Supporter Insight Bootcamp

Turbocharge your fundraising through supporter research and insight 

About this Masterclass

How well do you really know your supporters? This masterclass bootcamp will provide practical research tools for non-researchers to gain insights about their supporters. Plus, you’ll get the opportunity to try them out! 

Participants will be taken through the process of designing and delivering a mock supporter research project: from creating research objectives, identifying participants, selecting the best tools, designing the methodology through to delivery and analysing the results.  

Through a combination of pre-prepared research, and live ‘in the moment’ research with real charity supporters, participants will gain hands-on learning.   

Learn how, with the right mindset, tools and knowledge, you can gain supporter insight that can power decision making and turbocharge fundraising. 

Aimed at

• Fundraisers at all levels. 
• Senior leaders seeking to empower insight-led fundraising.  
• Those working with individual supporters – whether at a mass scale or 1-2-1. 
• Those managing any type of relationship with funders, corporates or trusts and foundations. 

Learning outcomes

• Understand the basic principles of designing a supporter research programme. 
• Learn how to recruit participants. 
• Gain practical experience of conducting supporter research using a range of tools including interviews, surveys and online. 
• Understand how to analyse research and create actionable insight platforms. 

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Foundations bootcamp: digital and human strategies to access international foundations

How to maximise your chances of getting international grants using online and offline methods 

About this Masterclass

No doubt you’ve heard of the Gates Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Oak Foundation, Aga Khan Foundation and Aliko Dangote Foundation? But do you know how the international foundations market works?  

Annually, foundations grant billions of dollars worldwide. Yet many nonprofits do not know how this market works, how to enter it, how large it is, who their potential competitors are, or what hurdles to expect. How can your nonprofit successfully enter the market and navigate those hurdles? How digital do you have to be to get a fair chance?  And what is the best strategic mix of online and offline actions?  

Whether you are a large or small nonprofit, and regardless of sector, this bootcamp masterclass will provide you with a deeper understanding of the international foundations market. Combining speaker knowledge and industry best practices, with practical activities and do-it-yourself tips, this is a very hands-on session.  

Aimed at

• Fundraisers – new or experienced  
• Communication Officers  
• CEOs / Directors  
• Board members  
• Policy Officers 

Learning outcomes

• Understanding foundation landscapes: including markets, trends, and the reasons why they give and to whom.  
• How to differentiate your nonprofit online, through digital storytelling and innovation. 
• How to use the power of LinkedIn during the fundraising process. 
• How to plan for what lies ahead, through timelines and donor obligations. 

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Developing new business models and income generation streams 

How to systematically create viable new approaches for your fundraising 

About this Masterclass

In this high-level masterclass, we will look at several frameworks through which NGOs and INGOs can develop new business models, build income generation options, and explore the potential for radical fundraising products.  

You will have the opportunity to use two of the most sophisticated frameworks available to explore new approaches to fundraising and engagement. Both are robust contemporary commercial models, which have been adapted to help NGOs and INGOs.  

The Red Ocean Blue Ocean framework allows agencies, such as UNHCR, UNICEF and MSF France, to create approaches and offerings to engage new supporters – rather than simply compete.  

This framework is then complemented with the Business Model Canvas – a framework that provides a process for developing integrated business models to ensure that they are financially viable and have a functional Value Proposition at their heart.   

Implementing this model will help you to plot how your organisation works in terms of fundraising and service delivery. It has been successfully used by Médecins Sans Frontières, British Red Cross, Smile Train and the Royal Society of Medicine (UK). 

Aimed at

• Senior leaders in domestic or international NGOs with responsibility for fundraising and income generation. 
• Experienced managers who are seeking a challenging session. 

Learning outcomes

• Understand the key principles behind a business model. 
• Appreciate and understand how the two models work together. 
• Gain confidence in developing new ideas using the models and testing them. 
• The ability to design and deliver fundraising models with real world applications. 

Register for IFC 2020

Agile Fundraising Strategy: How to thrive on change!

Build a change-fuelled strategy to deliver sustainable growth in uncertain times 

About this Masterclass

It’s 2020. Can we still rely on ‘tried and tested’ fundraising methods? The world is changing, our supporters are changing, and funding models are changing. So why aren’t we?  

Change shouldn’t be scary. In this masterclass we will take you through a step-by-step process, using a proven ‘Agile Fundraising Strategy’ framework and a healthy dose of Futures Thinking, to identify your future fundraising strategy and create a roadmap to get you there.  

The principles and frameworks will be brought to life through a real-life example of how Life Flight used the Agile Fundraising Strategy to redefine priorities and deliver against the agreed roadmap.  

The masterclass will incorporate the five key elements of Agile Fundraising Strategy: Context, ambition, plan, action and recalibration. Modelling tools and frameworks will be provided to delegates for use in their own organisations. 

Aimed at

• Fundraising leaders looking to align their teams around a clear roadmap and integrated strategy. 
• Disaster and emergency organisations seeking a framework to reconcile the boom and bust of crisis-based fundraising. 
• Fundraisers grappling with how to steer a path through rapid change. 
• Programme managers looking for a way to deliver a professional programme strategy and growth plans. 
• CEO’s and senior leaders seeking a method to positively engage teams around change. 

Learning outcomes

• Learn how to identify priority actions. 
• Create a step-by-step customisable strategy framework for your organisation. 
• Understand the tools to help create ideas and problem solve. 
• Develop soft skills around supporting teams in the face of rapid change. 
• Learn how to run different investment or performance scenarios using a simple 5- year financial modelling tool.  

Register for IFC 2020

Research suggests 52% of women have experienced unwanted and inappropriate behaviour at work; 80% of those women did not report it. But this isn’t just a “women’s issue” with 5% of men also reporting having been sexually harassed at work. 

In the wake of the #metoo and #timesup movements, what is the fundraising sector doing to protect its people and its colleagues? 

This workshop explains what constitutes workplace harassment and how to identify and prevent it occurring. But this is not a lecture on the law. It is a practical and interactive workshop where open discussion with peers is encouraged. 

Aimed at: 

Leaders in the fundraising sector looking to drive change in their organisation. 

Learning outcomes: 

Participants will leave with: 

• An understanding of what constitutes harassment and how to differentiate between sexual harassment and gender discrimination 
• The skills to effectively react to complaints and implement practical prevention methods  
• An understanding of bystander intervention and the skills to encourage proactive empathy and collective responsibility for cultivating the company culture

Register for IFC 2019

Understanding your audience is, rightly, identified by many as a priority for fundraisers who wish to build more meaningful and valuable relationships with supporters. However, while a lot of people are talking about it, there isn’t much guidance out there on how to do it!

How do we gain insight in to what supporters feel in a useful way? How do we turn insight in to action? Human-based supporter insight can feel unwieldy, vague and mysterious and it can often come with a high price tag. But it doesn’t have to be that way!

Combining our experience of customer experience, human-centred design, fundraising and innovation, this workshop will provide insight tools and techniques that all fundraisers can use to understand their supporters and what is important to them.

We’ll show how you can turn that insight into powerful fundraising and share tangible examples of where a human-centred approach has created value for the organisations we have worked for. You’ll leave the session with a tool bag of tricks you can start using to supercharge your fundraising straight away.

Aimed at:

This session is for fundraisers at all levels of seniority who are interested in gaining an insight in to what their supporters feel and think. It is particularly relevant for any fundraiser working in the ‘mass engagement’ space who wants achievable ways of understanding their audiences.

Learning outcomes:

• A deeper understanding of the different types of supporter insight that can be drawn upon – behavioural, cultural, attitudinal, motivational, emotional – and how they can be used
• Instructions and tips for tools and techniques that you can use to embed supporter insight into their day-to-day fundraising
• Confidence in the power of insight-driven fundraising and the evidence you need to promote this in your organisations

Innovation doesn’t need huge budgets or big teams. It needs a new way of thinking. This workshop will give you five tips and tools for how to create a culture of innovation and inspiring examples of what success looks like in action. 

Aimed at: 

This session is aimed at anyone who thinks that their team needs to start doing things differently, but doesn’t know where to start. It will be valuable for people who have tried to do something new, but haven’t seen great results yet. 

Learning outcomes: 

• Practical tools for responding to disruption in the fundraising market  
• Inspiring examples of charities and commercial organisations who have failed or succeeded at innovation  
• Tools and tactics to help promote a culture of innovation in your workplace. 

Journey mapping is not just a tool to transform programmes of fundraising; it can also drive organisational change. Getting diverse teams to ‘walk in the shoes’ of supporters can have a truly transformative impact, bringing together fundraisers to work more closely with campaigners, activists, and programme teams in ‘silo busting’ ways.

It starts with defining common objectives and understanding present journeys, and then moving on to the vision of future opportunities and the ‘ideal’ supporter. This interactive workshop will explore change management theory and use various case studies to show how a focus on empathising with supporters can create positive cross-organisational engagement with fundraising as an objective, rather than just by accident. 

Aimed at: 

All fundraising practitioners – especially senior team leaders who want to collaborate with other parts of their organisation. 

Learning outcomes: 

• The elements that turn simple journey mapping into an empathy-driven customer experience 
• Defining common objectives and your ‘True North’ as a starting point 
• Using donor insights to create strong personas which bring supporters to life 
• Change management principles and how to stay the course to ensure change sticks
• How to engage your broader organisation to create integrated fundraising objectives as a result

Over a period of about two years, the UNHCR, one of the fastest growing charitable organisations in the world, has been investing in learning and adopting a design-thinking approach based on donor experience journey mapping – with empathy at its core. The session presenter introduced 12 offices globally (from Stockholm to Beirut to Tokyo) to the new methodology.  

The workshop will begin with a concise, hands-on introduction to the experience design methodology based on journey mapping. This will be followed by a candid summary of obstacles to adoption and lessons learned at UNHCR and other corporate clients. We will address cultural differences, securing buy-in, facilitator training, persona development, journey selection, incorporating storytelling, inviting colleagues, developing the skills for both ‘painstorming’ and brainstorming, focusing on design, and testing prototypes. This workshop is an evolution of the journey mapping methodology first introduced at the IFC in 2015, facilitated by the same speaker, who was voted Best New Speaker at that event. 

Aimed at: 

A variety of roles and responsibilities inside the organization will benefit, including: 

• Leaders 
• Designers 
• Front line
• Digital
• Managers 
• Individuals giving 
• Leadership giving 
• Consultants 
• Partners

Learning outcomes: 

• A practical, hands-on introduction to journey mapping with a relatable fundraising example 
• A stronger understanding of supporter experience design, both ‘how’ and ‘why’ 
• A practical guide for how to start or strengthen your organisation’s focus on the supporter 
• Common pitfalls and obstacles, with strategies to support change and growth

Based on the successful panel discussions at IFC in Holland and AFP Congress in Toronto last year, this panel will continue the conversation about organisational culture and its impact on our ability to raise money and positively support our teams to do great work, specifically in the area of innovation. 

We felt that this conference would be a perfect continuation of this discussion because so many fundraisers face real challenges in making change and persevering in the face of difficult organisational cultures. We want to help people build and facilitate great cultures – cultures that enable people to do their best work, raise the most money, and grow as individuals despite challenges and obstacles. In order to successfully build for the future, our cultures need to facilitate innovation and collaboration, and this panel will present a variety of ideas on making that happen.

It’s our organisational cultures that support people’s ability to do more with less, innovate, and thrive. Our panel will talk about barriers to building cultures and systems that drive real innovation in the sector, as well as those who facilitate amazing payoffs of building cultures that actually support people and our missions. 

Aimed at: 

• Direct marketers
• Annual giving fundraisers 
• Experienced fundraisers 
• Directors and leaders in charities

Learning outcomes: 

• The participants will feel empowered to approach their own culture differently in order to improve their ability to fundraise and innovate.
• Participants will see real life examples of how individuals have faced challenges and opportunities within their cultures and made real change.
• Participants will understand that culture has a big impact on our ability to make a difference for our missions and empower people to act for themselves and for their team when they return to their organization. 
• We want to inspire people to do things differently and provide them with the tools to make that happen. 

Senior leader masterclass: How to be a transformative leader in a disruptive world

Change itself has changed. The leadership strategies you honed your craft under, and on, are not the way of the future. Be ready to ride the wave of the unprecedented, disruptive change civil society organisations are undergoing and facing.

Use this masterclass to develop your transformative, future-focused, shared-ownership, visionary leadership strategy.

Internationally renowned consultant and activist Burkhard Gnärig will be leading this special standalone 1.5 day masterclass that is only open only to senior leaders as part of IFC 2019.

In order to register for this masterclass, you need to enter the special registration code LEADER on the IFC registration page (rather than DELEGATE)

About the Masterclass

Your leadership approach will be challenged and strengthened in this highly interactive masterclass, as you share and learn with other senior leaders. Building on your experiences, we’ll work to analyse and develop your own strategy for managing transformative processes.

The masterclass will be divided into three parts:

1. Exploring the challenges and opportunities disruption brings
2. Sharing and analysing experiences with transformative management and leadership
3. Developing your own strategy for successfully addressing the challenges and opportunities of disruptive change

We’ll dive into:

• The major planetary, political and technological disruptions facing organisations
• Embracing risk and disruption and grasping the opportunities it brings
• Disrupting your and your organisation’s work before someone or something else does
• Refocusing you and your organisation’s view from internal to external
• Sharing ownership and moving away from paternalistic models
• Envisaging your organisation after disruption

Aimed at:

• CEOs
• Head of divisions
• Top level managers

If it is your role as senior leader or manager to steer your organisation’s strategy through the vast planetary, political and technical change we face, this session will help you face the new world with vision, openness and energy.

Learning outcomes:

• Understand disruptions my organisation and leadership faces
• Develop transformative management and leadership techniques
• Able to manage and lead transformative processes

Booking this masterclass

The masterclass will include two nights full board accommodation onsite at the conference centre (Monday 14 and Tuesday 15 October). The session will run all day Tuesday 15 October and the morning of Wednesday 16 October, including access to the IFC Opening Plenary on Wednesday afternoon.

The masterclass comes at a standalone price of £950.

If participants wish to remain for the rest of the IFC programme until Friday afternoon, you will need to purchase a ticket at the standard price.

For registration and any further information, please email ifc@resource-alliance.org.

In fundraising, there are many emergencies that seem to arise every day – a donor needs immediate attention, a proposal is due today, or a mailing needs to be approved right now. Unfortunately, this can lead to a high level of stress and lack of health for the development programme and you, the practitioner! How can we change the paradigm and create a healthy, sustainable fundraising programme that leads to a less stressed out fundraiser? In this workshop, we’ll work on a comprehensive development plan that includes sustainable strategies and a realistic, workable plan for your fundraising efforts. 

Aimed at: 

This session is designed for small to medium sized shops that are generalist in nature, where staff need to cover multiple responsibilities. Those who have not previously put together a plan will gain the most from this session. 

Learning outcomes: 

• How to do a quick and realistic review of how your programme is performing 
• Identify the fundamental elements of a fundraising plan 
• How to develop practical tactics to execute your plan

Have you been looking for a unicorn? Do you think it’s too hard to find diverse candidates to join your fundraising team, so you’ve just stopped looking? How do you find amazing talent and create the conditions for them to stick? In a recruiting environment where there is high demand for diverse talent but (what seems like) little supply and where everyone is worn out – it’s time to stop singing that old song and learn a new one. 

If you’ve ever had a hard time hanging on to fundraising staff, you’re looking for new strategies to help your team grow, or you’re ready to level up as a manager and leader, then this session is for you. Learn how to do talent management right so that you can recruit, retain, and develop great employees, keeping them engaged and making sure all of this aligns with the strategy and goals of your organisation. 

Aimed at: 

Managers of development teams and/or mid-senior to senior level professionals responsible for hiring fundraising talent. 

Learning outcomes: 

• Strategies to help you create job descriptions that tell the real story of the work and attract the right professionals for your organisation 
• Recruiting techniques that work no matter what your budget size 
• Critical steps you need to take once the candidate says “Yes!” 
• On-boarding tools and tricks so your rock stars sticks with you

As NGOs in very developed individual giving markets are currently facing negative growth, and because the public sector income has become unstable, more and more organisations are looking to expand into less competitive, emerging economies. But to expand effectively, don’t you need solid data, market research, an in-country presence, big budgets, and at least five years of waiting to see some profit? In this workshop, we’re not going to deny that there is some truth in that, but our experience has shown us that there are other, faster approaches. The main thing that you really need is an acquisition channel that works and a solid donor journey.  

Using case studies from several INGOs and across individual giving channels, we will share our learnings gathered over a decade of starting and optimising fundraising operations all over the world. The workshop will be an honest discussion on the challenges and benefits of traditional and newer market entry models. We will also look at the up-to-the-minute tests being run across the sector.  

This session will suit anyone interested in starting or optimising an individual fundraising programme anytime, anywhere! It will be an informal workshop with time for attendees to share their expansion experiences and ambitions. 

Aimed at: 

• Fundraisers or leaders of NGOs with ambitions to expand into new markets 
• Fundraisers and suppliers in emerging markets 
• Fundraisers including channel specialists in a central support function of an INGO 
• Consultants and international suppliers 

Learning outcomes: 

Participants will come away with a good understanding of: 

• Channels that can recruit and retain donors and be profitable and scalable.
• How this is all you really need to establish a fundraising operation built-to-last in any market.
• Different models of growing sustainable fundraising operations.
• The pitfalls of opening fundraising programmes and how to avoid them.
• Relevant global trends within the NGO sector. 

In this workshop we will look at aspects of action and inaction in the context of organisational development and its impact on fundraising. We know that operating with rules and regulations is necessary for running organisations, yet we need to go beyond them. We also know that effective leadership involves working with rules in order for it to be impactful. However, there is a question about whether this stifles creativity and innovation. And we know that Boards are often seen to be “fit for purpose” if, in their governance, they function with defined and rigid rules and structures. But this can be at the cost of compromising their pivotal role in organisational growth and development.  

Are rules, policies, and procedures keeping organisations and their leaders from taking action? More importantly, the correct action? We will do a deep dive into the areas of organisational functioning to locate the “pain points” and suggest an action-oriented approach to establish a strong foundation from which to develop a fundraising strategy. We will share a recently-compiled survey across a range of charitable foundations to inform what in their opinion is the right time for action and where they see that action happening with their grantees. 

Aimed at: 

• Organisational leaders 
• Future or aspiring leaders 
• Directors and managers of fundraising 
• Programme managers 
• Board members

Learning outcomes:  

• How to manage the risks of rules-driven performance and leadership against creativity and innovation 
• How to evaluate the impact on fundraising of action and inaction in organisations and their leadership
• An evidence-based toolkit that will promote partnership building with grant-makers from the perspective of grantees

Our recent work on organisations that have been successful in doubling, tripling, or quadrupling their donated income highlighted the critical importance of organisational culture. Some non-profits are simply more oriented to be welcoming and respectful of philanthropy than others. Organisations with a philanthropic culture are massively more successful than those that lack it.  

In this workshop we will examine what it means to have a philanthropic culture and the factors that must be managed to attain one. We’ll look at donor-centricity, innovation orientation, board engagement and involvement, and the extent to which philanthropy is truly celebrated and embedded as a core value. We’ll look at what organisations should do, but also quantify the difference that each dimension can actually make to performance. If you’d like to be raising massively more money than you are, this presentation will open a window on the culture necessary to achieve that. 

Aimed at: 

Senior fundraisers 

Learning outcomes: 

Participants will leave:  

• Understanding the link between organisational culture and giving.
• Able to appraise their own performance on each of the components of philanthropic culture.
• Understanding how specific sets of behaviour link to fundraising performance and how to build a culture of philanthropy in their organisation. 

Masterclasses are six and a half hours of intensive learning over two days. IFC masterclasses have a limited number of attendees so you will experience more powerful conversation, more intense exploration, and more deep-dive learning with an intimate group of delegates.

Register for IFC 2019

Shake up organisational culture to have a bigger impact: Learn the tools your organisation needs to reach its full potential!

In the social impact sector, outdated processes and traditional hierarchies destroy the ability to respond to the changing conditions happening around us. It also stops us from creating simple changes or even testing new ideas!

This experiential masterclass will explore the latest mindset shifts that are critical in helping your organisation make small but significant changes. Using the well-tested tools called “Liberating Structures,” you will learn HOW to do this. We’ll throw case studies out the door by asking you to learn directly from your own organisation’s challenges. Come ready to better understand the connection between how our internal organisation’s culture has an impact on our external impact and leave with practical next steps that will invite everyone you work with to be a part of creating these changes.

Aimed at:

This masterclass is for anyone who feels frustrated and/or stuck in how to create change in organisations internally. It is for all levels of organisations and is particularly powerful for those ready to take responsibility in creating that change.

Learning outcomes:

• Learn how to lead five Liberating Structures that you can use in your organisation
• Understand how to speak to the connection between your organisation’s internal culture and the external impact
• Leave with next steps on the what will work for your unique organisation and who you will need to bring with you on this path of change

Masterclasses are six and a half hours of intensive learning over two days. IFC masterclasses have a limited number of attendees so you will experience more powerful conversation, more intense exploration, and more deep-dive learning with an intimate group of delegates.

Register for IFC 2019

Masterclasses are six and a half hours of intensive learning over two days. IFC masterclasses have a limited number of attendees so you will experience more powerful conversation, more intense exploration, and more deep-dive learning with an intimate group of delegates.

Register for IFC 2019

Your strategy on one page: Using strategy maps to integrate all your fundraising in a single plan

This masterclass will introduce you to the Strategy Maps methodology. This approach is radically different from other ‘cookie-cutter’ fundraising models and offers you a profound insight into your fundraising business model, explaining both what you want to achieve and how you will achieve it. Plus – and here’s the exciting bit – they do this on a single sheet of paper! So, your plan will be easily understandable and explainable to boards, staff, and major donors.

This approach to planning is now used by many of the world’s top companies, and in the last 10 years =mc has introduced it to leading charities in Mexico, France, Germany, Brazil, France, Italy, Australia, and the USA, as well as International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent, UNICEF, Amnesty, Sightsavers, and World Animal Protection. The results speak for themselves.

This session will offer you the chance to work on creating a map as part of a group case study and to explore how you can apply it to your own organisation at a team, department, or whole organisation level.

Specifically, we’ll cover:

• What is the strategy map approach and how does it work?
• Case studies – fundraising and non-fundraising
• Making it real – linking map, scorecard, and implementation plan
• Building perspectives – results, people, resources, and capacities
• Creating meaningful and impactful objectives
• Measuring results – lead and lag indicators to track impact

This class is for you if:

You have never heard of the map approach and want to try something challenging and stretching to get you really thinking about strategy. And it’s for you if you have used the BSC before but have struggled to get real traction with it.

Aimed at:

• Directors or senior managers in a fundraising or communications role
• Anyone keen to integrate a number of different functions across an organisation

Learning outcomes :

• A firm grasp of the principles underpinning the strategy map model
• An understanding of the steps needed to create a strategy and ensure it is implemented
• Techniques for involving different teams across the function or organisation to gain engagement

Masterclasses are six and a half hours of intensive learning over two days. IFC masterclasses have a limited number of attendees so you will experience more powerful conversation, more intense exploration, and more deep-dive learning with an intimate group of delegates.

Register for IFC 2019