What Is the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP)?

The Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) is a professional membership organization for people who work in or with fundraising. Its stated purpose, per its site, is to "stimulate a world of generosity and positive social good through fundraising best practice." If you are a fundraiser, a nonprofit leader, a consultant, or a volunteer who needs training, credentials, ethics guidance, or a professional network, afpglobal.org is the hub for all of it. If you only need one-off fundraising tactics, the site's free public resources may be enough without joining.

What AFP Is and Who It Serves

AFP positions itself around fundraising best practice as the route to generosity and social good. That framing tells you who it is built for:

• Fundraising practitioners — front-line and leadership staff who want training, credentials, and peers.
• Nonprofit managers and board members — people responsible for oversight of fundraising, including board leadership courses.
• Consultants — listed in AFP's Consultants Directory and served by the same professional development and ethics infrastructure.
• Volunteers and chapter participants — AFP operates through chapters and affinity groups, so local involvement is a real entry point.

Main Sections of afpglobal.org

The site is organized into a few large areas. Here is what each one actually contains, based on the site's own navigation.

Professional Development

This is the largest section and includes:

• Conferences — AFP ICON and AFP LEAD, plus immersive programs and deep dives.
• Core Training Programs — including Donor-Advised Fund Essentials and a Board Leadership and Fundraising Course.
• Short-form learning — webinars and recordings, micro-learning videos, e-courses, and members-only webinars.
• Hosting & licensing — for organizations that want to run AFP content themselves.

Credentials & Degrees

AFP lists three credential paths: ACFRE (Advanced Certified Fundraising Executive), CFRE, and CNP. If you are deciding whether a fundraising credential is worth it, this section is where the requirements and program descriptions live.

Career Support

• Find or post a job through the AFP Career Center.
• AFP360° career-building tool.
• Mentorship programs.
• Open positions at AFP itself.

Note that job posting has its own pricing page (careers.afpglobal.org/employer/pricing/), so employer posting is a paid service — the site does not present it as free.

News & Resources

• Guides & resources, tools & templates, and the Ready Reference Series.
• Research & reports, including the Fundraising Effectiveness Project.
• AFP News & Press Releases, Advancing Philanthropy magazine, leadership messages, community perspectives, member stories, and podcasts.

Ethics & Initiatives

• Ethics in Fundraising, Ethics Awareness Month, the Code of Ethics, Standards & Guidelines, ethics sample cases, and enforcement & sanctions.
• The Donor Bill of Rights.
• Member Code of Conduct and conduct FAQs.
• Initiatives including AFP IDEA, an anti-racism initiative, the Women's Impact Initiative, and work on fundraising and workplace climate.

Policy & Advocacy

Issues & positions, lobbying and advocacy tools, AFP PAC, The Charitable Act, and AFP Chapter Advocacy Week.

Membership, Chapters, and Affiliated Networks

AFP is not a single centralized body. The navigation shows a network that includes:

• AFP Global plus AFP Canada (and a French-language Canada site), AFP México y Puerto Rico.
• AFP Chapters — a Find a Chapter tool, Collegiate Chapters, a Chapter Resource Center, and a Chapter Spotlight Program.
• AFP Foundations — separate US, Canada, and Mexico foundations.
• Affinity Groups and AFP Connect for peer community.
• Directories — a Member Directory and a Consultants Directory.

Membership has Levels & Options and Benefits, with membership benefit webinars and FAQs. The site does not publish prices in the material reviewed here, so check the membership pages directly for current dues and what each level includes.

A Concrete Example of How You Might Use It

Suppose you run fundraising at a small nonprofit and your board chair keeps deferring fundraising to staff. You could:

1. Look up the Board Leadership and Fundraising Course under Core Training Programs to get a structured way to align board and staff — the site itself highlights a session titled "Align Your Board and Staff for Fundraising Success," a two-day virtual intensive co-presented by AFP Global and the University of Maryland.
2. Pull the Donor Bill of Rights and Code of Ethics from the Ethics section to set expectations with leadership.
3. Use the Fundraising Effectiveness Project reports to benchmark your donor retention against sector data.
4. Find your local chapter for in-person peer support.

Each step produces something usable: a course registration, a document to circulate, a benchmark, and a local contact.

Is It Worth Following?

It depends on what you need:

The main limitation to plan around: AFP is a membership organization, and a meaningful share of its content — members-only webinars, member directories, member benefits — sits behind membership. The site's public pages are useful for orientation, ethics documents, and research, but the full professional development catalog and community features assume you join. Confirm current dues, membership levels, and event pricing on the site itself, since those details are not fixed in the material available here.