Читать книгу The Law of Fundraising - Bruce R. Hopkins - Страница 30

National and local organizations have expanded to meet the needs of fundraisers, one of the fastest-growing new service areas of employment available in the United States. As of the close of 2007, membership in the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), formerly the National Society of Fund Raising Executives, which was founded in 1962, numbered more than 30,000 individuals in 175 chapters in the United States, 15 chapters in Canada, 5 chapters in Mexico, and 3 chapters in Asia. The Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP) provide similar trade association services to their members. The American Association of Fund Raising Counsel (AAFRC) represents many of the larger national firms whose members practice as consultants. Hundreds of others who practice fundraising as staff or consultants are not members of any society. Other professional associations, such as the National Council on Planned Giving, have emerged to meet the needs of specialists, and the Direct Mail Marketing Association includes members who service both for-profit and not-for-profit clients.

The primary purpose of these trade associations is to serve the members, usually by providing training in the profession through conferences, seminars, monthly meetings, workshops, journals, and newsletters. Efforts have begun to define a common curriculum of information organized along knowledge and experience levels to support career development. College curricula and degrees have been slow to develop, perhaps because of a lack of literature and a research base. Professional training, when linked to certification, can yield verification to members of their comprehension of basic principles plus a validation to employers of a level of competency.