Winner of the

AFP/Skystone Partners Prize for Research on Fundraising and Philanthropy, Association of Fundraising Professionals, 2021

Terry McAdam Book Award, given by the Alliance for Nonprofit Management

2023 Peter Dobkin Hall History of Philanthropy Prize from the Association for Research on Nonprofit and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA).

Founder of a beauty empire, Madam C. J. Walker was celebrated as America's first self-made female millionaire in the early 1900s. Known as a leading African American entrepreneur, Walker was also devoted to an activist philanthropy aimed at empowering African Americans and challenging the injustices inflicted by Jim Crow.

Tyrone McKinley Freeman's biography highlights how giving shaped Walker's life before and after she became wealthy. Poor and widowed when she arrived in St. Louis in her twenties, Walker found mentorship among black churchgoers and working black women. Her adoption of faith, racial uplift, education, and self-help soon informed her dedication to assisting black women's entrepreneurship, financial independence, and activism. Walker embedded her philanthropy in how she grew her business, forged alliances with groups like the National Association of Colored Women, funded schools and social service agencies led by African American women, and enlisted her company's sales agents in local charity and advocacy work.

Illuminating and dramatic, Madam C. J. Walker's Gospel of Giving broadens our understanding of black women's charitable giving and establishes Walker as a foremother of African American philanthropy.

|Foreword by A'Lelia Bundles
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Making Madam C. J. Walker
2 Opportunity
3 Education
4 Activism
5 Material Resources
6 Legacy
Conclusion
Epilogue: Madam C. J. Walker and African American Philanthropy in the Twenty-first Century
Notes
Bibliography
Index|

The AFP/Skystone Partners Research Prize for Scholarly Work Surround Philanthropy of People of Color, 2021
The Terry McAdam Book Award, given by the Alliance for Nonprofit Management, 2021

— The AFP/Skystone Partners Research Prize for Scholarly Work Surround Philanthropy of People of Color
The AFP/Skystone Partners Research Prize for Scholarly Work Surround Philanthropy of People of Color
The Terry McAdam Book Award, given by the Alliance for Nonprofit Management — The Terry McAdam Book Award, given by the Alliance for Nonprofit Management
|

Tyrone McKinley Freeman is an assistant professor of philanthropic studies at Indiana University.