Henri Nouwen Wrote a Beautiful and Important Book About Fundraising, That Too Few Have Read
I have been in this profession for more than three decades, and among the books that genuinely changed how I think about fundraising — rather than simply how I do it — "A Spirituality of Fundraising" by Father Henri J.M. Nouwen stands apart.
I had the great good fortune to have lunch with Henri Nouwen once, and it was one of the highlights of my professional life. He was exactly the person you would expect from his writing — warm, present, deeply attentive, and utterly uninterested in the surface of things. He wanted to talk about what mattered. That quality pervades this book entirely, and it is why I keep returning to it and recommending it to colleagues who have not yet encountered it.
About the Book
"A Spirituality of Fundraising" is 64 pages of softcover from Upper Room Books, edited by John S. Mogabgab and published posthumously in 2011 — Nouwen died suddenly of a heart attack in September 1996. Mogabgab, who served as Nouwen's teaching, research, and editorial assistant at Yale Divinity School from 1975 to 1980, shaped Nouwen's unpublished writings into the cohesive argument you hold in your hands. A workbook edition, developed by Nathan Ball — a close colleague and friend of Nouwen — is also available, providing a four-week guided practice that includes the complete original text alongside commentary, reflection questions, journaling prompts, and meditation exercises for individual or group use.
The book is available free in PDF form at henrinouwen.org, which is itself a statement about the spirit in which it was written.
Who Was Henri Nouwen?
Father Henri J.M. Nouwen (1932–1996) was a Dutch Catholic priest, theologian, psychologist, professor, and spiritual writer whose work profoundly shaped contemporary Christian spirituality. Born in Nijkerk, the Netherlands, he was ordained in 1957, studied psychology at the Catholic University of Nijmegen and later at the Menninger Clinic in Kansas, and went on to teach at Notre Dame, Yale, and Harvard — an academic trajectory that few religious figures have matched. He wrote more than 40 books on the spiritual life, and the results of a Christian Century survey conducted in 2003 found his work to be the first choice of Catholic and mainline Protestant clergy.
Nouwen lived the last ten years of his life as the pastor of L'Arche Daybreak in Toronto, the community founded by Jean Vanier where people with and without intellectual disabilities live and work together as peers. That choice — to leave Harvard for a community of the profoundly vulnerable — tells you something essential about what Nouwen believed, and it is the conviction behind every page of this book.
What the Book Actually Says
Nouwen opens with a declaration that stops many fundraisers in their tracks: "Fundraising is, first and foremost, a ministry" — not a necessary evil or a business function, but a way of being present to people and inviting them into something larger than themselves.
He follows that with an argument that is even more arresting: "Fundraising is precisely the opposite of begging." This is the book's most radical claim, and Nouwen earns it carefully. Begging comes from scarcity and shame — the beggar has nothing to offer and asks only for pity. Fundraising, properly understood, comes from abundance and vision — the fundraiser has something genuinely worth sharing and invites others into the privilege of participating in it. The distinction is not semantic. It changes everything about how you enter a donor meeting, what you say, and what you believe about yourself when you say it.
The passage Nouwen gave us that I find myself returning to most often is this:
"Fundraising is a way of announcing our vision and inviting other people into our mission… Without vision we perish, and without mission we lose our way. Vision brings together needs and resources to meet those needs. Vision gives us courage to speak when we might want to remain silent."
That passage deserves to be framed and hung in every development office. The reason so many fundraisers struggle with the ask is not that they lack technique — it is that they have not fully inhabited the vision they are supposed to be announcing. Nouwen understood that the problem of fundraising is almost always a spiritual problem before it is a practical one.
He also draws on Scripture throughout, arguing that asking for money goes beyond funding a necessary goal — it encourages people to use their gifts of engagement, energy, and prayer to accomplish a common mission. The donor is not a means to an end. The donor is a partner in something that matters.
What Others Have Said
The responses "A Spirituality of Fundraising" generates are remarkably consistent in their intensity for a 64-page softcover that too few people have encountered — and they tell you something important about what the book does that most fundraising literature does not.
Matt, an instructor at several universities, wrote: "I assigned this book to students for more than ten years. It was one of the most popular books each year." A Goodreads reviewer wrote simply: "This book is fire. I'm sure I'll reread it so many times." Gavin, who had been raising money for ministry for two years, called it "one of the best things I've ever read on fundraising." Mitchell described it as "a great little primer on the perspective of ministry partner development — chalk full of great little one liners to keep you motivated." A reviewer on Christianbook.com wrote: "A must-read for stewardship committees." Amazon reviewers have called it "a must-read for leaders in churches, nonprofits, ministries, and businesses."
One Goodreads reviewer captured what I think is the book's deepest quality: "This is not a 'how to fundraise' book. This is a proper 'spirituality of fundraising' book. In classic Nouwen fashion, he brings the reader to their knees and invites the process of fundraising to be one of integrated humility, gratitude, and mutuality. The chapter titled 'rich people' was particularly powerful."
Another reviewer who read it with colleagues at work wrote: "This book profoundly changed my perspective on fundraising."
That phrase — profoundly changed my perspective — comes up again and again. It is not hyperbole. It is what happens when a book addresses not what you do but why you do it.
Why It Is Unsung — and Why That Matters
"A Spirituality of Fundraising" occupies an unusual position in the fundraising literature. It is not a how-to book. It offers no templates, no cultivation sequences, no metrics. It will not teach you how to write a major gift proposal or structure a campaign. For a profession that sometimes confuses competence with significance, that makes the book easy to overlook.
It is also, despite Nouwen's enormous reputation in religious circles, largely unknown among secular nonprofit fundraisers — or at least too few have said so publicly. Many development directors who have read Penelope Burk, Tom Ahern, and Mal Warwick have never encountered this book, which is a genuine loss, because what Nouwen describes is the interior condition that makes all the techniques work. You can know every cultivation framework in the field and still fail in the ask if you believe, somewhere beneath the surface, that you are begging. Nouwen addresses that belief directly. He does not teach you how to ask — he changes what you believe about asking. That change is more durable than any technique.
The book is brief by design. Nouwen believed in writing that gets to the point, and 64 pages is exactly what this argument needs — no more. It can be read in a single sitting, which is what I recommend. Read it slowly, reread it when you think of it. Read it before your next major donor meeting, not as preparation for the ask, but as preparation for the conversation.
A Note on the Workbook Edition
For those who want to go deeper into what the book opens up, the workbook edition developed by Nathan Ball (Upper Room Books, ISBN 9780835818803) is a four-week guided practice built around the complete original text. Ball, who knew Nouwen personally, brings both intimacy with the material and a practitioner's sense of how to make Nouwen's vision actionable for people who remain, as the workbook's preface honestly acknowledges, hesitant to ask for money even when they believe deeply in the cause.
Where to Get It
"A Spirituality of Fundraising" is available from Upper Room Books, on Amazon, and through most booksellers. The full text is also available free at henrinouwen.org — an act of generosity entirely in keeping with the book's spirit.
If you work in this profession and you have not yet read it, this week is a good time to start. If you have read it, read it again. And if you lead a development team, consider sharing it with every new staff member — not as a fundraising manual, but as a reminder of what the work is actually for.
Has this book found you yet — and if so, what has it changed about how you approach the work of fundraising? Share your experience in the comments section of the website.
This post is offered freely for educational purposes. Please share it with development directors, executive directors, board members, and anyone who raises money for a cause they believe in — provided the author's byline remains intact: By Laurence A. Pagnoni, MPA. Reproduction in publications, training programs, or institutional materials requires attribution.
