The IPFC: strengthening international F2F fundraising self-regulation & standards

President of the International Public Fundraising Council (IPFC) Jean-Paul Kogan-Recoing discusses the importance of F2F fundraising for nonprofits worldwide, the critical role of the IPFC in boosting self-regulation and standards, and the council’s development to date. 

Boosting F2F self-regulation in all markets through a set of common standards and as an international think tank. This was the objective set by the International Public Fundraising Council (IPFC)’s four founding members – AMRAC (France), the Fundraising Regulator (UK), QUIF (Australia) and QISH (Germany – during their initial meeting at the International Fundraising Conference (IFC) in 2018.

As a result, the IPFC launched as a worldwide network of face-to-face regulatory associations with the collective goal of working together and sharing experience to strengthen F2F fundraising regulation across the globe and raise face-to-face fundraising standards.

It was also at this time that the board of the International F2F Congress was formed to organise what was to become the first professional congress entirely dedicated to F2F fundraising. The respective developments of the IPFC and the F2F Congress were therefore closely linked from the outset, as were their respective boards.

An international standards bearer

The IPFC quickly established itself as the international label for self-regulatory bodies in F2F fundraising, with an approach based on:

• Establishing a common code of conduct/ethics to enhance quality standards,

• Sharing best practices,

• Conducting studies and research to improve the F2F system,

• Supporting the establishment of F2F self-regulatory bodies,

• Establishing key indicators to make F2F sustainable and inclusive,

• Participating in international fundraising organisations,

• Representing the interests of the sector in every market.

But it was in 2020 that the IPFC took on the full scope of its responsibilities during the Covid crisis, monitoring restarting markets around the world and sharing its feedback at the very first international F2F Congress (online).

This collective work revealed our solidarity and capacity for cooperation as well as the full extent of our responsibilities in all markets.

The critical role of F2F fundraising

As F2F fundraising has become more widespread, it has become the leading international fundraising channel for recruiting regular individual donors. It is even central to the regular donation collection strategy of some of the world’s largest charities, as evidenced by the 500,000 new annual donors to UNICEF and the 300,000 to SOS Children’s Villages, with the F2F campaigns of both charities present in more than 40 national markets.

No one knows exactly how much it raises globally for all the charities involved, and this figure is the subject of much speculation and guesswork. But it brings in roughly around 8 to 10 million new regular donors per year – equivalent to the entire population of Switzerland! The issue of its sustainability has therefore become more important than ever, particularly at a time when many causes are seeing their subsidies withdrawn as a result of major international political changes.

Boosting standards

In conjunction with these international changes, and even though F2F fundraising is now present in more than 60 countries, its performance, and above all the qualitative and ethical conditions under which it operates, have come under threat.

In these circumstances, it is up to our community to ensure that the quality of F2F fundraising campaigns is guaranteed, the ethical criteria for its practice are strengthened, its fundraisers are provided with up-to-date training and certification processes, guaranteed decent working conditions and, more generally, a level of professionalism that makes their work high-quality and sustainable.

Expanding the movement

It is with a full understanding of this immense responsibility that the F2F Congress board, three of whose members also sit on the IPFC board decided to continue and expand the movement that had been initiated seven years earlier by scheduling a conference dedicated to the IPFC at the last F2F Congress in Vienna and opening membership not only to national fundraising organisations and F2F self-regulation organisations, but also to recognised experts in our sector.

And the gamble is paying off! The number of members has skyrocketed and new self-regulatory bodies and national fundraising organisations have joined the movement in this shared dynamic, notably with the recent entry of the AEFr, the Spanish Fundraising Association.

Jean-Paul Kogan-Recoing with Ruth Williams and Franz Wissmann

Building a strong future for F2F

Our recent exchanges with self-regulatory bodies in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand point towards closer ties and international collaboration, making the IPFC an international think tank that will have a say in the future of F2F fundraising, ensuring its sustainability and establishing it as a pillar of independence and growth for charities in a growing number of markets. It is up to us to educate people so that this self-regulation is never seen as a set of restrictions, but rather as a set of best practices protecting F2F and giving it a passport to the future.

It was therefore not only an honour and a privilege, but above all a great pleasure to host a session with Ruth Williams and Franz Wissmann at the International F2F Congress in Vienna, entirely dedicated to F2F regulation and its international label, the IPFC. We invited some wonderful guest speakers, Henk Dokter, director of DDDN, the Dutch self-regulatory body, and Alin Dinu, one of the major players in F2F in Romania. The welcome and feedback were extraordinary, and what once germinated in the minds of us founders, based on a shared vision, is now on its way to becoming a central reference organisation working around the world for sustainable, virtuous F2F collection, proud of its international contribution to the development of these great causes that are the foundation of our humanity.

Jean-Paul Kogan-Recoing

About Jean-Paul Kogan-Recoing

Pioneer of F2F fundraising since 1998 initially for Greenpeace, Jean-Paul Kogan-Recoing internationalized his activities as major stakeholder and international fundraising consultant specialized in individual giving strategies and the building of international F2F fundraising campaigns developments. He has been involved in initiating F2F fundraising self-regulation in different markets and cofounded the first international label for F2F fundraising self-regulation organizations, the IPFC, “International Public Fundraising Council”, of which he is Chairman since its foundation in 2021. He is also a member of the Board of the International F2F Fundraising Congress, which brings together the world’s leading F2F fundraising specialists every two years for skillsharing worldwide.