No worries, we've got you covered with 12 things you can do instead. Forget about the seminars and coffee breaks. Dive into this list of activities guaranteed to make you forget all about FOMO. Get the conference feel Look for satellite events or unofficial gatherings happening around the conference venue. Cafes, bars and restaurants are great places where you can soak up the conference atmosphere and potentially meet other like-minded individuals. Monitor social media channels, especially hashtags related to the conference, for real-time updates, insights, and discussions. Engage with atten ..read more

Conferences offer more than just educational insights. They provide the opportunity to foster connections with people from diverse backgrounds. These people can offer you new perspectives and can spark collaborations. They might even become mentors or partners for future projects … so don’t waste the experience! With the FIA Conference 2024 coming to an end, we’ve put together a ‘Top 5’ list of things you need to do the moment you step back into your office on Monday morning. Reflect and Review Notes: Take some time to reflect on the key points, insights, and ideas you gathered during the co ..read more

Philanthropy thrives in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Among the essential fundraising channels that sustain these organisations is Regular Giving, whereby donors commit to making monthly, 4-weekly or other regular contributions. However, to truly optimise their impact and ensure long-term sustainability, it is imperative for charities to diversify their Regular Giving channels. The significance of embracing diverse channels for Regular Giving cannot be overstated. Firstly, it allows charities to reach a broader audience by utilising various platforms such as direct mail, digital and onl ..read more

With AI having a currently unknown impact on the future of F2F, we asked Chat GPT to write a guide for face-to-face fundraising in 2043. This is what it came up with. In the year 2043, Australia's fundraising landscape stood at a crossroads. A realm where the forces of climate change and the inexorable rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics collided. This presented challenges and opportunities beyond imagination. It was a tale of innovation, adaptation, and the quest to maintain the very essence of humanity in the face of an ever-changing world. This guide has been sent to us in 20 ..read more

An area of our work that we know to be vital for the success of RG is due diligence and ongoing maintenance. We are fortunate enough to offer this service to a few high-performing RG programs in Australia. A robust supply chain due diligence system, thorough contract support, and ongoing program maintenance of your face-to-face and telephone charity fundraising programs is pivotal for the Effectiveness, integrity, and reputation of your organisation. 1. We have found that aligning your charity with suppliers who share your values is essential. Hard, but essential. Collaborating with suppliers ..read more

Our sector puts a lot of energy and resourcing into the recruitment of new Regular Givers (RGs). Nowadays it costs more than ever to acquire them, and the longevity of their gifts seem to be getting shorter and shorter. The shrewd charity knows that they need to stay in touch with their new donors. They need to thank them sincerely and offer them upgrades as soon as practicable. These extra touchpoints can be the difference between a failed campaign and a reasonable ROI. However, this is not always enough. Donors are tricky customers. They don’t all just sit by the phone waiting for your call ..read more

The Ancient Greek philosophers had quite a different gauge on what ‘success’ meant than is common nowadays. The contemporary understanding of ‘success’ tends to be defined by career status, material wealth and popular renown. A quick internet search of ‘successful people’ yields such names as Elon Musk, Lady Gaga, Oprah Winfrey and Richard Branson. It is likely that if the ‘founding fathers’ of Western philosophy took charge of Google, a very different set of names might appear! According to Aristotle, the only ‘success’ worth talking about was the achievement of eudaimonia. While definitions ..read more

With over 150 mystery shops under our belts, we thought it was time to share some of the top-level lessons we’ve learned. To portray our beloved channel in a more positive light, we’re focussing on the good stuff first. So, here goes: 90% of fundraisers are in the locations at the time they said they would be. This means that only 10% are no shows. 76% of shops are passes. This means that they received a total score of 56% or more. Victorian fundraisers perform higher than those from other states for ‘personal appearance’ and ‘pitch accuracy’. SA fundraisers understand the mechanics of the p ..read more

For fundraising professionals in regular giving the environment has never been more complex. There are multiple channels to manage in a rapidly changing world and a never ending parade of new shiny things publicised loudly by people with something to sell. Why aren’t you trying bitcoin (despite it destroying the planet)? What about this latest piece of half understood pseudo-science (despite there being no actual evidence)? But what is the core work of a fundraiser these days? Our main insight – it’s not actually fundraising. For most fundraisers responsible for large scale regular giving pro ..read more

New Year everyone, have you seen the face to face fundraisers have re-emerged from hibernation again? Looks like rumours of their extinction have been proved wrong once again and they are back out there – highly visible, super enthusiastic advocates for your cause. But hold, wait a minute, do you know what they and their colleagues are actually saying to potential donors…? You don’t, hmm that could make things interesting… Australian and NZ charities are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars per month to their f2f suppliers for new donors. Some know what their f2f fundraisers look like on t ..read more