The name of the event was not chosen at random. It took place at the Norblin Factory, the headquarters of Allegro, Poland’s largest e-commerce platform, which has been systematically supporting fundraising in Poland for many years.

Over 30 fundraisers from large and small organizations in Poland took part in a free class and workshop on storytelling led by Mirek Ubran, expanding their skills in this key area of their work. There was also time for networking.

Polish Fundraising Association vice president Agata Wiencis said:

“Although gaining knowledge was an important goal of the meeting, it was equally important for the members of the association to meet each other in real life and exchange experiences. Regular online contact is important, but it is only when we meet face to face that real relationships are formed. That is why the Polish Fundraising Association is already planning the next editions!”

Main picture by Startup Stock Photos on Pexels

It has come to my attention that I appear to be getting on a bit.

The signs are there.

Sure, there’s the obvious ones, like the gradually increasing clusters of grey hair and the fact that I now have children who are taller than me.

But it’s when I look around a meeting and everyone appears to be half my age that it really hits home. Or having to explain my pop culture references when I’m doing presentations because most of the audience weren’t even born when Stock Aitken and Waterman were in their pomp.

And like it or not, I’m not alone in this. Lots of you are in the same boat. Or the one just behind – but we’re heading in the same direction.

So I thought I’d share some thoughts about becoming a… “more experienced fundraiser” – let’s use that phrase, why don’t we?

1. You know stuff now

The obvious advantage of having been around for a bit, is that you’ve been around for a bit. You’ve been there, seen that and done that. You’ve seen what’s worked and what hasn’t, and hopefully developed an understanding as to why.

At this stage I’ve fundraised through recessions, cost of living crises, wars, natural disasters and a global pandemic. I’ve run countless campaigns for tons of different charities across multiple channels.

I have a good sense of what will work, and what won’t. I know the tricks. I’ve done the tests. I’ve read the books and the case studies.

This knowledge is important, and in a sector where many practitioners have little or no formal fundraising training or qualifications, it’s especially so.

We have a responsibility to pass our knowledge on, to build up the skills, understanding and wisdom of the sector as a whole.

2. But you don’t know everything

The downside of experience is that it can close you off from new discoveries. It can be all too easy for those of us who’ve been around forever to be dismissive of new ideas and the people who champion them.

It’s important that we guard against our experience hardening into an unthinking mantra of This Is What Works or That Will Never Work.

I’m old enough to have tested lots of things in fundraising. I’m also old enough to have seen test results change, or indeed flip, over time.

Past results are no guarantee of future performance, as they say.

Times change. Technology changes, people change, context changes. We need to be open to change too, no matter how grey and old and experienced we are.

As John Maynard Keynes reportedly said, “when the facts change, I change my mind – what do you do sir?”

3. It’s not enough to know what works, you need to know why it works.

I think the dogmatic belief in The Right Way To Do Things stems from a misguided focus on what works, when we should be focused on why it works.

Let’s take an example from direct mail. Everyone knows that all things being equal, long letters (generally) work better than short letters. This has been tested to death across decades of direct marketing in many different sectors and countries.

Hopefully I’m stating the obvious here, but long letters don’t work better because they’re long letters. God knows I’ve read some awful long fundraising letters in my time.

Long letters work better because they address specific donor needs, and perform specific functions.

For instance:

• They allow you to address and deal with any concerns or questions that may occur to the donor while reading it.
• They give you enough room to include important persuasive content such as recognising previous support, expressing gratitude, highlighting elements of donor identity, repeating and reinforcing need, and demonstrating the difference the donor can make.
• They make it possible to use larger typefaces so older donors can more easily read it.
• And they convey a sense of importance and weight to the donor.

It is these things, rather than the fact that it’s simply ‘long’ that make it successful.

Keeping the why in mind, as technology, costs, customs and context change, allows us to adapt our wisdom to the challenges at hand.

4. Retain your old wisdom, while being open to new ideas

It’s so important that we don’t allow our thinking to calcify. There is huge potential in bringing together the wisdom and learning from decades of successful professional fundraising with the energy, drive, radicalism and new ideas of those who haven’t been burdened by our trials, tribulations and failures.

Take an example from outside fundraising – Ireland’s Repeal referendum of 2018. Together for Yes brought together experienced campaigners who had learned often painful lessons from decades of hard work, along with fired up new activists filled with passion, drive, new ideas and approaches. The result, as we know, was a huge success.

We need to do the same in our work.

Which is why the theme for The Fundraising Summer School in 2024 is:

How do we bring together fresh ideas for the future and old wisdom from the past to meet the fundraising challenges of today and tomorrow.

Over two days in Dublin from the 14 -15 of May we’ll be discussing and debating this, and hopefully inspiring hundreds of fundraisers with the ideas, examples, learnings and wisdom to raise more money for the amazing causes they represent. Hopefully I’ll see you there. Book your ticket here.

Damian O’Broin, Ask Direct

About Damian O’Broin

Damian O’Broin is the founder and managing director of fundraising and direct marketing agency Ask Direct in Ireland. He has some 30 years’ experience helping nonprofits and charities to tell their stories, recruit supporters and raise money, and is a regular speaker at conferences.

Picture by Tirachard Kumtanom on Pexels

At the beginning of 2019, my colleague Živilė and I realized that what it takes to be a professional and effective fundraiser was still little understood in the Lithuanian NGO sector. The general impression among our peers was that to be a fundraiser simply required being a good person – empathetic, compassionate and sensitive.

But what about professional skills and knowledge?

Fundraising in Lithuania

Until recently, and for a number of reasons, few people in Lithuania have seen fundraising as an occupation. Firstly, the fundraising sector is very young, barely 30 years old, and until now, there has not been a single organisation (higher education institution or competence development centre) to train NGOs in fundraising. The high cost of taking part in international fundraising training programmes has also been a barrier, as has a mindset among NGOs that fundraising is less important than other key processes, such as social programmes.

As a result, all of our fundraisers are self-taught, with most fundraising in Lithuania achieved through a process of trial and error.

The belief that we need to take fundraising more seriously in Lithuania was the starting point for our initiative Fundraising@LT, and the creation of our first competency development programme for fundraisers – Fundraising.lt PRO.

Fundraising@LT PRO

We started this in autumn 2020, working with our partner the Slovak Fundraising Centre, led by Eduard Marček, and supported by the EEA-Norway Grants – Active Citizens Fund.

The idea was to launch and test a programme tailored to the Lithuanian context. Here’s how we created it:

• We explored the EFA Certification Framework and other fundraising competency development programmes.
• We developed a fundraiser’s competency test – a free, online self-evaluation test consisting of 62 questions. After completing it, the person receives a summarised evaluation of his/her fundraising competencies in 5 categories and an overall evaluation on a 4-level scale (“Expert”, “Senior fundraiser”, “Junior fundraiser”, “Learner”).
• We selected 30 participants representing different Lithuanian NGOs to take the test.
• We used the results to identify the areas that most needed improvement. These were individual fundraising, digital fundraising, and fundraising strategy. The higher-scoring areas were related to fundraising ethics and institutional fundraising (grants). Taking into account the most lacking competencies, we developed Fundraising@Lt PRO.
• The programme comprised 4 modules, 11 training sessions, and 1 networking and experience-sharing event.
• Training sessions were prepared and delivered by international fundraising experts E. Marček and K. Bartovičova (Slovakia), S. Scriver (Ireland), P. de Gregorio (UK), J. Gregor and K. Kratochvílová (Czech Republic), K. Kovacsne Beres (Hungary). For more universal topics (e.g. Strategic Planning or Negotiation) – Lithuanian business professionals were invited.

Implementation of the programme

The programme launched in September 2020 and lasted 15 months. The COVID pandemic and travel restrictions forced us to organise hybrid training sessions, both in-person and remote. In total, Fundraising.lt PRO provided 88 hours of training to each participant. Not only did the 30 participants benefit, but also a wider audience of Lithuanian NGOs, as the programme included a Fundraising Day of experience sharing and networking. During this event, PRO participants shared their gained know-how with founders of small, newer NGOs.

At the end of the programme, all participants repeated the competency test.

Results

Overall, participants’ fundraising competencies improved by 22%. At the start, only 2 participants evaluated their competencies as A level (“Expert”) with 11 at B level (“Senior fundraiser”). The main goal of the programme was to reduce the number of those at C level (“Junior fundraiser”) and increase A and B level fundraisers.

This was achieved with, at the end of the programme, 6 participants evaluating themselves as A level and 23 at B level.

The most improved competencies were promoting donors’ loyalty (+59%), the ability to prepare fundraising strategy (+32%), community and events fundraising (+30%).

The main advantages of the programme were identified by participants as an established community of fundraisers and networking opportunities, exceptional international speakers, and high-quality content. At the end of Fundraising.lt PRO, 100% of participants indicated that their fundraising competencies had improved or improved a lot.

What worked

By evaluating the overall effect of the programme from the point of view of both organizers and participants, I would highlight the following:

• Diversity of the group of participants. The involvement of representatives of NGOs from a wide range of fields and of different maturity provided various cases to work with during the training.
• Measuring impact. Evaluating the participants’ knowledge before the programme helped to understand the needs of the group while measuring afterwards using the same tool helped us evaluate its impact.
• Content tailored to the context of the country. Each foreign lecturer was provided with detailed information about the Lithuanian NGO context, the competencies possessed/lacked by the participants and a formulated task.
• Hybrid learning. During the programme, some of the training was organised in a 1 or 2-day in-person format, while some sessions were organised in a 3-4 hour online training. The online training helped to save costs, especially when taught by foreign lecturers. However, the networking and “informal” part of the programme conducted in person was of great benefit in helping to build a professional community.
• Peer-to-peer learning. For the rapidly evolving field of fundraising, it is not only the knowledge of experienced experts that is important, but also peer-to-peer learning. Therefore, the fundraising competency development programme must include a variety of group work formats. Professional relationships established among participants are one of its success factors – peer-to-peer learning continues beyond the programme.

Lessons learned

I made a list of the things I would like to change in the second version of Fundraising@Lt PRO. First, I would shorten its duration ­– 15 months is too long for the fast-changing world we have nowadays. I consider 5-8 months optimal. Second, a group of 30 people is too large. Although it does not significantly affect the quality of the online sessions, the size of the group is important for classroom work.

Finally, participant engagement and motivation are crucial aspects for success. Even though motivation was one of the most important selection criteria, the long duration of the programme and the free of charge content (it was funded by the EEA-Norway Financial Mechanism, the Active Citizens Fund) resulted in some participants’ passivity. While we must take into account the fact that most Lithuanian NGOs do not yet prioritise investment in the development of their people’s competencies, this mindset must change. NGOs need to start investing in knowledge and skills to raise the professionalism of the whole fundraising sector.

All in all, Fundraising.lt PRO gave me a very important experience and showed me the huge potential of the Lithuanian NGO sector. We have ambitious, mission-driven, and, most importantly, development-minded people. And they deserve the best possible fundraising competency development programmes. EFA Certification is our long-term goal – at the moment the Lithuanian fundraising field is too small for such a wide certification framework to be sustainable (in terms of finance as well as participants) but we are definitely working in that direction.

About Giedrė Šopaitė-Šilinskienė

Giedrė has been working with and within the NGO sector for more than 14 years. For the past 5 years, she has held the role of CEO of Lithuanian donation portal Aukok.lt with the main mission to empower local NGOs to use their potential in digital fundraising. In 2020 she co-created the platform Fundraising.lt – a professional network and competency development programme for fundraisers in Lithuania. Giedrė is a consultant, speaker, trainer, and even sometimes inspirer with a clear vision to help NGOs become the best version of themselves. She can be found on LinkedIn.

CFRE International is an independent nonprofit organisation with the mission of setting standards in philanthropy through a valid and reliable certification process for fundraising professionals. The Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) credential is currently held by more than 7,800 fundraising professionals in 25 countries. Twelve of those countries are in Europe.

The meeting’s 24 attendees included fundraising experts as well as the CFRE International staff and board. Together, the group lent their knowledge of the sector and credentialing to chart a course for CFRE International’s growth strategy over the next five years.

“Having EFA at the table lent our discussions additional depth and context,” said CFRE International President and CEO Eva E. Aldrich, Ph.D., CAE, (CFRE, 2001-2016). “We tremendously value our relationship with EFA and its second-to-none insight into the current European fundraising landscape.”

Rydh joined five other representatives from across Europe: from the Netherlands Henk Smit; from Germany Becky Gilbert, CFRE, and Astrid von Soosten, CFRE; and from the UK Graham Papenfus, CFRE, and Phillip Rothwell, MBA, CFRE.

These six participants contributed their knowledge of Europe’s unique nonprofit sector to the discussions. Over two days, attendees worked together to strengthen global philanthropy through ensuring the CFRE remains a leading credential for fundraising professionals across the world.

Commenting, Rydh said:

“It was an honour to attend CFRE International’s strategic planning meeting in person. At EFA we share the same mission of advancing the fundraising profession and keeping standards high through our own Certification framework. With so much in common and a strong history of collaboration, we were delighted to be able to feed in to this important conversation around CFRE credential’s continued growth both in Europe and globally.”

EFA and CFRE International have partnered to advance fundraising as a profession since 2016.

Traditionally, CFRE International held its strategic planning meeting every five years. Originally slated for 2020, the meeting was delayed by two years due to the pandemic. Since the two organisations’ collaboration began, this year marked EFA’s first opportunity to join the in-person conversation around the CFRE credential’s continued growth in Europe and globally.

After several rounds of tests, the on-demand training for F2F fundraisers formally launched in Austria on 1 June with the goal of providing a theoretical basis to their practical knowledge, and recognising the skills and competencies held by fundraisers.

To be eligible for the certification process, fundraisers must have completed at least 30 active days as F2F fundraisers, and be nominated by their employer.

The training is online and on-demand, allowing participants to complete it at a time that suits them. Following registration on the course, it is accessible 24/7 for 30 days, and takes roughly five hours to complete including testing.

To pass, at least 80% of the questions have to be answered correctly. Following successful completion of the course test, participants receive a certificate that highlights the competencies obtained through their experience as fundraisers.

Team lead at the Austrian Fundraising Association Stephan Kropf commented:

“While F2F fundraising has high potential for personal growth and development for individual fundraisers, there has been a lack of learning and certification opportunities that makes those gained skills and competencies visible. Training on the job by agencies or inhouse programmes cannot compensate for such a certification – a third party must be present to set comparable education and testing standards across the market.”

Global F2F Fundraising Summit

Taking place online on 22 September is the free Global F2F Fundraising Summit, organised by the Austrian Fundraising Association. The event will take place twice on this date to enable people from across the world to pick the time that suits their location best.

The programme will cover F2F fundraising issues worldwide, with sessions chaired by F2F experts including Daryl Upsall, from Daryl Upsall & Associates and Daryl Upsall Consulting International; Simon Scriver, from Everywhere+ & Fundraising Everywhere; Daniel McDonnell, a UNICEF global fundraising specialist; and Ali Jones from Oxfam America.

Photo by Anna Shvets on Pexels

In Europe, 60% of nonprofits are now engaging in online fundraising with a further 15% saying they plan to do so soon, according to the recent 2021 Global NGO Technology Survey, summarised here. In the UK, for example, other research shows that 83% of charities started offering services online during the pandemic.

To ensure that the CFRE examination continues to reflect current practices in the fundraising profession, CFRE International is seeking fundraisers across Europe to take part in a survey on their day-to-day job tasks.

CFRE runs the Fundraising Job Task Analysis Survey every five years, using its findings to inform the content for the CFRE exam. It is keen to ensure that it includes data from fundraising professionals in Europe so that the exam is representative of the work they conduct.

The CFRE Job Task Analysis Survey lists all the tasks that are currently on its test content outline and asks respondents to indicate how important they are and how often they perform them. This will allow CFRE to rank the frequency and importance of each. EFA is also collecting demographic information to better understand the fundraising population that currently exists.  Lastly, it is asking for input on the CFRE eligibility requirements to make sure that what it requires of candidates aligns with the content they need to understand to successfully pass the CFRE exam.

CFRE will use this information to create a new test content outline that will reflect the current fundraising activities in the industry

The survey closes on 25 March, and members of EFA’s network of fundraising associations taking part can access a 20% discount for CFRE certification or recertification if they tick the EFA box when asked which organisations they are a member of. Those who complete the survey will also receive one CFRE Continuing Education Point and be entered for a chance to win a US$100 Amazon gift card. Questions can be directed to Sara Duginske, CFRE International’s Certification & Accreditation Director.

Picture by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

The Starling Collective is aimed at helping grassroots leaders discover and share best practices for increasing generosity and driving systems change, and is designed to identify and support those leaders who are working to accelerate particularly innovative approaches to catalysing generosity, empathy, equity and justice. 

The programme will offer coaching, peer learning and connection to GivingTuesday’s global leader network, as well as microgrants, with GivingTuesday to distribute an initial $250,000 USD participants in the programme. 

It is open to organisations and individuals worldwide with priority consideration going to applicants in areas of greatest crisis or lowest resource and to those with particularly innovative ideas for inspiring generosity through projects or initiatives and with potential to scale.To manage the Starling Collective, GivingTuesday is expanding its team by adding global regional directors who will review and select applicants and also serve as mentors/coaches to participants.

Applications for GivingTuesday’s first cohort of the programme closed on 1 September with selected participants to be announced in early October.

The initial round of grants is expected to help at least 50 initiatives around the world, and to range between $2,500 and $7,500 USD. GivingTuesday also intends to offer additional cohorts of the Starling Collective in 2021.

“Generosity is a powerful form of civic participation and grassroots, community-based and community-led efforts will be key to creating lasting change,” said Asha Curran, CEO of GivingTuesday. “GivingTuesday creates a shared space where those who engage with it can see, and work to co-create, the radical implications of a more generous world. We have an opportunity to create an inclusive, mutual learning network that drives grassroots generosity at a global scale. The Starling Collective will provide passionate leaders and movement builders with the tools to rapidly implement their ideas, and with the wisdom and support of one another.”

The Starling Collective is a development of GivingTuesday’s Starling Fund, which ran last year. This saw GivingTuesday distribute microgrants to 46 of its existing network of official community and country leaders to cover essential resources they needed to encourage and inspire givers, businesses, and NGOs in their regions for #GivingTuesdayNow. 

Earlier this year, research from the IoF found that women in fundraising are missing out on leadership positions, experiencing systemic and sector-wide barriers to progression in their careers. The report was based on the UK market, but similar concerns have been echoed across the European fundraising community.

Carla Miller, leadership coach and trainer, said: “For a long time, we have known that our fundraising sector has a problem in equal representation at senior levels when it comes to gender.”

“A lot of women in leadership are experiencing similar struggles around influencing, worry and imposter syndrome. Some of them hit a brick wall with either their line manager or a senior decision maker, which means that they struggle to get their team the resources, the respect and the information that they need to succeed. Others spend hours dealing with tensions between their team and other teams and wonder why the value of their team isn’t fully recognised.

“But people can learn to have greater influence and impact, developing their leadership skills. This programme has been set up specifically to help women communicate with confidence, tackling self-doubt, and making more impact at work.”

The programme has been developed to bring together women in leadership and gives them a chance to mentor, support and learn from each other. 

Starting on 15 September 2020, the 3-month virtual programme ‘Influence & Impact for Women in Leadership’ will help women develop both their confidence and their careers.

The Masters Programme in Fundraising Management (MAS Fundraising Management) has a modular structure, consisting of three compulsory certificate courses (covering operations, strategies, and leadership) with a fourth to be selected by the participant from a range of available courses, such as Event Management, Digital Marketing, Customer Lifecycle Management & Cross Channel CRM, and Strategic Marketing. Each course can also be booked individually and independently of the Masters programme, leading to a corresponding Certificate of Advanced Studies.

Speaking about the new programme, Leticia Labaronne, director of the Center for Cultural Management at the ZHAW and the Masters programme director, said:

“The MAS Fundraising Management combines and deepens current fundraising know-how with management and leadership knowledge and provides analytical and strategic methods on an international level.

“Leadership competencies are particularly central in the new concept and enable participants to successfully master leadership tasks and future challenges in dynamic contexts. Moreover, an extended fundraising concept is taken into account.”

Participants receive a certificate for every course completed. Following the successful completion of four certificates, participants conclude the programme, writing a Masters Thesis.

The European Fundraising School takes place in Vienna from 24-28 June. In cooperation with CFRE International, the Austrian Fundraising Association is once again offering a training programme designed to meet the needs of fundraising beginners as well as experts.

Trainers Eva Aldrich and and Alex Buchinger will use the latest research and international best practice examples to help attendees maximise their organisation’s fundraising efforts.

The three day course kicks off with “Fundraising Intensive – improve your fundraising impact!“ from 24-26 June with Alex Buchinger. He will give an introduction to the core methods and principles of successful fundraising, sharing proven techniques in fundraising as well as strategies for building long-term philanthropic sustainability.

The second workshop “Raising more money with Major Gifts“ on 27-28 June with Eva Aldrich will show attendees how to address the challenges in developing major gifts.

Members of national Fundraising Associations benefit from a reduced member’s price and can also gain an early bird discount on registration until 1 May.