The successful candidate will work with the Board, the EFA Certification and Public Affairs Committees, and other volunteer member groups to ensure that EFA is a collective voice for Europe’s fundraising community. The role will also provide the unique opportunity to work across EFA’s membership, developing and managing partnerships with a range of organisations across Europe and globally.

Full details on the job description and application process here

 Criteria for the role

• A senior and experienced individual with a significant and demonstrated track record in an NGO, civil society organisation or public body,
• Strong financial acumen with proven experience and solid fundraising skills.
• Sound strategic planning abilities with a proven track record of achieving targets.
• Demonstrated experience and success in global partnership building, convening stakeholders with diverse cultural backgrounds.
• Experience in effective advocacy with both internal and external audiences.
• Fluent in English; good knowledge of other languages is an asset.

Timeline

The closing date for applications is 30/06/2024 and the first stage online interviews will take place in July. Further interviews will take place from August with the final decision made in September/ October.

Help EFA find the right candidate

EFA is asking members to help with the search by promoting the opportunity within their own network through their newsletters and social channels.

Questions

Questions can be directed to Charlotte Rydh, President of EFA and CEO of the Swedish Fundraising Association, at info@efa-net.eu.

An expert on transforming charities and not-for-profits, Pallotta will deliver The Bolder Board Training programme for more than 200 charity leaders, trustees and major donors on 12 November 2018, with the event kicking off Trustees Week 2018.

Pallotta’s 2013 TED talk The way we think about charities is dead wrong has had over 4.5 million views. His Bolder Board Training has also received international acclaim.  Part lecture and part workshop, it helps charity boards awaken, articulate and pursue their biggest dreams, teaching them how to work with their CEOs and disrupt traditional ways of thinking to find new ways of building and delivering on their visions.

The programme’s content includes:

– New thinking about charity, non-profit business practice, giving and making a difference, and the five conventions that obstruct organisations from reaching their potential

– New ways of looking at innovation, including the four keys to successful innovation

– How to create a future that is not based on the past

– How to increase the energy and enthusiasm of a team and board, and how to transform – and keep transformed – the board

Commenting on the event, Lucy Masterson, CEO, Charities Institute Ireland said:

“We are seeing increasing demands for services and greater regulation and transparency on the one hand but on the other, low acceptance of the need to provide the resources needed to deliver on these asks. As a sector we need to think differently, act differently and, if we are to succeed, we need new and bolder thinking.”

The French solidarity tax on wealth (impôt de solidarité sur la fortune, or ISF) was abolished late last year and replaced by the impôt sur la fortune immobilière, or IFI. The tax now covers only real estate assets, removing financial investments, savings and other securities from the calculation base, and therefore reducing the number of households subject to the tax.

 Under the old system, individuals paying ISF could deduct up to 75% of the cost of donations made to certain charitable organisations and foundations from their tax bill, up to a limit of €50,000. With the new IFI system in place, the Apprentis d’Auteuil Foundation raised concerns that fewer taxpayers could lead to a corresponding decrease in donors. To find out whether the IFI is likely to affect giving, it commissioned the IPSOS Institute to carry out a study.

Published in early April, the IPSOS-Apprentis d’Auteuil Barometer questioned 300 ISF taxpayers. It shows that 82% of households subject to the solidarity tax on wealth, paid by households whose wealth exceeds €1.3 million, made a donation in 2016. In 2017, 72% of respondents gave several times, against 68% in 2016, with an average of 4.4 donations per year.

An average donation of €2,535 was given through the ISF in 2017. This was the highest average donation by taxpayers through the ISF in four years and €355 more than in 2016.

However, 55% of those questioned for the Barometer thought that the change posed a threat to charities with donations likely to fall, while 51% thought that the tax change would decrease generosity because of a loss of that incentive to donate. Less than half (49%) of IFI taxpayers knew that they could still reduce their tax bill by donating to certain charities.

In fact, while 80% of those who donated last year said they intend to continue, those who are certain they will donate dropped from 51% in 2017 to 44%, while the proportion that said they probably would give rose from 30% to 36%. The proportion that said they would not donate rose 1%, to 20%.

For those benefiting from the tax changes, when asked how they might use their extra savings, the majority said they would spend it (41%), put it into traditional bank savings (39%) or into investments in companies (30%). Just 21% said they would donate to organisations or foundations.

The study can be read here.

Individuals are responsible for 60% of this total, according to the study, Panorama national des générosités, with donations mentioned in tax returns for 2015 amounting to €2.62 billion, up 70% since 2006. 5.7 million households declared donations in 2015, representing 15% of tax paying households.

According to Fondation de France, the increase is the result of both more households declaring donations, which has risen by 20%, and an increase in the average donation. This has risen 44% in the past decade from €320 to €460, the study says.

Corporate donations are also increasing, it found, with the estimated total expenditure for corporate philanthropy reaching an estimated €2.9 billion in 2015, of which €1.6 billion is declared expenditure and €1.3 billion is an estimate of undeclared expenditure.

In addition, a study of 300 beneficiary organisations estimates legacies amount to nearly one billion euros a year. Nearly 50% of legacies go to foundations, with the three most popular causes being medical research (23%), education (13%) and solidarity (13%).

The study also looked at methods of giving and shows that collections in public spaces or on private sites and big events such as telethons provide at least €47.5 million annually, while donations through crowdfunding have also increased significantly over the last three years in France, from €13.7 million in 2014 to €37.4 million in 2016.

Micro donations, such as the rounding up of cash or online purchases are still low in France, but growing, raising €1 million in 2015 and €1.6 million in 2016, according to figures quoted in the study from MicroDon.

2015 is the most recent year for which all the sources quoted in the report are currently available, including tax figures.

The full report can be downloaded from the Fondation de France site.

The Austrian Fundraising Association’s European Fundraising School takes place in association with CFRE International. The programme will give fundraisers at all levels the opportunity to learn how to improve and professionalise their fundraising and find, win and retain corporations, major donors and general supporters on a long-term basis.

This year, the School will take place for the very first time in Berlin from 19-20 June 2018 in cooperation with the German Fundraising Association & Fundraising Akademie. The School will then move to Vienna on 25-29 June.

The Berlin event will be a two-day workshop, Developing Major Gifts, with Eva Aldrich, which will show attendees how to address the challenges in developing major gifts to achieve greater success.

Vienna will see two courses take place. A three-day Fundraising Intensive course will run from 25-27 June with Eva Aldrich who will give an introduction to the core methods and principles of successful fundraising. Aldrich will cover proven techniques in fundraising as well as strategies for building long-term philanthropic sustainability.

Following this, Building your Major Donor Journey with Bernard Ross will last for two days, from 28-29 June, and will give participants the skills and confidence to explore the opportunities offered by the growth in High Net Worth Individuals and Ultra High Net Worth Individuals.

Members of national Fundraising Associations qualify for a reduced member’s price. More information about this year’s European Fundraising School is available on the School’s website.

2into3’s The Irish Not-for-Profit Sector: Fundraising Performance Report 2017 shows that the increase in fundraised income was driven by a steep rise in donations to religious organisations. While the majority of organisations in the study’s sample (50.7%) experienced a decrease in fundraised income, the increase by certain subsectors, in particular religion, which saw a 73.9% increase, determined an overall increase. Only three other subsectors experienced an increase: professional/vocational, philanthropy/voluntarism, and social services, while international remained flat.

48% of organisations had an income below €100,000 in 2015, with 12% of Irish not-for-profit organisations reporting income of €1 million or above. The average income in 2015 was €990,900, while the median was €110,783.

Education/research dominated the sector in terms of income, accounting for 33.5% of total income, followed by health, which received 21.3%. In terms of fundraised income, social services received 22c of every €1 raised in 2015, while international organisations received 18c of every €1. Philanthropy/voluntarism as well as religion also received a significant proportion of total fundraised income of 16% and 15% respectively.

The majority of fundraised income for the survey sample came from regular/committed giving (35%) and direct marketing appeals (18%). Local/community fundraising accounted for 9%, while selling something and legacies both accounted for 7% each.

More key findings:

• Average cost to raise €1 in 2015 was 29c
• Staff numbers increased by 4%
• State funding as a % of total income in 2015 was 47.5%, an increase of 4%
• Ireland’s per capita giving is €176; €200 less than of UK giving levels and nearly five times less than the US

This is 2into3’s 7^th annual report on fundraising in Ireland. The report is based on analysis of almost 1,300 not-for-profits sector accounts and estimates the total amount of fundraised income and philanthropy in Ireland in 2015.

A working group is already preparing the reform of the country’s fundraising legislation, and has proposed a new Act to replace the current fixed-term money collection licences that are required each time fundraising is arranged.

Under the proposed new act, fundraising would require either a fundraising licence granted by the National Police Board for an indefinite period or the submission of a small-scale fundraising notification to a police department. For a fundraising licence to be granted, there would be a general requirement that the fundraising organiser should be a not-for-profit entity and that the fundraising is for charitable purposes. The fundraising organiser would also have to be a corporation or foundation registered in Finland.

Licences would not be needed for small-scale fundraising, which would instead require a police department to be notified. There would be no requirement for the organiser of small-scale fundraising to be a not-for-profit entity nor would the fundraising have to be for charitable purposes. However, the legislative proposals would not allow the organisation of small-scale fundraising to support a business activity or to accumulate wealth for a private individual or a legal person.

Under the proposals, a small-scale fundraiser could organise fundraising up to twice per calendar year and the maximum amount raised each time would be set at EUR 10,000. This small-scale fundraising would be restricted to associations, foundations or religious communities registered in Finland and political parties entered in the party register, as well as groups of at least three adults permanently resident in Finland.

The proposed act is scheduled to be submitted as a legislative proposal to Parliament in early autumn 2018. It would then enter into force in spring 2019.

Member of the working group for fundraising legislation reform and secretary general of the Finnish Fundraising Association (VaLa), Pia Tornikoski said:

“The current legislation is quite restrictive and has probably discouraged some charities from raising funds from the public. The proposed new Fundraising Act will offer more opportunities, especially for smaller charities, around how they can fundraise. Larger organisations will also benefit from being able to use new and innovative fundraising techniques and channels like digital platforms and social media more easily.

“In preparation, the Ministry has genuinely listened to the voice of civil society and fundraisers themselves, while striking the balance of respecting donors’ rights and meeting international regulations like the Financial Action Task Force, which combats money laundering and terrorism financing.”

Under the new scheme, announced during October’s Budget 2018, charities will be able to reclaim VAT in direct proportion to their fundraised income for the first time.

CII has led the campaign for such a scheme for more than fifteen years.

Chief executive Lucy Masterson described the decision to launch the scheme as

“one of the most positive steps this sector has seen in years.” She added: “It will directly positively impact those in need and it sends a strong signal from the state of the recognition of the role of charities in Ireland.”

The CII gave examples of some of the ways Irish charities will benefit from the VAT compensation scheme. Figures are based on the maximum potential return each charity could receive on their VAT costs. Under the pro-rata scheme, the total combined payment to charities will be capped at €5million.

For the Irish Cancer Society, for example, the reclaimed VAT would fund over 1,300 nights of palliative home care night nursing while the Jack and Jill Foundation estimates that it could reclaim between €4,000 and €6,000 each month. In real terms this means up to 375 hours of home nursing care will be made possible for children in every community across the country each month.

Masterson said:

“The income of charities is broadly divided 60-40 between Government and private fundraising. Suppliers tend to find it incredible that it costs charities more to buy their products than it costs commercial organisations but that has been the reality.”

Ireland joins three other countries in the EU that have introduced similar schemes ­– Denmark, Netherlands and the UK.

Read more:

For more information about the Charities Institute Ireland, see Lucy Masterson’s interview on the organisation’s work to redefine the sector’s future.

Published in August, The Critical Fundraising (Ireland) Report is the first in a series examining trends and issues in fundraising, and was developed by a task group led by Rogare International Advisory Panel member and Managing Director of Purplegrass Charity Consulting Gabrielle Murphy. As well as analysing Irish fundraising, it includes seven essays exploring some of the main issues.

Issues highlighted include:

– A serious shortage of fundraisers;

– An unfavourable tax environment;

– Low levels of professional fundraising training;

– A lack of research and data on fundraising and giving in Ireland;

– Uncertainty caused by the incoming GDPR; and

– A lack of representative body for fundraisers in Ireland.

The report states that many of the areas highlighted as issues can only be addressed at a sector level and therefore greater levels of collaboration are required to enable this.

Recommendations made in the report include:

– Charities must combine their efforts to lobby for greater tax incentives for legacy gifts and major charitable gifts;

– Establish a programme to benchmark nonprofits’ fundraising performances to produce better metrics and insight;

– Research career opportunities and bottlenecks to understand how and why people leave the sector;

– Charity-SORP needs to become a legal requirement for charities; and

– Invest in appropriate training for all relevant staff to ensure they understand GDPR and can manage and implement new regulations, policies and procedures.

Gabrielle Murphy, Managing Director of Purplegrass Consulting, said:

“We hope that this report will spark not only debate but joint and collaborative action across the sector by fundraisers, perhaps even a round table discussion that reviews the issues raised in this report, and others that may not have been covered. Certainly the compilation of the report raised questions around whether we need a sector-wide strategy and prioritisation of the key issues for fundraising that we can work to address over the next three-to- five years. Perhaps greater levels of discussion and collaboration may be needed across the sector if we are to address the key challenges faced by Irish fundraisers.”

The Critical Fundraising (Scotland) Report is currently being researched by a team led by consultant Mafe Marwick, and will be published in November this year. It will be followed by a similar report for the USA in the first quarter of 2018. Rogare has said that similar reports for Italy and Canada may also follow.

Twenty-five fundraisers graduated from the Professional Fundraising Programme on 19 September with certificates handed out during Finnish fundraising association VaLa’s annual awards ceremony by its partner in delivering the course, nationwide non-profit learning institution Rastor. Graduates received the Specialist Qualification in Product Development certificate, which is also approved and monitored by the Finnish Board of Education.

The course took place in Helsinki with participants from across Finland, and included 12 days of lectures as well as self-study and assignments. Training was carried out as an apprenticeship with on-the-job challenges including creating new ways of fundraising or improving the processes of fundraising in their own organisation. The course can also be state- or self-funded.

Following these first successful 25 graduates of the course, another 50 fundraisers will graduate in early 2018, with the next course, the fourth to date, set to start in February. The course is aimed at anyone already working in the fundraising sector who would like to boost their career with professional qualifications, as well as those looking to move into the sector.

Rastor’s Liisa Nieminen said:

“The course is already proving to be very popular with the apprenticeship element of the course beneficial for both the participants and their organisations. The on-the-job training offers great value for both, and it is also very cost-efficient, with Finland’s apprenticeship training system making it possible to finance these studies with the only cost being the €58 fee for the examination.”