Fundraising Summer Reading List

People often ask me what great donor relations books they should read to help them in their positions in fundraising and donor relations. I read a book or two a week during my commute so I have some thoughts here.  I can never point them to a definitive donor relations text, great ones just don't exist...yet... But I can give you a great summer reading list that will help you greatly in your career in nonprofit work. In reading these books I have found so much that applies to my daily life and my work life that I want to share them here with you. I don't get any royalties here so just enjoy them!

Crucial Conversations

This book is a must read for anyone who works with people. Since that's 99.9% of us, that means you! I think so many of us have never been taught how to have difficult yet important conversations with people, our teammates, supervisors, etc. this book really helped me and I have attended some of their workshops and they were fabulous as well!

Lean In

I don't care about your politics or your thoughts about the author, everyone, especially women in the fundraising world, should read this book. It has great points on mentoring, commitment, picking your battles and other topics that I just keep rereading over and over. It's my book of the year and just brilliant.

Give and Take

I just finished this book and boy did it help me a great deal to further understand some complicated relationships I have with people. Basically it's about how some people are givers and some are takers but by far the givers are both the Least and most successful people in the world. Many life an work lessons here and a great read about philanthropy too.

Fish!

My first Vice President Cynthia Wood had our entire division read this wonderful little 100 page book. It helped change the culture of our internal workings and really some back office/front office dynamics that weren't that healthy. A great read for a group or retreat.

 

Strengths Finder 2.0

Another great read for a group activity or retreat, my good friend and mentor Denise Howard suggested this book to help more concretely assess my strengths and it delivered. I learned a great deal about myself and others through learning my strengths. A great idea is to map your team's strengths so you know who to go to for specific projects and their working styles.

 

A Simple Act of Gratitude: How Learning to Say Thank You Changed My Life

I have mentioned it here before but Judge John Kralik's book on how writing 365 thank you notes changed his life is a phenomenal read and one especially powerful for those in fundraising and nonprofit work.

Delivering Happiness

This book, written by the folks at Zappos is about customer service based culture and can truly be transformational for office culture and dynamics.

 

The three books recommended to me that I'm reading this summer are the following:

Thinking Fast and Slow

Laws of Simplicity

Gratitude Factor, The: Enhancing Your Life through Grateful Living

 

What are your must reads, besides a snappy weekly blog, ahem? I would love to have you share some titles in the comments below.

Thanks as always for your readership and participation!

Cheers,

Lynne