On 7 July 2026, the French Senate’s inquiry commission on the private financing of public policy adopted its report after six months of work, 66 sessions, and 102 hearings, among them a joint hearing with Philea, EFA and ERNOP on 12 May. The commission was launched in response to concern over coordinated, ideologically driven funding strategies operating under the guise of philanthropy, most notably a network of foundations linked to a French businessman openly promoting a right-wing and far-right political agenda. The commission’s 32 recommendations aim to tighten transparency around private funding while explicitly preserving philanthropy’s role in democratic life.

A clear recognition of philanthropy

The inquiry commission explicitly recognises philanthropy’s contribution to funding the public interest, social innovation, and democracy. The commission does not question philanthropy’s legitimacy. The senators conclude that the existing legal framework for associations, foundations, and endowment funds is broadly sound. Their recommendations follow one consistent line: apply existing law better, rather than overburden it with new procedures. The commission pointed to the necessity of investing in human resources and tools for oversight bodies, training for public administrations and auditors, better information-sharing between government departments, improved sector statistics, and a sanctions regime that scales with the severity of the breach. It also proposes consolidating France’s foundation categories into four broad types and easing access to public-benefit foundation status. Endowment funds (fonds de dotation) draw the sharpest attention, with specific recommendations on governance and on dissolving inactive structures.

A neutrality injunction that reflects a broader European trend

The commission devotes an entire section to what it calls the “encroachment of influence strategies” on public policy, which it attributes to the opacity of certain private structures, and asks whether such funding is compatible with the impartiality expected of public action, with democratic oversight, and with the objectives of public policy itself. While this line of questioning stems from a legitimate concern for transparency, it echoes a broader, already documented trend: the growing pressure on civil society organisations to demonstrate political neutrality.

This ambiguity is not unique to France. Across Europe, civil society organisations seeking public or private funding are increasingly required to prove either that they have no political agenda, or that the one they have is compatible with public policy. This tension is visible even within the European Commission itself, where NGOs have faced pressure to soften how they describe their own advocacy work.[1] The same underlying issue shows up in different forms depending on the institution, but the direction is the same.

Institutional dialogue

While the report affirms philanthropy’s democratic role, keeps the current legal framework mostly intact, and prioritises enforcement over new rules, the commission has not taken up the sector’s recommendation of better structuring dialogue between national representative bodies and public authorities. It cites foreign models, Italy’s and the UK’s in particular, but fails to propose a permanent body for consultation between the state and philanthropy’s representatives. Better dialogue would help both sides understand each other, anticipate risks, and build regulation that holds up over time, something French actors have been advocating for some time.

Taken together, the report is good news for philanthropy’s legitimacy, yet challenging associations’ and foundations’ capacity to shape public policy is particularly worrying when civic space is already closing in across Europe.

Laurence Lepetit

[1] Louise Guillot, Florence Autret, “ONG: cachez ce lobbying que Bruxelles ne saurait voir,” Contexte, July 2026.

Full analysis: https://www.francegenerosites.org/actualites/transparence-influence-et-controle-democratique-des-financements-prives-de-laction-publique-synthese/

Over the next two decades, the transfer of wealth from Baby Boomers to their heirs and to charitable causes will be unlike anything the sector has seen before. Across Europe and beyond, organisations of every size are waking up to that opportunity, and many are investing in legacy content for the first time. The problem is that some of that content is built around the wrong thing entirely: the organisation, rather than the donor.

Beautifully produced films that open with mission statements, impact statistics, and carefully crafted brand messaging are everywhere. But what if we started to create content that did something much simpler and let legacy pledgers tell their stories?

What the neuroscience tells us

Professor Russell James at Texas Tech University has done some of the most compelling research in this area, using brain scanners to understand what happens when people consider leaving a legacy gift, and what he found is fascinating.

Legacy decisions activate what James calls the “visualised autobiography” regions of the brain, the parts we use when thinking about our own life stories and memories, and the stronger that activation, the more interested someone is in making a gift. This is why legacy giving is fundamentally different from other forms of donation: it is a deeply personal act of self-expression rooted in a donor’s sense of their own life and values.

Dr Claire Routley’s research (with Marina Jones) reaches the same conclusion through a different method. When she interviewed people who had left legacy gifts, they all had clear, identifiable life-story connections with their chosen charities, and the decision was never abstract or transactional but always rooted in lived experience and a sense of personal continuity.

One size does not fit all

Recent research by James and Routley adds a further layer of nuance that is particularly valuable for the sector. It found that people’s attitudes towards money fall into four broad mindsets: those who see money as a marker of status, those who experience financial anxiety, those who are planners, and those who are bargain-seekers. Each group is motivated differently, and the things that encourage someone to include a charitable gift in their will are quite different from the things that influence how much they ultimately leave.

This has direct implications for how you think about your content mix.

• For your planners, a pledger who talks through the practical decision behind their gift, how it fits into retirement planning or how the conversation with a solicitor went, can be more persuasive than any amount of emotional storytelling.
• For donors motivated by status and recognition, social proof content works well, including films that show the tangible, lasting impact a gift has made, or stories about named funds and what they have built over time.
• For those who are more anxious about money, the most powerful content is probably the warmest, featuring a pledger who had similar concerns and found a way through.
• For bargain-seekers, a short explainer film or an interview that touches on the tax efficiency of a gift in a will can open doors that purely emotional content might not.

The question worth asking is whether your legacy content is speaking to one type of donor and quietly overlooking everyone else.

What this looks like in practice

CoppaFeel is a breast cancer awareness charity with a young, contemporary brand, not what most people picture when they think of legacy fundraising, and their pledger film featured a supporter speaking directly about their connection to the cause. Why she had decided to make a gift, what it meant to her and her family, and how it sat alongside the rest of their lives. The film avoided production gloss, voiceover, and institutional messaging in favour of real people talking honestly, and it has secured 14 new pledgers with a 50% acquisition rate on launch.

The MS Society project took a different approach, featuring multiple pledgers each with different motivations including personal experience of MS, commitment to research, and a sense of community belonging. The deliberate diversity of perspectives reflected the reality that there is no single profile of a legacy pledger, and that showing multiple pathways into a gift is more inclusive and more effective than building content around a single archetype.

Five Talents took a different angle again, featuring Richard, a supporter with a development background, who talked through his gift in terms of due diligence and long-term investment thinking. That framing resonated deeply with Five Talents’ donor base precisely because it reflected how their supporters actually think and talk about money: it was their language, not the charity’s, and that distinction matters enormously.

Trusting the process

There is a practical question underneath all of this, which is how you actually find the right people to feature. Research from Remember A Charity found that 64% of legacy pledgers haven’t told the charities they’ve included a gift. Legacy pledgers are also far more likely to be among your existing supporters than you might expect — they could be your volunteers, regular donors or staff members.

The most effective process starts not with a camera but with a conversation. Talking to supporters, both pledgers and non-pledgers, about what would motivate someone to leave a gift reveals the authentic language and concerns that actually resonate in your community, and those conversations also open doors, because many supporters will say yes to sharing their story when approached with genuine interest and respect.

Good legacy content then needs to balance emotional connection alongside rational explanation, and clear personal values alongside motivations that other viewers can recognise in themselves. The collaborative approach matters too, including sharing drafts, gathering feedback, and making sure participants feel comfortable with how their story is told, not only because it is ethically right but because it consistently produces better content.

Authenticity over polish

In our experience, and that of many legacy fundraisers we have worked alongside, over-produced content tends to underperform compared to more authentically produced videos.

The Five Talents project demonstrated that supporters respond to straightforward, evidence-based storytelling that reflects their own language rather than the charity’s marketing register.

The wealth transfer currently underway is unprecedented, and organisations that invest now in building trust, creating authentic pledger stories, and reaching supporters across different motivational profiles will be better positioned for what is coming. It does not need to be complicated or expensive to begin, and your supporters deserve the opportunity to create impact that extends far beyond their lifetimes.

About Emma Bracegirdle

Emma Bracegirdle is founder of The Saltways, an ethical video production company and consultancy working exclusively with charities and nonprofits. The Saltways works with organisations of all sizes and causes on legacy video content, training, and storytelling strategy. You can reach Emma at emma@thesaltways.com. The Saltways is celebrating the power of ethical storytelling in the charity sector with a Charity Film Festival on 24 September, bringing together charity and nonprofit professionals for a full day of film screenings, workshops, panel discussions, live music and live streamed awards ceremony.

The loi de 1901 turns 125 this year. When it was passed, it did something simple and radical: it gave citizens the right to organise collectively without asking the state for permission. That founding principle has held. Today, France counts around 1.5 million active associations and over 6,000 foundations and endowment funds working across every field of the public interest — healthcare, education, environmental protection, social inclusion, human rights. France accounts for nearly two in five of all associations in the European Union, an associative density 2.5 times higher than the EU average, with nearly 1.8 million employees and 13 million volunteers.

Yet in December 2025, the CIVICUS Monitor downgraded France from “Narrowed” to “Obstructed” — placing it alongside Germany and Italy, and more than 50 other countries, in the third tier of civic space. For a self-declared mature democracy, this is a signal that cannot be ignored. Since the dissolution of the National Assembly in June 2024, those of us working in and alongside civil society have felt an unmistakable acceleration: restrictions coming faster, the political climate hardening, and with a presidential election on the horizon, a shared unease about what comes next.

The funding squeeze: public and private under pressure

The most immediate pressure is financial. Several regions have engaged in systematic defunding of the associative sector. In Pays de la Loire and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, associations working in culture, social justice, feminism and environmental protection have seen their subsidies drastically reduced — sometimes with openly hostile rhetoric from elected officials. Across France, nearly 50% of regional and local authorities cut their budgets for civil society between 2024 and 2025.

The threat reached the national level too. In July 2025, a joint report by two public inspectorates proposed a sweeping reform of the tax incentives underpinning private giving. If adopted, the proposals would have reduced donations by an estimated €1.1 to €1.5 billion annually. The sector pushed back hard. The Prime Minister’s office eventually confirmed that no such measures would feature in the 2026 Finance Law. But the episode left its mark — not just as a threat averted, but as a sign that fiscal stability for civil society can no longer be taken for granted.

Legislation as a tool of control

The regulatory environment tells a similar story. The 2021 “Séparatisme law” introduced expanded powers to dissolve associations by administrative decision, creating for the first time the possibility for the state to withdraw tax-deductibility from donor-supported organisations without a court ruling. The sector opposed it formally and publicly. It passed anyway. Since then, year after year — in the 2024, 2025 and 2026 Finance Bills — amendments have targeted organisations working on environmental protection, animal welfare and migration rights, proposing to automatically suspend their tax-deductibility. In April 2026, a new Interior Ministry bill went further still, extending dissolution powers to situations where there is no direct evidence of incitement to violence.

A Senate inquiry commission launched in February 2026 added another layer of pressure. Nominally focused on the financing of public policies by private foundations, its framing conflated legitimate philanthropy with political influence — casting a shadow over the sector well beyond its stated target. France générosités appeared before the commission to defend the sector’s track record. EFA, PHILEA and ERNOP were invited to contribute a European comparative perspective on philanthropic transparency standards — a reminder that these debates extend well beyond France’s borders.

Stigmatisation and the erosion of trust

What is harder to legislate against — but no less damaging — is the language being used about civil society. Environmental organisations have been publicly called “eco-terrorists” by government figures. Associations supporting migrants have been cast as facilitators of illegal activity. In June 2025, the Planning Familial (one of France’s oldest and most respected health organisations) saw its public funding threatened, triggering a collective response in Le Monde from dozens of organisations. The Observatoire des Libertés Associatives has been documenting this pattern for years: not isolated incidents, but a sustained effort to discredit organisations that challenge the political mainstream.

For fundraisers, the consequences are practical. Donor confidence does not survive indefinitely in a climate of deliberate stigmatisation. However, in 2025, individual donations grew by 3.6%, the strongest increase since 2021. A small signal, but an encouraging one in those difficult times.

Fighting back: collective pride as strategy

In the face of dismissive rhetoric, the sector has chosen to respond with a joyful and unifying campaign that expresses our pride in a country where the voluntary sector is thriving. Associations and foundations have joined forces around a simple message: civil society is not a problem to be managed. It is democracy in action.

This convergence has produced a unified public campaign. La France qui (se) bat — “France that fights (for itself)” — launched on 4 June 2026 to mark the 125th anniversary of the loi de 1901. Our aim: to mobilise the French public, demonstrate their commitment to the voluntary sector, and remind our elected representatives and presidential candidates of the importance of protecting this sector for a vibrant democracy.

Laurence Lepetit, chief executive, France générosités

This theme was particularly evident in the discussions that took place during the afternoon’s parallel workshops, and in the Symposium’s closing session, where the conversation continued with a presentation of findings from each workshop and questions from the audience.

The workshops were:

Challenges And Potentials Of Education In Fundraising — moderated by Nele Theuer from BIBB, and discussing questions including how educational requirements will change in the future and which developments are needed to meet them; how to ensure that the educational needs of aspiring fundraisers from different backgrounds and with varying priorities are adequately addressed; and how structural characteristics of the German fundraising landscape helps or hinders these developments.

Should I Forget What I Know? Rethinking How Fundraisers Learn — moderated by Heike Kraack-Tichy from the German fundraising association DRFV, which explored the evolving demands on fundraisers and the skills, mindsets, and formats needed to stay effective in a rapidly changing world. The session challenged traditional approaches to professional development, asking what still works and what doesn’t, and how learning in fundraising can become more connected, practical, and bold.

Fun(d)raising 2050: Let’s Rock! Imagining the Future of the Profession: What Will Fundraising Look Like in 2050? — moderated by Pia Tornikoski from VaLa, the Finnish fundraising association. This workshop invited attendees to help shape the agenda and explore the future of fundraising. They discussed emerging trends, potential disruptions and key challenges, both within and beyond the nonprofit sector, reflecting also on long-term developments and who will lead the next generation of fundraisers.

Rounding up their conclusions, the final discussion of the day focused on the evolution of professional development in fundraising, examining the structural barriers to education, the transformative impact of AI, and the shifting organisational cultures required for the next generation of leadership.

Participants agreed that continuous learning should be viewed as a strategic investment that strengthens both individuals and organisations, rather than as an optional add-on. However, it was evident that for many fundraisers, accessing education and training remains difficult, with heavy workloads, limited budgets, and lack of long-term planning often prevent organisations from investing in professional development.

It was also clear that there has been a shift in how people learn, with traditional, authority-led training models increasingly giving way to peer-to-peer learning approaches that encourage collaboration, knowledge sharing, and practical experience. This change, participants noted, also reflects broader workforce trends, particularly among younger generations who value interactive and community-based learning environments.

Artificial intelligence, it was noted, can provide valuable support by providing real-time guidance and coaching, as well as automating routine tasks and supporting more sophisticated donor engagement strategies. At the same time however, there was strong agreement that technology will complement — not replace — human skills and qualities.

The discussion also extended beyond individual learning to organisational transformation, exploring more collaborative models of leadership, and ecosystem-based structures where fundraising is a shared responsibility across the organisation. Innovative practices such as dedicated “Innovation Labs” were highlighted as ways to encourage experimentation, reflection, and learning from failure.

Looking ahead, attendees imagined future fundraising roles such as Chief Empathy Officer, Chief Visionary Officer, and Giving Architect — positions blending technological capability with human-centred leadership. These future-focused roles reinforce the idea that the most valuable skills will be those that combine strategic thinking, emotional intelligence, and the effective use of technology.

Ultimately, the symposium concluded, the future of fundraising leadership depends on creating learning cultures that are accessible, relevant, and continuous. Organisations that invest in professional development, embrace innovation, and foster collaboration will be best positioned to thrive in an increasingly complex environment.

Key learnings

• Professional development is a strategic necessity, not an optional activity.
• Workload, funding constraints, and limited planning cultures remain major barriers to learning.
• Peer-to-peer and collaborative learning models are becoming more effective than traditional top-down approaches.
• AI will increasingly support fundraisers through automation, coaching, and data-driven insights. Human skills, however, remain irreplaceable.
• Innovation requires dedicated space and time, such as ‘Innovation Labs’ and structured reflection on failures.
• Organisations should foster a “fail-forward” culture that encourages experimentation and learning.
• Knowledge sharing and internal shadowing help spread learning across entire teams.
• Future fundraising professionals will need both technical and human skills, combining AI literacy with resilience and emotional intelligence.
• A common framework for fundraising competencies would help organisations assess, develop, and invest in talent more effectively.

Photo credit: DFRV/Karolina Granja

The EFA Learning Symposium 2026 took place in Berlin on 31 May-1 June. A big thank you to Deutscher Fundraising Verband (DFRV) and their events agency Kaiserwetter for hosting us.

Why fundraising needs a competency mindset

There is a persistent myth about what makes a good fundraiser. Many people believe successful fundraisers are simply empathetic, compassionate and good with people. It helps if they are outgoing, persuasive and passionate about their cause. Some even believe fundraising success depends on a natural gift that cannot really be taught.

Of course, these personal qualities matter. Empathy helps build relationships. Confidence helps start conversations. Passion helps inspire others. But on their own, they do not make someone a competent fundraiser.

Fundraising requires knowledge, skills and behaviours that can be learned and developed: understanding donor motivation, creating fundraising strategies, analysing data, managing partnerships, stewarding donors and much more. The moment we stop treating fundraising as a talent and start treating it as a set of professional competencies, we move from intuition to intentional development.

As fundraising continues to mature across Europe, I believe this distinction becomes increasingly important. Fundraising is increasingly recognised as a profession, yet professions are not built around personality traits. They are built around competencies. If fundraising is to continue evolving, we need a common language to describe what fundraisers should know and what they should be able to do.

Photo credit: DFRV/Karolina Granja

Measuring what matters: Lessons from Lithuania

This challenge became particularly visible to me in 2020, when I was developing Lithuania’s first national fundraising competency development programme, Fundraising@LT PRO. At the time, we brought together 30 fundraisers from different nonprofit organisations. They represented different causes, different levels of experience and different fundraising responsibilities. Some focused on grants, others on individual giving, corporate partnerships or communications.

One question quickly emerged: how could we design a meaningful learning programme without understanding participants’ existing competencies?

Too often, training programmes are built around assumptions. We assume we know where the gaps are. We assume what participants need to learn. We assume which skills require strengthening. But assumptions are a risky foundation for capacity building.

Inspired by Peter Drucker, the renowned management consultant often referred to as the father of modern management, and his famous observation that “you can’t manage what you can’t measure”, we decided to begin by assessing competencies. We developed a fundraising competency assessment test designed to evaluate knowledge and skills across several key fundraising domains. The objective was not to label people or rank them against each other. Instead, we wanted to understand existing strengths, identify gaps and build a programme based on evidence rather than intuition.

The results were illuminating. Most participants assessed themselves at Junior Fundraiser level, while only a small number reached Senior Fundraiser or Expert level. Some competencies proved stronger than expected, particularly understanding of fundraising ethics and the broader fundraising environment. Other areas revealed substantial gaps, especially individual fundraising, donor relationship management and fundraising strategy.

Most importantly, the assessment allowed us to replace assumptions with evidence. Rather than designing a programme around what we thought participants needed, we could focus on the competencies that genuinely required development.

Together with our international partners, we created a learning programme specifically targeted at those areas. Fifteen months later, participants completed the same assessment again.

The results were encouraging. Overall fundraising competencies improved by 22%. The strongest growth occurred in areas that received the greatest attention during the programme, including donor stewardship, fundraising strategy and community fundraising. Perhaps even more significantly, most participants progressed from Junior Fundraiser to Senior Fundraiser level, while the number of Expert-level fundraisers tripled.

Click images to enlarge

For me, the most important lesson was not the percentage increase itself. It was the confirmation that when competencies are clearly defined, assessed and intentionally developed, professional growth becomes visible and measurable. And once development becomes measurable, it can be managed strategically.

Beyond training: Building stronger fundraising teams

At the same time, the project revealed an important limitation. The competency assessment helped us understand where people were. It did not fully answer the question of where they should be.

We could identify competency gaps, but we lacked a framework that clearly described what fundraising excellence looked like at different stages of professional development. We needed something that could help organisations not only assess competencies, but also define expectations and create a roadmap for growth.

This led me to the concept of the Fundraising Competency Matrix*.

A competency matrix is a practical framework that defines the knowledge, skills and behaviours required for effective performance in a particular role or profession. It helps organisations understand what competencies people need, what level they currently demonstrate and what they need to develop in order to progress further.

Click images to enlarge

The value of such a framework goes far beyond training. It helps identify competency gaps and learning needs, supports workforce planning and talent management, improves recruitment processes and creates clearer career pathways. Most importantly, it turns competency development from guesswork into a structured management process.

One of the biggest shifts in thinking comes when organisations stop viewing every competency gap as a training problem. Training is important, but it is only one of many development tools. Competencies can also be strengthened through mentoring, coaching, peer learning, stretch assignments, job shadowing and practical experience.

When we focus only on training, we tend to ask: “What course should we send this person to?” When we focus on competencies, we start asking a much more useful question: “What experience, support or learning opportunity would help this person develop?”

The competency matrix helps organisations make these decisions intentionally rather than reactively.

It also encourages us to think beyond individual development and look at fundraising teams as a whole. Not every fundraiser needs every competency. A corporate fundraiser requires different expertise than a digital fundraising specialist. A fundraising manager needs different capabilities than someone at the start of their career. The goal is not for everyone to be equally good at everything. The goal is to ensure that all critical competencies are covered somewhere within the team.

This creates a different conversation inside organisations. Instead of asking, “Why are we not reaching our fundraising targets?”, leaders can ask, “Do we have the competencies required to achieve them?” In many cases, that question leads to far more useful insights.

For too long, fundraising capacity building has been driven by intuition, assumptions and individual experience. As our profession continues to evolve, competencies need to become the foundation of how we recruit, develop and manage fundraising talent. Strong fundraising teams are not built by chance. They are built through intentional investment in competencies.

Fundraising is not a talent. It is a profession. And professions become stronger when competencies are visible, measurable and continuously developed.

*The Fundraising Competency Matrix is available here and can be downloaded and adapted for use.

About Giedrė Šopaitė

Giedrė Šopaitė is a strategic philanthropy consultant, speaker and trainer with over 20 years of experience in the Lithuanian NGO sector. She is the founder and CEO of Baltic Fundraising Hub, supporting nonprofits in fundraising strategy and competency development, and advising companies on strategic philanthropy. Giedrė created Fundraising@LT PRO, Lithuania’s first fundraising competency development programme, and serves as an EFA board member. Her work focuses on strengthening fundraising professionalism, leadership and ethical, impact-driven philanthropy.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/giedresopaite/

Moderated by Pia Tornikoski, the Symposium panel brought together Zoe Oldham of Upsall International and Jeanette Eesmann-Foster of Mindwize to discuss what organisations should look for when recruiting fundraisers and the competencies fundraising leaders will need in the years ahead. On competencies, the panel highlighted strategic thinking, leadership and people management, data and AI literacy and stakeholder engagement, among others.

Recruiting insights

According to Zoe Oldham, organisations frequently search for a “unicorn” candidate: someone who can bring networks, raise substantial income immediately, manage teams, think strategically and fit perfectly into organisational culture. Such expectations often reveal deeper organisational challenges.

Jeanette Eesmann-Foster highlighted the importance of sustainable income and long-term investment. She argued that organisations often seek short-term fundraising gains when they should be investing in systems, data and donor relationships that create sustainable growth.

The panel repeatedly returned to the importance of realism. Successful recruitment begins with realistic expectations, alignment between leadership and fundraising teams, and a shared understanding of what fundraising can achieve over time.

One of the strongest themes was the growing professionalisation of fundraising. Across Europe, fundraising is increasingly recognised as a discipline requiring formal competencies, continuous learning and professional standards. Several participants noted that certified fundraising qualifications are appearing more frequently in recruitment processes. Certification and professional education are increasingly valued across Europe.
The conversation also highlighted resilience. Fundraising leaders increasingly operate in high-pressure environments characterised by ambitious targets, economic uncertainty and changing donor expectations. The panel suggested that resilience, peer learning, mentoring and wellbeing support should become recognised elements of fundraising leadership development.

Fundraiser retention is becoming as important as donor retention

The panel concluded that fundraising success depends less on individual heroes and more on organisational readiness, leadership and long-term investment. Organisations must be fundraising-ready before hiring fundraisers.

Perhaps the most important conclusion was that fundraising success cannot be separated from leadership. Organisations that invest in people, learning, culture and long-term thinking are better positioned to recruit, retain and support successful fundraisers. Both speakers highlighted that fundraising is under increasing pressure and burnout is becoming a significant issue.

Another recurring theme was retention. Just as organisations focus on donor retention, they must also think about fundraiser retention. Frequent staff turnover undermines institutional knowledge, disrupts donor relationships and weakens long-term fundraising performance.

As the Symposium demonstrated, the future of fundraising is not only about raising more money. It is about building organisations where fundraisers can thrive, adapt and contribute over the long term. Leadership quality and organisational culture strongly influence fundraising success.

In the mid-1990s, when face-to-face (F2F) street fundraising first erupted in Austria and began its rapid trek across borders, I found myself in a peculiar role: the evangelist for a “crazy” idea. I remember standing at international conferences, explaining our methodology, only to be met with shaking heads.

“What? You stop strangers on the street, chat for a few minutes, and they just hand over their bank details to let you collect money again and again?” they would ask. “You crazy Austrians — it will never work in my country.” Even those who saw its early success were sceptical of its longevity. Three decades later, however, F2F has proven them all wrong, becoming the bedrock of global donor acquisition.

The engine of modern acquisition

Today, we aren’t fighting for the survival of F2F; we are fighting to meet the overwhelming demand for it. In many markets, F2F is the primary tool capable of delivering the high volumes of regular donors that organizations need to survive. While traditional channels face diminishing returns and digital acquisition struggles to scale, F2F continues to deliver the human connection that translates into long-term commitment.

The current challenge isn’t a lack of interest from charities; it’s a capacity crisis. Agencies and in-house programs are struggling to find enough high-quality staff to fulfil this demand. But this success is not self-sustaining — it requires a deliberate focus on the people behind the clipboards.

The antidote to “AI overflow”

Looking ahead, I am more confident in F2F today than I was years ago. We are entering an era where AI-generated content, visual fakes, and automated spam will overflow our digital lives. This “content pollution” will inevitably lead to widespread frustration and a profound crisis of trust.

In a world where you can’t be sure if the voice on the phone or the face in a video is real, the value of physical, human interaction sky-rockets. We might use AI behind the scenes to optimize campaigns, but it will never replace the fundraiser on the street or at the door. People will be relieved to have a real human interaction.

Protecting the ecosystem

However, this future isn’t just going to “happen.” To keep F2F successful, we must move beyond viewing it as a mere “technique” and see it as a human ecosystem that requires constant reinvestment. Historically, agencies and dedicated in-house programs have been the “nurseries” of our industry — investing heavily in training and building the next generation of talent. If we stop investing in the “soil” and move toward purely transactional models, the harvest will eventually fail.

Caring for the frontline

Maintaining quality starts with the well-being of our fundraisers. Our teams are on an “exhausted mission” — standing in the rain, facing rejection, and carrying the emotional weight of the world’s challenges. If we want them to inspire others, we must first inspire and support them through mentorship and stable structures.

This is where the strength of our global F2F community comes in. We are a unique breed — one that shares, cares, and learns across borders. By fostering this culture, we ensure our frontline heroes have the resilience to keep building those vital bridges. F2F hasn’t just survived the digital revolution — it is the tool that will thrive because of it.

Experience the spirit of collaboration

And it is exactly this spirit of collaboration and shared learning that continues to drive our sector forward. The 3^rd International F2F Fundraising Congress will take place on 15–17 March 2027, bringing together practitioners, innovators, and decision-makers from across the globe to exchange insights, challenge assumptions, and shape the future of face-to-face fundraising together. Find out more and register here.

About Robert Buchhaus

After completing his studies, Robert Buchhaus, who holds a doctorate in law, decided to pursue a career in fundraising to promote positive change in the world. Over the course of his diverse, decades-long career, he has personally asked over 50,000 people to provide regular support to a wide variety of organizations, worked as an internationally active fundraising consultant for various international NPOs, and established fundraising agencies (Global Fundraising Group) with partners in numerous countries; serves as managing director of agencies in Austria and Germany, and is a recognized speaker at international fundraising conferences as one of the leading specialists in face-to-face fundraising.

In 2014, he was the first in the German-speaking world to introduce tablet fundraising into face-to-face fundraising. He serves on the board of the Austrian Fundraising Association.

Greenpeace image: © Mitja Kobal, Greenpeace

In a changing and increasingly complex environment for nonprofits, fundraising is central to organizational success and sustainability. As a result, demand for high-quality professional development is growing rapidly, as fundraisers seek clear and credible pathways to build their skills, strengthen their leadership capabilities, and gain recognised qualifications that reflect the realities of modern fundraising practice.

Supporting the development of the fundraising profession is a core priority for EFA. Through its Certification programme, EFA facilitates training and formal qualifications that help fundraisers grow and excel. Earlier this year, EFA launched its revised Advanced Competence Framework. This provides a robust foundation for training providers to design courses that meet the evolving needs of fundraisers operating in a leadership or management capacity or looking to progress into such roles. Later this month, the EFA Learning Symposium (31 May – 1 June in Berlin) will bring together educators, experts, and senior fundraisers to explore what kind of education produces better fundraisers, stronger organizations, and more sustainable income.

Ahead of this, we spoke to three fundraisers about their own career journeys — how they started in fundraising, the training and opportunities they pursued, and the impact professional development has had on their work. They also share their advice for others looking to grow and succeed in fundraising.

Charley Burke, innovation and development manager, Midlands Air Ambulance Charity, UK

How did you start in fundraising?
Like many professional fundraisers, I found my way into the sector through a growing awareness of the impact I wanted to have in my career. I have always been motivated by working on things that truly matter, and fundraising provides a meaningful way to contribute to positive change.

I started out in the Midlands Air Ambulance Charity marketing department where I developed a huge appreciation for the cause. My career in fundraising began through a six-month secondment managing community fundraising in Worcestershire. What began as a short-term opportunity evolved into a five-year journey.

Unlike many in the sector, I have remained with the same organization throughout my fundraising career. I now have the privilege of leading innovative income generation projects, driving forward new ideas to support and sustain our mission.

What key experiences or opportunities have helped you progress to where you are today?
A combination of practical experience, professional development, and sector engagement has been instrumental in my progression.

My background in marketing has been invaluable, equipping me with the skills to communicate compelling stories and build strong cases for support. Fundraising draws on a wide range of transferable skills, and this foundation has enabled me to engage supporters effectively and authentically. Networking and peer learning opportunities have broadened my understanding of the wider sector while allowing me to remain connected to an organization I am deeply passionate about.

Completing the Chartered Institute of Fundraising’s Fundraising Diploma strengthened my theoretical knowledge and deepened my understanding of the diverse skill set required to deliver excellent supporter stewardship. Importantly, my organization actively champions innovation. During my time in community fundraising, I was given the autonomy to test new ideas, learn from failure, and respond to supporter needs in an agile way. This experience has been invaluable in shaping my approach, encouraging creativity, resilience, and a supporter-focused mindset.

How has professional training in particular helped you?
Fundraising is sometimes perceived as the more accessible or “lighter” side of charity work; however, while it is dynamic and rewarding, it is underpinned by critical knowledge and professional standards.

Professional training and credentials have been essential in ensuring that my work is delivered with transparency and accountability. Gaining formal qualifications has not only deepened my understanding of best practice, but strengthened my confidence in delivering strategic and impactful fundraising initiatives.

What are your top tips for progressing a career in fundraising?

1. Stay open to unexpected opportunities A career in fundraising doesn’t always follow a straight path. Being open to secondments, side projects, or internal moves can lead to long-term growth. What starts as a short-term role can evolve into something much bigger if you’re willing to step in, learn quickly, and make an impact.
2. Build on transferable skills and purpose Fundraising thrives on skills from other disciplines, in my case marketing, communications, relationship-building. Use what you already know to tell compelling stories and connect with supporters. At the same time, stay grounded in the cause; a clear sense of purpose will shape how authentically and effectively you engage others.
3. Invest in learning, networks, and experimentation Progress comes from a mix of hands-on experience, professional training, and learning from others. Seek out development opportunities, connect with peers, and don’t be afraid to test new ideas. Innovation often comes from trying, failing, and adapting. Build resilience and keep your focus on what supporters need.

Sanna Nupponen, fundraising coordinator, Tukilinja, Finland

How did you start in fundraising?

I have worked at Tukilinja for nearly 17 years. For more than 10 of those I have been at the very heart of our organization’s purpose: processing grant applications from low-income people with disabilities and people living with long-term functional impairments. My background is in social services, so moving into fundraising from my earlier social work role at Tukilinja felt like a natural step, and I had already seen first-hand the impact that the funds raised through our fundraising efforts can make.

My current role is coordinator of fundraising and grant operations. On the grants side, I am responsible for collaborative grants that we award together with partner organizations. On the fundraising side, I work on developing our fundraising and the communications that support it as a whole. This includes both creating new fundraising approaches and strengthening existing ones. Previously, our fundraising was based solely on income from Tukilinja magazine, which was sold through telephone fundraising. My role is therefore very varied, and what matters greatly to me is that I remain closely connected to our grant work — the core of our mission, and the reason why we raise funds in the first place.

What key experiences or opportunities have helped you progress to where you are today?

I completed a specialist vocational qualification in fundraising, which gave me the opportunity to explore the field in depth and from many different angles. Most importantly, however, I have found networking with experienced professionals in the sector incredibly valuable. I have also benefitted greatly from taking an active part in the training sessions and events organised by Vastuullinen Lahjoittaminen (VaLa ry), the Finnish fundraising association.

How has professional training in particular helped you?

Professional training gave me a broad overall understanding of what fundraising is and what it can be. It also helped me build strong professional networks, both with fellow students and with trainers, and those connections have provided an excellent foundation for ongoing professional networking and development.

What are your top tips for progressing a career in fundraising?

1. Network  My single most important piece of advice would be to build connections with other fundraising professionals. I would very warmly encourage people to take part, whenever possible, in events where they can meet others working in the field. In Finland, these include, for example, VaLa’s webinars and live events.
2. Keep a close eye on the wider fundraising field, including organizations that might at first seem like “competitors”. For instance, if you work in the social and health sector, it is still very worthwhile looking at how environmental organizations approach fundraising and learning from their ideas and practices.

Ingvild Vaale Arnesen, marketing manager, Sabima, Norway

How did you start in fundraising?
My journey began with the Norwegian Cancer Society, driven by a deep personal commitment that came from my own experience of losing my mother to pancreatic cancer. As a result, I felt a profound need to contribute to cancer research and treatment. That emotional connection drew me into fundraising — it was a cause I couldn’t ignore.

My path was also shaped by a Master’s degree in business and administration, chosen for its flexibility and broad opportunities. I was always drawn to nonprofit organizations but after the Norwegian Cancer Society I first worked with Oslo’s largest film festivals, where sponsorship and partnership elements introduced me to fundraising in a different context. Now, as marketing manager at Sabima, a Norwegian NGO working to protect the environment, I have returned to charitable fundraising.

What key experiences or opportunities have helped you progress to where you are today?

My progress has been shaped by a combination of education, diverse experiences, and the courage to align my work with my passions. My business degree provided a strong foundation, while my decision to study fundraising through a programme with Fundraising Norway and Plymouth University added credibility and structure to my skills.

Networking has also played a role. and professional training has offered valuable frameworks, insights and validation, but what has mattered most is the wish to pursue work that resonates with my values. I believe passion and authenticity are equally vital and powerful driving forces. I am also a self-taught photographer. This has also been a guiding passion for many years, reminding me what is really important and a great tool for understanding myself, my surroundings and what I care deeply about.

In my work, I bring not only a strategic and operational understanding of marketing but a strong visual sensibility, shaped by my background in photography. I believe deeply in the power of visual storytelling to connect with people, and my work is driven by a commitment to fostering both personal and collective growth. For me, it’s about more than just communication — it’s about using my insights into human nature and my creative skills to inspire connection and development, whether in my work, myself or in those I work with.

How has professional training in particular helped you?
Professional training, like the fundraising programme I took with Plymouth University and Fundraising Norway, gave me a structured framework and credibility. It validated my skills and deepened my understanding of the field. That said, my career as a photographer taught me that formal training isn’t everything — passion and authenticity are just as powerful. Training provided the tools, and my diverse experiences and personal drive shaped how I use them.

What are your top tips for progressing a career in fundraising?

1. Find where you want to make a difference. Fundraising is about purpose, so identify the causes or organizations that truly resonate with you.
2. Educate yourself. If you feel you need more knowledge or skills, seek out training or program to build knowledge, credibility and confidence.
3. Bring your unique experiences with you. Fundraising is different from working with commercial brands, even if brand-building is still important. Your diverse background can be an asset, so don’t underestimate what you already know.
4. My best advice? Be patient and don’t give up on your dreams and passion. Every experience matters, and sometimes it takes time to reach your goal. Stay committed to finding the places where you can truly contribute and make a difference.

From its first days in office, the fourth government of Robert Fico framed a segment of Slovak NGOs – particularly those watchdogs active in anti-corruption, rule-of-law advocacy, and public policy – as politically biased and foreign-influenced. Organizations such as Transparency International Slovakia, Stop the Corruption Foundation and Via Iuris were repeatedly portrayed as actors operating “like political parties” but without public accountability. This narrative laid the groundwork for regulatory action.

The “Russian Law”

In 2024 and 2025, the coalition advanced an amendment to the NGO law with no expert discussion that soon became known domestically as the “Russian Law.” The original proposal required organizations receiving foreign funding of more than €5,000 to label themselves as “organizations with foreign support,” disclose donors publicly, and comply with expanded reporting obligations. Early drafts also considered classifying NGOs (and only NGOs, not businesses or other actors) as lobbyists. The parallels with Russian and Georgian legislation were widely noted, and international criticism swiftly followed. Under mounting pressure – including concerns raised at EU level – the government softened the terminology at the last minute, removing the explicit “foreign agent” label. Yet the core obligations remained, and Parliament passed the law in April 2025.

Civil society fights back

The proposal and ultimate adoption of the law triggered an immediate backlash. Civil society organizations coordinated across platforms, organized public protests, issued joint statements, and mobilized legal expertise to challenge the legislation. The response was unusually cohesive: NGOs formed broad coalitions, engaged European partners, and framed the issue as a constitutional matter rather than a sectoral dispute. Within days of adoption, opposition parties and the Public Defender of Rights filed a motion to the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic requesting constitutional review.

The most controversial element was the mandatory donor disclosure – with NGOs receiving significant contributions required to publish the names of donors above a €5,000 threshold. Critics argued that this endangered privacy, exposed donors to harassment, and created a chilling effect on philanthropy. Additional reporting and registry requirements also increased compliance burdens, particularly for mid-sized and smaller organizations.

Even before the Constitutional Court ruled, the political campaign translated into practice. Government-initiated financial audits targeted selected NGOs, presented publicly as evidence of systemic misuse of public funds. Yet the official audit findings revealed irregularities amounting to roughly 0.5% of the total controlled sum – hardly indicative of widespread abuse. Despite this, the narrative of suspected misconduct persisted. Within the sector, these waves of inspections and public statements were widely described as harassing and bullying – designed less to correct financial mismanagement than to intimidate and discredit non-governmental organizations.

Circumventing the Court ruling 

In December 2025, the Constitutional Court struck down the law as unconstitutional, holding that mandatory donor disclosure violated privacy and fundamental rights protected under the Slovak Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. The ruling rejected the framework in its entirety, and the law formally lost effect on 4 February 2026.

The government, however, did not abandon its approach. On 18 February 2026, it adopted a new resolution – this time not a law, but an executive directive – ordering intensified oversight of NGOs across multiple state authorities. District offices, tax authorities, labour inspectors, ministries, the Public Procurement Office, and the Data Protection Authority were instructed to expand controls over NGOs’ financial management, use of public funds, labour law compliance, and GDPR adherence. Annual reports from these inspections are to be consolidated and presented to the Cabinet each October.

Rather than labelling organizations as foreign agents, the state is mobilizing existing regulatory instruments to subject NGOs to heightened scrutiny. The formal justification remains transparency and proper use of public funds.

Further undermining of the sector

Other tactics are also being used to undermine the sector, including a deliberate strategy of defunding critical areas of civil society – designed specifically to limit and weaken nature protection, human rights protection, culture, and development aid. Analysis by the Platform for Democracy with the Open Society Foundation shows that funding losses in these areas reached €16m in 2024 and 2025. These were caused by a range of state interventions from administratively excluding NGOs from eligibility for the Green Education Fund (a loss of €823,000), to blocking approximately €5m from the European LIFE program by refusing mandatory co-financing, and negative intervention in the expert committees of 513 projects by the new Arts Support Fund Council (losing €3.5m).

For many in the sector, the cumulative effect of these measures constitutes a sustained campaign of pressure – intended not only to regulate but to intimidate.

Diversifying to build resilience

At the same time, the pressure has generated an unintended consequence: rising resilience within the sector. Many organizations have accelerated diversification of revenue streams, strengthening individual fundraising to reduce dependency on state resources. Crowdfunding campaigns, small-donor programs, and community-based giving have expanded. The process is exhausting, but also empowering.

For fundraisers and philanthropy leaders across Europe, Slovakia illustrates how restrictions on civic space can unfold incrementally – through rhetoric that reframes NGOs as political adversaries, through legal experiments that probe constitutional limits, and through administrative escalation when courts intervene. The Slovak case shows how civic space can be pressured inside the European Union without formally dismantling democratic institutions, testing not only constitutional safeguards but also the resilience of activists and organizations, donor trust and independent fundraising ecosystems.

Eduard Marček

Many NGOs will be familiar with this issue: communication largely takes place within the same bubble. It poses a constant challenge, especially in political campaigning. So how can we reach new people with our messages? And then, how can we win them over as long-term allies?

For Oxfam, as a political NGO in particular, how to reach new people is a question that arises repeatedly and with great urgency. Social inequality is one of our core issues, and once a year, we publish our Inequality Report at the World Economic Forum in Davos, which generates a lot of media attention. However, the central product of the report is a 60-page study – not exactly a crowd-pleaser that is likely to go viral on social media.

The task

So the questions we ask ourselves every year are:

• How can we communicate our complex political work?
• How can we be low-threshold and target-group-oriented?
• How can we generate leads with the help of this product?

We know that we need to reduce the complexity and encourage engagement but that we also need to remain credible. So how do we reach those who find reading a study too time-consuming, and communicate our content clearly and simply?

As a politically active organization, we must not fall into the trap of populism, and as a donation-based organization, credibility is central to our supporters.

So what can we offer beyond the news headline? And how can we encourage people to engage with us on our various channels?

Our answer to this question is usually: we start a petition. But apart from the fact that petitions are time-consuming, the problem remains that we usually address the same audience. And in this case, we only had six weeks to launch the campaign in time for the World Economic Forum.

The path to the product

From the outset, 2024’s campaign was planned as a cross-team project. It could only work if we brought together expertise from our advocacy, campaigning, and communication teams. So first, we set up a strict schedule with clear responsibilities and sign-off loops. This was clearly going to be a sprint.

In search of something new, we placed particular emphasis on attracting new target groups. With the help of user-centred design thinking approaches, we wanted to break away from Oxfam’s academic communication style and be as accessible as possible without coming across as patronizing. We asked ourselves: Which target group do we want to reach? And above all: What are their needs and interests? And how can we create added value for them?

The idea: a children’s book!

Why? Because parents and guardians are perfect match. They’re interested (including politically) in the future of our society and planet, and willing to get involved – but they have little time.

As parents and guardians, they’re also always on the lookout for interesting, high-quality entertainment for children that they can use to spend time together.

This offered an opening for us to simplify these complex issues with a child-friendly presentation. We came up with a little rabbit that encounters various situations symbolizing social injustices and presents solutions for a fairer world.

In book form, titled “Sometimes the world’s not fair”, it presented an opportunity for parents and children to learn together and discuss social injustice.

The campaign set-up

Our goal was to collect email leads (with double opt-in) and phone numbers (through required fields) with the e-book as an incentive. First however, we launched the campaign with a limited print edition at the World Economic Forum in Davos. After this sold out, the campaign continued as an e-book only.

We used advertising to reach people – mainly via paid campaigns on Facebook and Instagram – as well as target group-specific distribution to parents, educators, and design-savvy audiences.

Initial success

The first step of lead generation was extremely successful. The initial print run of 4,000 copies sold out within three days, generating 4,000 leads at a very low cost. Even when considering the total costs (including agency, print, and logistics), the results were significantly better than other lead campaigns.

Oxfam also reached a completely new and significantly younger target group, and achieved a very strong response from both new leads and existing supporters. In addition, we received numerous enquiries from daycare centres, schools, and parents interested in more copies for classrooms and libraries.

Conversion emailing to our newsletter subscribers was also very successful with a high conversion rate to regular givers.

Learning from mistakes

While the quality of email contacts was good, reaching people by phone was less successful. The new contacts were difficult to reach and had little time, leading us to conclude that this channel was not suitable for the target group.

Trying new things

So what next? Our children’s book had clearly struck a chord with a target group that we had previously found difficult to reach. However, in order to turn this into lasting success for us and gain new supporters in the long term, we had to make some adjustments.

Since the children’s book was obviously a very strong incentive, we converted the campaign into a direct acquisition campaign for regular givers. This was implemented with a landing page and an accompanying Meta campaign, and quickly showed an attractive CPO and a constant source of new regular donors. To keep interest high we developed a range of new paid social assets with different approaches, such as user-generated content (UGC).

We also tested the children’s book as an incentive in various other campaigns, as it can be easily combined with different topics, such as cuts in international aid programs. We sent out various conversion emailings to existing supporters, where we were able to achieve an extremely high conversion rate.

Finally, we were able to get a well-known German actress to record the text as an audiobook for us, which we used as part of our Christmas campaign.

In 2025, the campaign won first prize from the German Fundraising Association, and the book has now been adapted internationally by other Oxfam affiliates and published in countries including Turkey, Australia, and the Netherlands.

Lessons learned

• Be bold – trying new things can take a leap of faith but it pays off
• Get your basics right – set out a strict schedule and clear responsibilities
• Take your target group seriously – respond to what you know about them and what their actions tell you
• Don’t be discouraged – every mistake is a lesson you can learn from
• The devil’s in the details – it’s the many elements in a campaign that, together, make the difference

Valerie Senden

About Valerie Senden

Valerie Senden studied philosophy, German language and literature, and English language and literature in Berlin, Potsdam, and Turin, Italy. She has been working for Oxfam Germany in the field of digital communication and marketing since 2019, becoming head of digital communication in 2022 and currently serving as director of public fundraising and marketing (interim).