afpglobal.org

The Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) maintains a formal ethics framework that any fundraiser can use, whether or not they are a member. It centers on a Code of Ethics, a Donor Bill of Rights, published sample cases, and an enforcement and sanctions process, supported by an annual Ethics Awareness Month and a member conduct policy. These resources are designed to guide day-to-day decisions and to give the profession a shared standard for handling donors, data, and money.

The AFP Code of Ethics

The Code of Ethics is the core document. AFP states that it believes fundraising best practices lead to a world of generosity and positive social good, and the code translates that belief into obligations fundraisers accept.

In practical terms, a code of ethics is what you consult when a decision is not covered by law or by your employer's policy — for example, when a donor offers a gift with conditions that conflict with your organization's mission, or when you are asked to report results in a way that overstates impact. The code gives you a defensible professional standard to point to.

Standards & Guidelines

AFP publishes Standards & Guidelines alongside the code. These are the interpretive layer: they explain how the broad principles apply to specific situations, which is what makes the code usable rather than abstract. If you are writing an internal gift-acceptance policy or briefing a board, this is the section to work from.

Donor Bill of Rights

The Donor Bill of Rights is AFP's statement of what donors are entitled to expect. It is one of the most widely adopted documents in the sector and is commonly reproduced by nonprofits on their own websites and in annual reports.

For a fundraiser, its value is operational. It sets expectations around how donors are informed, how their intentions are respected, and how their privacy is handled. A concrete use: when your organization drafts a privacy notice or a solicitation letter, the Donor Bill of Rights gives you a ready checklist of commitments to disclose.

Ethics Sample Cases and FAQ

AFP publishes Ethics Sample Cases and an Ethics FAQ. These are the most directly useful resources for training, because they present realistic dilemmas rather than principles.

A workable approach for a team meeting:

1. Pick a sample case that resembles a situation your organization has actually faced.
2. Ask each person to state what they would do and why, before revealing the published guidance.
3. Compare the reasoning, not just the answer — the disagreements are where the learning is.
4. Record any gap between the case guidance and your own written policies, and fix the policy.

The FAQ serves the same function for questions that come up repeatedly, so you can resolve common issues without escalating them.

Enforcement and Sanctions

AFP operates an Enforcement & Sanctions process. This matters because a code without consequences is advisory only. The existence of a process means that complaints about ethical conduct can be reviewed and that sanctions are possible.

If you are considering whether to raise a concern, the practical questions are: does the conduct fall under the code, and is the person subject to AFP's jurisdiction? The Enforcement & Sanctions pages describe the mechanism; read them before assuming a concern has nowhere to go.

Member Code of Conduct

Separate from fundraising ethics, AFP maintains a Member Code of Conduct, with its own FAQ, sample scenarios, enforcement and sanctions, and a Member Fair Behavior Policy. This governs how members behave toward each other — in chapters, at conferences, and in online communities.

The distinction is worth keeping clear: the Code of Ethics governs your conduct as a fundraiser toward donors and the public; the Member Code of Conduct governs your conduct as a member toward other members. A single incident could implicate either, both, or neither.

Ethics Awareness Month and Ongoing Initiatives

AFP runs Ethics Awareness Month as a recurring focal point, and houses ethics within its broader Ethics & Initiatives work. For a fundraiser, the practical benefit is timing: it is a natural hook for running an internal ethics refresher, revisiting your gift-acceptance and privacy policies, or publishing a statement to donors about your commitments.

How to Use These Resources

Two conditions apply. First, AFP's ethics materials set a professional standard; they do not override the law in your jurisdiction or your employer's own policies, and where those are stricter, the stricter rule governs. Second, the Code of Ethics binds AFP members specifically — non-members can and do use the documents as a reference standard, but the enforcement mechanism applies to members.

The most reliable way to use this material is to read the Code of Ethics and Standards & Guidelines once in full, then keep the Donor Bill of Rights and the sample cases close at hand for the decisions that actually come up.

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.

AFP (the Association of Fundraising Professionals) offers a layered professional development system: conferences and immersive events, core training programs, short-form learning, and three credentials — ACFRE, CFRE, and CNP. The right entry point depends on your career stage and how much time you can commit. AFP ICON and AFP LEAD are the flagship events; the ACFRE is the advanced, executive-level credential; CFRE and CNP are the broader certification paths. AFP also runs a career center and a mentorship program for members building toward these credentials.

Conferences and Events

AFP's event lineup spans large annual gatherings and smaller intensive formats:

• AFP ICON — AFP's flagship conference, listed under both the main navigation and the "Explore AFP" menu.
• AFP LEAD — a separate leadership-focused event.
• Immersive Programs and Deep Dives — longer, concentrated formats listed alongside ICON and LEAD under Professional Development.
• National Philanthropy Day — AFP's sector-wide recognition event, listed in the Explore AFP menu.

One concrete example from the site: a two-day virtual intensive on aligning your board and staff for fundraising success, co-presented by AFP Global and the University of Maryland, scheduled for Sept. 28–29. That format — short, virtual, topic-specific — is representative of the "immersive" tier rather than the multi-day ICON experience.

Core Training and Short-Form Learning

Under Professional Development, AFP groups its ongoing learning into several tracks:

The short-form tier is the lowest-commitment option: recorded webinars and micro-learning videos for quick, on-demand learning, and e-courses for structured self-paced study. Note that one webinar category is explicitly members-only, so some short-form content sits behind membership.

Credentials and Degrees

AFP lists three credentials under "Credentials & Degrees":

• ACFRE (Advanced Certified Fundraising Executives) — positioned as the advanced credential, aimed at senior fundraising executives. AFP describes it as "Advanced Certified Fundraising Executives" in its Explore menu.
• CFRE — the Certified Fundraising Executive credential.
• CNP — the Certified Nonprofit Professional credential.

These sit in the same navigation section as "Career Support," which also includes the AFP360° Career Building Tool, a mentorship program, and open positions at AFP itself. If your goal is a credential, the practical sequence is: confirm which credential matches your experience level, then use AFP's training programs and mentorship to build the required background.

How to Choose a Path by Career Stage

• Exploring the field or new to fundraising — start with short-form learning (webinars, micro-learning videos, e-courses) and a core training program. Lowest cost in time, and it tells you whether the field fits.
• Working fundraiser building credentials — combine a core training program or topic-specific course (for example, Donor-Advised Fund Essentials) with a conference like AFP ICON for breadth, and look at CFRE or CNP as the certification target.
• Senior or executive-level — AFP LEAD and immersive programs fit leadership development, and ACFRE is the credential tier AFP positions as advanced.
• Board members or staff supporting boards — the Board Leadership and Fundraising Course targets this role directly.

Practical Notes Before You Commit

• Membership affects access. At least one webinar category is members-only, and AFP maintains separate Membership Levels & Options and Membership Benefits pages. Check those before assuming a program is open to you.
• Pricing is not stated on the pages reviewed. AFP's site shows a pricing link only in the career center context ("Post A Job" at careers.afpglobal.org/employer/pricing/). Program fees, membership dues, and credential costs are not listed in the material reviewed here, so confirm current pricing directly with AFP.
• Regional variants exist. AFP operates afpglobal.org alongside AFP Canada, AFP Canada – Français, and AFP México y Puerto Rico, plus local chapters. If you are outside the US, check whether your region has its own programming and pricing.
• Chapters are a local entry point. "Find a Chapter" appears in both the main and universal navigation; chapter-level events are often cheaper and closer than national conferences.

To verify current schedules, eligibility requirements, and fees for any of these programs, use AFP's Professional Development and Credentials & Degrees sections directly, or contact AFP through the chapter nearest you.

The AFP Career Center (careers.afpglobal.org) is the Association of Fundraising Professionals' job board and career-support hub. Job seekers use it to browse open fundraising positions, build skills through the AFP360° career tool, and connect with mentors; employers use it to post openings through a dedicated pricing page. It sits alongside AFP's broader professional development offerings, so the career center works best as one part of a larger membership and learning strategy rather than a standalone job board.

What the AFP Career Center Offers

AFP's main navigation organizes career support under a single "Career Support" section, which contains four distinct entry points:

Note the distinction in that last row: "Open Positions at AFP" lists jobs at the organization, not jobs at other nonprofits. If you're looking for fundraising roles elsewhere, that's the "Find or Post a Job" path.

For Job Seekers

Browsing and applying for roles

The job board lives at careers.afpglobal.org. From there you can search open positions and review listings posted by nonprofit employers. Because AFP is a fundraising-specific association, listings tend to be concentrated in development, advancement, and philanthropy roles rather than general nonprofit administration.

Using AFP360° and mentorship

Two tools support the search beyond the listings themselves:

• AFP360° Career Building Tool — positioned as a career-building resource, useful when you're planning a move rather than just applying to the next opening.
• Mentorship — pairs you with experienced practitioners, which matters in fundraising because hiring often depends on demonstrated campaign or major-gift experience that's hard to acquire without guidance.

Connecting to chapters

AFP operates through a chapter network (AFP Canada, AFP México y Puerto Rico, and regional chapters). Local chapters frequently surface jobs and informal openings that never reach the national board, so pairing a career-center search with your nearest chapter is a practical way to widen your net.

For Employers

Posting a job

Employers post through the same career center. AFP provides a dedicated pricing page at careers.afpglobal.org/employer/pricing/ — reachable via the "Post A Job" link — where posting costs and options are listed. Check that page directly for current rates, since pricing isn't published in the general site navigation.

Why post with AFP rather than a general board

The audience is self-selecting: people already engaged with fundraising as a profession. For specialized roles — major gifts, planned giving, campaign direction — that targeting usually matters more than raw applicant volume.

Practical Notes

• Membership and career tools overlap. Several career resources sit within AFP's member-facing structure. If a tool appears gated, check the Membership Levels & Options page to see what your tier includes.
• The career center is one node in a larger system. AFP's professional development spans conferences (AFP ICON, AFP LEAD), credentials (ACFRE, CFRE, CNP), and short-form learning. Employers hiring senior fundraisers often look for these credentials, so job seekers should treat the career center and the credentials path as connected.
• Verify current details on-site. Job listings, posting prices, and tool availability change; the pages above are the authoritative source.

AFP membership is designed for fundraising professionals who want structured professional development, career support, and access to a practitioner community. The Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) describes its purpose as advancing fundraising best practices toward "a world of generosity and social good." If you work in or around fundraising and want training, credentials, peer connection, and job-search tools in one place, membership is the relevant option to evaluate. The specific benefits and level details below reflect what AFP publishes on afpglobal.org; for current dues and eligibility, check the official membership pages directly.

Membership levels and options

AFP lists Membership Levels & Options as a distinct section under its membership navigation, alongside Benefits and Membership FAQs. That structure tells you where to look: the levels page defines what you can join as, the benefits page explains what each tier unlocks, and the FAQ handles common questions about joining and renewing.

AFP also operates across multiple regions and entities, which affects which membership applies to you:

• AFP Global — the main association
• AFP Canada and AFP Canada – Français
• AFP México y Puerto Rico
• AFP Chapters — local/regional chapters you can find through "Find a Chapter"
• AFP Foundation – US, AFP Foundation – Canada, AFP Foundation – Mexico — philanthropic arms
• Collegiate Chapters — for students

Because chapters exist alongside the global body, a practical first step is deciding whether you want global-only membership or global plus a local chapter. Chapter affiliation typically adds local networking and events, so check your region's chapter page before choosing.

What members get

Professional development and learning

AFP's Professional Development section is the largest cluster of member-facing benefits:

• Conferences: AFP ICON, AFP LEAD
• Immersive Programs and Deep Dives
• Core Training Programs, including a Board Leadership and Fundraising Course and Donor-Advised Fund Essentials
• Hosting & Licensing options for organizations running their own training
• Short-Form Learning: webinars and recordings, micro-learning videos, e-courses
• Members-Only Webinars — explicitly gated to members

The members-only webinar listing is the clearest example of content you cannot access without joining.

Credentials and degrees

AFP supports three credential paths:

• ACFRE (Advanced Certified Fundraising Executive)
• CFRE (Certified Fundraising Executive)
• CNP (Certified Nonprofit Professional)

If a credential is your goal, membership is often the practical route to the study resources and community around it.

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 the Career Center also serves employers — AFP lists a separate Post A Job pricing page for employers, so job posting is a paid service distinct from member benefits.

Resources and research

• Guides & Resources, Tools & Templates, Ready Reference Series
• Research & Reports and Research Initiatives, including the Fundraising Effectiveness Project
• News & Publications: AFP News & Press Releases, Advancing Philanthropy magazine, AFP Leadership Messages, Community Perspectives, AP Perspectives, Member Stories, Podcasts

Ethics and community

• Ethics in Fundraising: Code of Ethics, Standards & Guidelines, Ethics Sample Cases, Enforcement & Sanctions, Donor Bill of Rights, Ethics FAQ
• Member Code of Conduct and related policies
• Initiatives: AFP IDEA, Anti-Racism Initiative, Women's Impact Initiative, Fundraising & Workplace Climate, Emerging Leaders
• Policy & Advocacy: Issues & Positions, Lobbying and Advocacy Tools, AFP PAC, The Charitable Act, AFP Chapter Advocacy Week
• AFP Connect — the community platform
• Directories: Member Directory and Consultants Directory
• Affinity Groups

Recognition and events

• National Philanthropy Day
• Awards & Honors
• Chapter Spotlight Program

How to decide whether to join

Joining or renewing

The main navigation includes Join/Renew and Sign in under the user account menu, with Membership FAQs available for common questions. Before joining, confirm:

1. Which region applies to you (Global, Canada, México y Puerto Rico).
2. Whether you want a chapter affiliation and which chapter covers your area.
3. Which membership level matches your role and career stage.
4. Current dues and eligibility on the official membership pages — afpglobal.org does not publish pricing in the material reviewed here, so do not assume cost or access terms.

If you are an employer rather than an individual, the relevant path is the AFP Career Center's Post A Job service, which has its own pricing page.