28/07/10
Options for internationalising face-to-face (F2F) fundraising professional and regulatory best practice are to be discussed in October at the 30th International Fundraising Congress (IFC), the world’s leading conference for fundraising development.
The Resource Alliance, organiser of the IFC, announces an extended session running over the entire afternoon of Thursday 21 October, convened by the UK’s Public Fundraising Regulatory Association (PFRA), as a new and valuable addition to this year’s programme.
The session – F2F United! Does F2F fundraising need to organise internationally – aims to discover whether there is an appetite among fundraisers around the world for sharing skills, experience and best practice and, if so, what form this co-operation could take.
Mick Aldridge, PFRA’s chief executive, says: “Face-to-face fundraising is a global fundraising ‘movement’ that is practised in various forms in upward of 50 countries. Yet it is a nascent one without leadership or sharing of professional or regulatory best practice.
“This means that knowledge in dealing with the media, complaints handling, professional best practice, stewardship and working with regulators and legislators is rarely shared beyond national boundaries and has to be rediscovered from scratch each time a problem is encountered.
“That’s why we are pleased to be working with the Resource Alliance on this extended session. I was at the IFC last year and my gut feeling is that there is demand for information and exploration in this area. The PFRA, as one of the leading self-regulatory bodies in the world, will be there with a lot of expertise and experience to contribute.”
Neelam Makhijani, chief executive of the Resource Alliance says: “This additional session on face-to-face fundraising is not only adding value to the programme but it is highlighting an area of fundraising that is widely used, and used successfully.
"As the IFC is about people coming together to form a fundraising community, to explore and develop all avenues of fundraising, it is an ideal platform for this discussion to take place. The Resource Alliance is also very keen to share the findings from this session throughout the global south, thorough our workshops, where face-to-face fundraising is becoming very popular, especially in India and Brazil.
"With global leaders in face-to-face fundraising attending – this debate is one that can not be missed.”
The session will be hosted by Mick Aldridge (UK), CEO of the PFRA, and international F2F expert Daryl Upsall (Spain), and feature contributions from Owen Watkins (Switzerland), global F2F specialist at Unicef, and PFRA’s head of communications Ian MacQuillin (UK), with other renowned F2F practitioners to be confirmed.
Topics to be discussed include:
- Do fundraisers want practical skills sharing, such as swapping case studies?
- Could there be as central bank of information accessible by NGOs, such as case studies in dealing with the media or benchmarks for attrition?
- Is there a need for a full international umbrella body?
The full programme is available on the IFC website: http://www.resource-alliance.org/ifc/latest_ifc_news/1150.asp
Delegates will receive a full report of proceedings along with recommended next steps.
The 30th IFC will take place at the NH Leeuwenhorst Hotel and Conference Centre in Noordwijkerhout, Netherlands on October 19-22, 2010.