one of the most enriching volunteer experiences of my career,” said Janice Gow Pettey. “It’s fun!” said Bill Levis. “The people, the big ideas to enhance the profession, and the ability to serve others all motivated me,” said Erik Daubert.

Barbara Levy summed it up well: “All of these experiences contributed to my own growth as well as that of the profession. My passion for this career has been a never-ending joy. I have met the most remarkable, wise, giving, and loving people. I have been incredibly enriched by these relationships. The colleagues I have met and worked with along the way have become lifelong friends as well as ever-ready resources for questions and issues. When a donor thanks me for allowing them to make a significant gift, it reminds me that ‘it is in giving that we receive.’ What more could one ask of life?”

“What is your vision of the fundraising profession in the next 25 years?”

Wesley Lindahl: I hope the profession will use the exploding research in the field to build a profession that uses experimentation and research as a way to substantiate practice. We’re on the way but often hit headwinds with a mindset that simply takes practice and repeats over the years.

Lilya Wagner: My vision is that there be a balance between the techniques and how-to with thoughtful action based in research and successful experience. I hope we can truly continue on the road to being reflective practitioners, knowing how to balance techniques with thoughtful approaches to all aspects of our complex but highly significant profession.

Paul Pribbenow (excerpted from Love and Work: Reconceiving Our Models of Professionals³): “As important as the bodies of knowledge, expertise and technical skills, codes of professional ethics and standards, and status in society are to the work of professionals in our society, all of this will mean nothing if our professions don’t discover and learn to practice the moral and public purposes of their work that go beyond the boundaries of their personal and corporate interests. As philanthropic fund-raisers, we have the obligation to talk about and practice philanthropy in ways that help others to understand the promises—the philanthropic covenant—to which all of us are bound.”

Richard Chobot: Nonprofit organizations will continue to play a significant role in society. They often fill voids created by failure of the marketplace or government to act in areas where need exists. They allow for the advocacy/expression of minority opinions, as well as serving as a vehicle for advocacy in general. To ensure that the nonprofit tradition continues, fundraisers will be needed to develop and maintain a resource base for these entities. However, to remain effective, fundraisers will need to continue to adapt to and integrate into their practice the evolving communication models and technologies.

Dwight Burlingame: I would like to see development of more appreciation of the importance of building relationships with donors and volunteers over longer periods of time. Longer relationships allow the fundraiser to understand what donors care about and how to help them achieve their vision through their gifts. The role of the fundraiser is to educate people about opportunities that will enable them to actualize their life’s legacy.

Erik Daubert: I think technology will continue to advance the field—enabling fundraisers and organizations to more effectively connect with people in a variety of ways. The challenge with any advancement in the profession, however, is that whatever advances are made will become the new normal. By this, I mean that once emails can be automatically written by computers at the right time, in the right way, for the right project, etc., donors will become immune to this automation. They will see through it for the computerization and automation ... and the efforts will be left “cold” by the receiver because they will now be inundated with such requests. I believe that the next 25 years will hold terrific advances in the automation of the profession, but these advancements will eventually be neutered by the fact that they will become the new normal. And so it will be back to where we are now, which is real people connecting with real people in real ways. This is how I see the profession moving “forward” in the next decades.

Janice Gow Pettey: We are living in a time where the past is being rapidly eclipsed by a present that is future-oriented. Technology provides us with tools for rapid change, and fundraising has the opportunity to be a part of leading that change. In the next two-plus decades, the fundraising profession will need to assert a position of leadership in the nonprofit sector, grounded in philanthropic intent, the love of humankind.

Bill Levis: I would like to see philanthropic giving grow as a percentage of GDP. To accomplish that, the nonprofit sector should invest more in fundraising. I also think nonprofit CEOs and senior staff should become skilled fundraisers and spend more of their time on fundraising.

Jon Biedermann: I think we will see an explosion of philanthropic giving. AFP represents only a fraction of fundraisers throughout the world. The more we share best practices in fundraising, the greater the potential for growth in giving. The Fundraising Effectiveness Project will be a key part of that messaging.

“What would you like to see AFP do to advance fundraising as a profession in the next 25 years?”

Barbara Levy: I believe that people will never stop giving and that the profession will become stronger every year. However, my work on the Ethics Committee has made me acutely aware that ethical practice is truly the guardian of this profession. It is alarming to realize that many unethical practices go unreported and, of even greater concern, unrecognized. AFP’s challenge today is to become the most dynamic teachers and guardians of ethical practice. We cannot assume that because AFP members sign the code that they and their organizations are completely aware of the ever-present gray dilemmas that require significant dialogue and research to reach the most effective ethical outcomes. If the membership of AFP will commit to preserving and enhancing their ethical practices and if they will bring their staff and their boards into the awareness of ethical practice, then AFP will continue to guide this wonderful profession into the brightest possible future.

Janice Gow Pettey: AFP has been a conduit for the development profession through conferences, resources, and opportunities to grow as fundraising professionals. AFP has an opportunity to support the growing profession of fundraising by engaging all those who choose to be in the profession. Philanthropy is a core value of our society, and AFP has the opportunity to continue to advance philanthropy through ethical fundraising, inclusiveness, and promotion of the profession.

The challenge for AFP will be how to remain relevant in a world where there is always something “new” to attract and challenge for market share. Fundraisers over the next 25 years will have more and more niche choices to choose from as they define how they fit into the world of philanthropy.

Paul Pribbenow: I think AFP needs to keep on the path it has laid out while at the same time engaging organizations and associations in the U.S. and globally around our shared interests and values. For example, I think there is work to do with boards of directors to engage them about ethical fundraising. Also, often CEOs of nonprofits do not have knowledge of good and ethical fundraising practice. We need to find ways to share what AFP has learned with organizations that serve these important constituencies. I also believe that public advocacy, both with politicians and the wider public, should be a priority for AFP’s work, educating an ever-widening circle of citizens about the critical work of philanthropy in our democracy.

Robbe Healey: AFP’s primary role today is catalyst and provocateur. We have enough critical mass to be extraordinarily relevant if we do it well. My dream is that people who join AFP this year will think the association has been as relevant in their careers as it has been in mine.

Jay Love: AFP is a large association, no longer just a gathering of friends. We have a duty to improve the process of fundraising. My hope is that AFP will be a strong force in making this happen.

Lilya Wagner: I would like to see AFP become increasingly influential in educating/training organizational leadership about the realities and opportunities of fundraising—to avoid making the fundraiser a solo performer and provide a successful context, to eschew the tendency to make the fundraiser the scapegoat, and to truly accept the fundraiser and fundraising department as an essential element in a successful organization.

Robert Fogal: The challenge for AFP is to be relevant to the small- and medium-size nonprofits that represent the vast majority of philanthropic organizations. AFP could produce learning materials using social media to make fundraising information accessible to small organizations.

Jon Biedermann: I would like to see AFP develop programs to attract smaller organizations into the fold, to help them learn about best practices in fundraising.

Bill Levis: I would like to see AFP train nonprofit CEOs about their fundraising responsibilities. Fundraising should be one of the CEO’s primary functions, if we are to grow philanthropy. AFP should partner with grantmakers to provide capacity-building resources for nonprofit leaders.

Richard Chobot: The promotion of ethical standards for fundraising should continue to be a hallmark of AFP and, likewise, the maintenance and promotion of standards for the profession. That having been said, AFP must adopt the role of a servant leader for the profession. This will require the development of an organizational humility that, while maintaining professional influence, does not seek to function in an overbearing manner, such as many professional societies have done in the past. AFP must be seen as a servant of the profession rather than its arbiter and overseer. Chapters must be treated as coequals rather than subordinate entities.

Wesley Lindahl: I would love to see AFP fund research into fundraising practice at an accelerated level. Right now, we have the $3,000 AFP/Skystone Partners Prize for Research on Fundraising and Philanthropy. This is great, but to truly move the profession forward, we need to support research at a much higher level and start to organize the results into easy-to-use, digitally available short articles that are vetted by practitioners to focus on implications for the field.

Erik Daubert: I think AFP needs to continue to work to serve and represent the fundraising profession as our largest trade association. AFP does this now in a number of ways, ranging from conferences to advocacy and beyond. The challenge for AFP will be how to remain relevant in a world where there is always something “new” to attract and challenge for market share. Fundraisers over the next 25 years will have more and more niche choices to choose from as they define how they fit into the world of philanthropy. Whether I see myself as a donor relations professional, charitable gift planner, fundraiser, or other, I will have to make choices with finite resources about who represents my interests. AFP’s challenge remains being relevant for the largest contingency of this group so that it can remain one of the strongest voices on issues that face the profession going forward.

^{1    Wagner, Lilya, and Paul Pribbenow, Editors’ Notes, “Fundraising as a Profession: Advancements and Challenges in the Field,” New Directions in Philanthropic Fundraising, Jossey-Bass Publishers, 43, Spring 2004, p. 1.↩}

^{2    Bloland, Harland G., and Eugene R. Tempel, “Measuring Professionalism,” in “Fundraising as a Profession: Advancements and Challenges in the Field,” New Directions in Philanthropic Fundraising, Jossey-Bass Publishers, 43, Spring 2004, p. 6.↩}

^{3    Pribbenow, Paul, Love and Work: Reconceiving Our Models of Professionals, a report from the AFP Think Tanks on Fundraising Research, June 1999.↩}

Panel

Jon P. Biedermann is vice president of fundraising products for DonorPerfect and founded DonorPerfect Online Fundraising Software in 2001. He is one of the original members of the Growth in Giving/Fundraising Effectiveness Project steering group. He also serves on the boards of The Giving Institute and Giving USA Foundation.

Dwight Burlingame, Ph.D., CFRE, is professor of philanthropic studies and Glenn Family Chair in Philanthropy at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University. He is an active member of the AFP Research Council, ARNOVA, and ISTR. In 2013, he received the Rosso Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Ethical Fundraising.

Richard Chobot, Ph.D., was AFP’s vice president for professional advancement from 1997–2003. He has an extensive background in research, instructional design, and assessment. After his tenure at AFP, he served as executive director of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at George Mason University. In retirement, Dick works on consulting and volunteer projects relating to caregiving and patient advocacy.

In his current work with the YMCA of the USA, Erik J. Daubert, MBA, ACFRE, works to maximize the philanthropic capacity of the YMCA movement. He is past chair of the ACFRE Certification Board, current chair of the AFP Research Council, and chair of the Growth in Giving Initiative and the Fundraising Effectiveness Project (https://afpglobal.org/FundraisingEffectivenessProject). His book (co-authored), Strategies and Tools to Raise Money, was published as an e-book through John Wiley & Sons, Inc., in 2012.

Robert E. Fogal, Ph.D., ACFRE, has held chief development officer positions in higher education, healthcare, human services, and life plan communities. Bob has contributed as an author or editor to New Directions in Philanthropic Fundraising, The Jossey-Bass Handbook of Nonprofit Leadership and Management, and Advancing Philanthropy. Retired from active fundraising, Bob currently fills roles as an executive coach to nonprofit executives, a professor at Villanova University, and local church pastor.

Roberta (Robbe) A. Healey, MBA, NHA, ACFRE, is VP for philanthropy at Simpson Senior Services and a founding member of Aurora Philanthropic Consulting. She chaired the board of directors of AFP International in 2009–10 and completed 12 years of board service in December 2012. She is a member of the AFP International Ethics Committee and was AFP’s vice chair for professional advancement when the Faculty Training Academy was established.

Bill Levis is Project Manager of AFP’s Fundraising effectiveness project and an affiliated scholar (retired) in the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C. He has a long history of investigation into fundraising costs and productivity with numerous articles, papers, and projects going back to the 1970s. He serves on AFP’s Research Council and is a former public member of the ACFRE Certification Board.

Barbara R. Levy, ACFRE, FAFP, has been recognized as the NSFRE/AFP Outstanding Fundraising Executive and was in the first cohort of AFP Distinguished Fellows. She has served on many AFP committees, authored numerous articles and one book, contributed to several other books, and edited three editions of the AFP Fundraising Dictionary. She is past-chair of the AFP International Ethics Committee and is currently a member of the AFP International Fundraising Effectiveness Task Force.

Wesley E. Lindahl, Ph.D., is dean of the School of Business and Nonprofit Management and the Nils Axelson Professor of Nonprofit Management at North Park University in Chicago. Wesley worked as a professional fundraiser for almost 18 years at Northwestern University. He has written two books, Strategic Planning for Fund Raising (1992) and Principles of Fundraising: Theory and Practice (2010), and recently completed a term as the chair of the AFP Research Council.

Jay B. Love is the chief relationship officer and co-founder of Bloomerang. He has been the CEO of four companies serving the nonprofit sector. He is currently a member of the AFP Ethics Committee and a former member of the AFP International board. He serves on the steering group for the Fundraising Effectiveness Project.

Janice Gow Pettey, Ed.D., is the founder of J.G. Pettey & Associates, a nonprofit consulting firm in San Francisco. She is chair emeritus of AFP’s Ethics Committee and the Research Council and is an adjunct professor in organization and leadership at the School of Education at the University of San Francisco. She is the editor of Nonprofit Fundraising Strategy: A Guide to Ethical Decision Making and Regulation for Nonprofit Organizations (Wiley, 2013) and the author of Cultivating Diversity in Fundraising (Wiley, 2002).

Paul C. Pribbenow, Ph.D., is president of Augsburg University in Minneapolis. Chair emeritus of both the AFP Ethics Committee and Research Council, Pribbenow has worked throughout his career to advance effective and ethical fundraising.

Lilya Wagner, Ed.D., CFRE, is director of Philanthropic Service for Institutions and is on the faculty of The Fund Raising School and the School of Philanthropy at Indiana University. Her published writings include articles and book chapters on philanthropy, fundraising, and the nonprofit sector. Her book, Diversity and Philanthropy: Expanding the Circles of Giving, is a comprehensive volume about cultural influences on generosity and won the 2017 AFP/Skystone Partners research prize.