The Foundation Center's Guide to Funding Research has a Glossary where you will find the definitions of terms commonly used in fundraising and nonprofit management.
The Association of Fundraising Professionals web site features an exhaustive Fundraising Dictionary - 133 pages of fundraising terms and acronyms explained. In Adobe PDF format.
The Nonprofit Good Practice Guide (a project of the Philanthropic and Nonprofit Knowledge Management Initiative at the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy & Nonprofit Leadership) has an extensive glossary with thousands of philanthropic terms. You can browse the terms alphabetically or perform a keyword search.
The Council on Foundations has a Glossary of Philanthropic Terms (with investment terms) and an Emerging Issues Glossary.
IUPUI University Library has a Glossary of Philanthropic Acronyms and Terms.
BoardSource has a board-related glossary.
The Independent Sector's Mission and Market: The Resource Center for Effective Corporate-Nonprofit Partnership has a Glossary of Terms in the context of corporate-nonprofit partnerships.
The following print resources are available at most of the five Foundation Center libraries:
- Anheier, Helmut K. and Regina A. List. A Dictionary of Civil Society, Philanthropy and the Non-Profit Sector. London, England: Routledge. 2005. Covers approximately 600 terms, in alphabetical order. Among the 600, more than 100 are biographical entries.
- National Society of Fund Raising Executives, Barbara R. Levy, and R.L. Cherry (eds.) The NSFRE Fund-Raising Dictionary. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. 1996. Provides nearly 1,400 definitions of essential fundraising and nonprofit terms used by English-speaking fundraising professionals throughout the world.
You might also be interested in looking at an article (in PDF format) posted by the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, entitled "In Other Words: A Plea for Plain Speaking in Foundations," that seeks to debunk in a light-hearted way some of the jargon used by foundations and nonprofits.
To learn more about the basics of foundation funding, see see Learn About Foundations and Fundraising, or attend our Grantseeking Basics, a free one-hour class.
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