Since I’m a fundraising professional when I’m not reading and writing for Book Riot, I’ve put together a list of four novels that explore different elements of philanthropy that have been published in the last few years. Interestingly three of the books have fantastical elements. So that’s four novels that tackle the wild world of philanthropy in different and important ways. I look forward to seeing more books of fiction that tackle the challenges we’re facing in the field of fundraising. A momental scene in the book touches on the challenges that nonprofits have when it comes to taking donations. (I want to credit my fellow panelist, Michelle Muri, who brought up this point at a recent Town Hall meeting of Community Centered Fundraising. Muri is behind the podcast “The Ethical Rainmaker.” CCF is working to make fundraising more equitable). There’s a point in the book when a small nonprofit has the opportunity to receive a life-changing gift, but at a huge price to their mission and ethics. Nonprofits across the country are having to make a choice to accept a large gift that may be at odds with their mission or result in a pivot that may not be ideal to their mission or risk losing critical funding. We’ve seen the scandals with institutions receiving money from ethically perilous people and organizations, notably like Jeffrey Epstein. The book really puts it in a stark light on the hard choices that nonprofits have to make when faced with this kind of money and the power that wealthy philanthropists can wield over nonprofits. Then Louis reveals that he has been working on a pill, a new designer drug, that makes people more generous by making them feel really good. However, the book makes the critique that feeling good about philanthropy might not be the best strategy, especially for the people who are supposed to benefit from philanthropy. This again hints at the problem of mission creep that we see in The City We Became. While the book mostly focuses on the scavenger hunt, worth the price of the book itself, it also explores the importance of ethics in the world of prospect research and fundraising in general. Since we have so much information at our disposal—within our databases, the aggregated databases, and news resources— we have to be careful stewards of the data and make sure that is used appropriately and accurately. And it’s also got some warnings about donors who have too much power within nonprofits. Former sex worker Marisol Rivera runs an escort service to fund her women’s health clinic. But funding the health clinic is a constant problem, something that resonates in our day and age with health care and under resourced populations. So the escorts also rob from their wealthy jerkish clientele to help deal with the funding pitfalls. Like a modern day Robin Hood. But things start to heat up for Rivera on several fronts, including romantically, so can she hold it all together? While it’s a fun romance, it’s also a commentary on the challenges of small essential nonprofits (ahem, healthcare) having difficulty getting the funding they need even though the economy is booming and the richer are getting richer. While nonprofits don’t typically have to resort to heists to pay the bills (hopefully!), it’s definitely a critique on how we prioritize who gets money and who doesn’t. If you want more books on philanthropy, check out my earlier post on 5 non-fiction books about philanthropy or another Rioter’s books to radicalize your beach bag.
