The complete set · Available now
Ten books, each covering one part of the job. Start at the beginning, or go straight to the problem in front of you.
How to read the set
Book One assumes you have not started yet. The other nine are reference books, so open them at the chapter you need.
Book I · Starting up
Most guides start at incorporation. This one starts a chapter earlier, at the question everybody skips: whether you should start one at all.
Then the name and state filing, bylaws, the federal application, a founding board, and a first-year budget that balances.
Book II · Being known
Nobody is withholding their support. They have not heard of you. Those are different problems with different solutions.
How to describe your organization in one sentence, build a simple website, use email well, show up in search, and skip the platforms that are not worth your time.
Book III · Mission and program
A program is a hypothesis. You are claiming that if you do a specific thing, a specific change follows, and a claim can be wrong.
Theory of change on one page, how much of a program is enough, how to run a pilot, and how to measure results without hiring a researcher.
Book IV · Money in
The size of a problem is not an argument for funding it. The size of the difference your reader can make is.
How donors actually decide, how to find your first fifty, and how to make the ask in person.
Book V · Money handled
A board does not need to understand accounting. It needs four answers, and most organizations cannot produce them.
Bookkeeping that holds up, restricted and unrestricted money, controls for a tiny team, and reserves.
Book VI · People
You are not busy. You are the bottleneck, which is a different problem with a different solution.
Contractor or employee, designing the role, writing the posting, interviewing, and keeping the volunteers you already have.
Book VII · The board
Most founding boards are assembled quickly, out of goodwill. This book is about building one on purpose.
What a board is for, recruiting for the skills you lack, working with the chair, and running meetings that reach decisions.
Book VIII · Law and compliance
Most of the rules that can sink a small nonprofit arrive without a reminder.
Charitable solicitation registration, operating in a second state, insurance, annual filings, and the agreements you will sign in your first five years.
Book IX · The founder
The job is harder on the person doing it than anyone tells you.
Founder’s syndrome, burnout, deciding with incomplete information, what you pay yourself, and when and how to let go.
Book X · The documents
Every other book explains what to write. This one gives you the finished document, annotated.
Forty documents: bylaws, budgets, policies, job descriptions and board papers, ready to adapt.
Get the complete set
Passion Turned Profession is available as a complete set for $149: all ten books in PDF and EPUB, plus the forty documents printed in Book X as editable Word files. The books are not sold separately.