To include:

• Official Welcome – Katherine Raskob – Fundraising Institute Australia
• Syd Herron Oration
• Opening Plenary: A new ambition Alan Clayton – Robejohn

The most emotionally engaged donor gives the most.

The most focussed and energised organisation raises the most.

How do you achieve both of the above?

In this plenary, Alan will draw on global research and experience from over 350 case studies to introduce the most simple and powerful of concepts: A New Ambition. The new ambition is the precise focus, the precious and precise insight which sets organisations and donors alight with enthusiasm and determination. It is the starting point of any great surge in fundraising growth.

The rest of the convention will show how to raise more money, but this presentation will aptly focus on the starting point – the dream around which all great fundraising programmes unite their organisation and donors.

Alan will very simply present a fast paced and engaging guide to the dreams which work, and how to create them.

Alan Clayton – Chairman, Robejohn

In 2018, Legacy Voice produced a report with Alan Clayton Associates which reviewed all research carried out into legacy giving worldwide and other associated fields. Their objective was to understand ‘Why’ and ‘How’ people decide to include a gift to a charity in their will.
This seminar draws on the conclusions of the research and explains a few powerful insights and observations, notably:
• A gift in a will is all about the donor.
• We are ‘selling’ the meaning of life – or at least the precise moments someone’s life’s work and values become congruent.
• The biggest ideas are the best ones.
• How a conversation about a legacy is extremely easy to have
For any organisation wishing to benefit from the forthcoming avalanche of legacy giving, this will be in inspiring and focussing place to start!

Alan Clayton – Chairman, Robejohn

Session Grading: General, Beginner and Intermediate

For 50 years The Salvation Army’s landmark mass participation event – The Red Shield Doorknock – had not changed. The last 3 years have seen radical new strategies rolled out including: a volunteering web app, digital receipt books, new payment technology, and the implementation of segmented volunteer journeys. Using first hand case studies the session will explore what works (and what doesn’t) and how best to mobilise a 50,000 strong volunteer army.

Andrew Hill MFIA – General Manager, Community Fundraising, The Salvation Army
Estelle McGuigan – Community Fundraising Coordinator, The Salvation Army
Jess Lucas – Community Fundraising Coordinator, The Salvation Army

Session Grading: General

The key to loyal, happy donors starts with their experience at the time of acquisition. In this fun, energetic session you’ll hear how charities with successful in-house F2F and telemarketing teams engage their fundraisers to inspire would-be donors. Full of practical tools and tips, you can learn how to develop, design and deliver motivating training sessions to your F2F and telemarketing teams so they can have more effective, powerful conversations with your potential supporters.

Adam Watson MFIA- Director, Fundraising Partners
Paul Tavatgis MFIA – Director, Whipbird
Jenny Kearney MFIA- Marketing Manager, Cancer Council NSW
Mark Anscombe – Face to Face Fundraising Manager, WWF Australia

Session Grading: Intermediate

The research is in and it’s compelling. Now, more than ever, consumers all over the world are demanding their favourite brands stop operating from a place of ‘profit at all costs’, and start becoming part of the conversation that helps relieve our social, environmental and animal welfare problems.

Combined with that, companies are marketing to their customers in ways that are becoming increasingly sophisticated. With the increasing pressure from consuming to support causes like yours, the time is now for your organisation to become a valuable marketing partner to the right brand and create transformational partnerships that actually propel you towards your mission.

Abby Clemence MFIA – Infinity Sponsorship

Session Grading: General

As a major gift practitioner for over six years, I’ll be sharing personal reflections on three specific donor scenarios, highlighting a five year longitudinal perspective on the ups and downs of a donor relationship, the integral role that excellent stakeholder management plays in managing your donor relationships and an iceberg example of substantial proposal preparation for a single ‘window of opportunity’ to The Sylvia & Charles Viertel Charitable Foundation which is managed by Equity Trustees. Grant Hooper, Senior Manager Granting, will speak from the perspective of both the founder and a key advisor to this Foundation, which counterbalances the fundraiser’s role throughout the process. This session will also cover the importance of listening to your donor, the significance of LIA assessment, having the ‘hard’ (yes, really hard) donor conversations about re-purposing funds and the significance that our role as major gift practitioners has on the sector.

Earle Johnston MFIA CFRE – Development Manager Qld, The Salvation Army
Grant Hooper – Senior Manager, Granting, Equity Trustees

Session Grading: General

Your supporter care team plays a crucial role in achieving your organisational mission and your fundraising goals. But when was the last time you thought about this team’s day to day experience? What does it really feel like to deal with donors and beneficiaries who are perhaps impatient, rude, unwell or upset?

Deli Baker will talk about the importance of self-care and the often-difficult task of dealing with reality. Humans are supposed to feel-it’s what we do about these feelings that determines our wellness.  Deli will give you practical steps for building your frontline team’s resilience.

Deli Baker  – Psychologist

Session Grading: General

We’ve heard a lot about this thing called digital transformation – but when only a tiny proportion of your income is raised online, how do you make the case for investment? And with so much new technology to learn, where do you start? Using Act for Peace’s digital journey as a case study, Ben and Tim will share the steps they took to grow their annual online income from $400k to almost $4 million in just three years. Covering the changes they made to Act for Peace’s mindset, team, and technology, they’ll demonstrate that you don’t need huge budgets – at least initially – to start making progress towards being a digitally mature organisation.

Ben Littlejohn MFIA – Marketing and Communications Director, Act for Peace

Tim Sadler MFIA –  Head of Digital and CRM, Act for Peace

Session Grading: Intermediate

Learn how Guide Dogs NSW/ACT reinvented their established Gifts in Wills Program. Gifts in Wills are a vital source of funds for the organisation and reinvention was necessary to ensure continued growth and sustainability in to the future.

The Gifts in Wills program at Guide Dogs NSW/ACT had enjoyed many years of success with a strong program built around nurturing confirmed bequestors. However, little focus had been placed on developing the bequest pipeline as they had a mature and high percentage of confirmed bequestors within their active donor pool. Guide Dogs NSW/ACT set an ambitious target to grow the Gifts in Wills pipeline by 100% and increase the number of new confirmed bequestors by 33% in just twelve months.

Find out how they transitioned to a multi-channel acquisition and conversion program leveraging advocates, non-financial supporters and donors. Discover how they used events, lead generation campaigns & surveys, organisation-wide training and bespoke donor journeys.

Sally Biles – Planned Giving Manager, Guide Dogs NSW/ACT

Leila Davis MFIA, -Executive General Manager, Fundraising, Marketing & Communications, Guide Dogs NSW/ACT

Session Grading: General and Intermediate

Ten years after its inception, Vinnies CEO Sleepout started to see a decline in fundraising results. In this presentation Vinnies will detail the journey they went on to turn things around – from unsuccessful attempts to what eventually clearly worked to boost fundraising results.

Catherine Braybon – Senior National Marketing, St Vincent de Paul Society Australia

Marcus Blease FFIA – Co-Founder/ Director, Donor Republic

Session Grading: Intermediate

Imagine. Up to half your tax campaign income raised BEFORE you even launch it.

Mid-Value Donors: the most neglected wonderful supporters.

Not enough time for major donor fundraisers to work with them… and not enough project time for the DM people to do anything but a bigger pack? Sean Triner will show you exactly how to form a simple ask for some of those lovely ‘above average’ donors to give you more than ever before.

It feels like cheating, but it isn’t. With no complex case for support needed, you’ll save time. You’ll get the largest gifts ever from a handful of mid-value donors, and be able to count on a big wedge of donations before your next big DM campaign.

You’ll identify who YOUR mid-value donors are, WHICH to ask, HOW to ask, WHEN to ask and how to BOOST your tax campaign with that ask.

Sean Triner – Co-founder, Moceanic

Session Grading: General

There has never been a better time for charities and companies to partner. However, to truly benefit from the new opportunities opening up within the corporate sector, charities need to rethink and reframe how they engage with corporate Australia. Moving beyond just raising funds, to focusing on ‘creating value’, new partnerships are emerging that are delivering both strategic value to companies (beyond the feel-good factor), and genuine value to charities.

Samantha Brown – Corporate Community Engagement, Cancer Council Australia

Session Grading: General

Research and practice tell us that donors can become unsettled when fundraising staff, who they have been regularly communicating with, leave an organisation.
Can you ensure these donors do not cease giving to your cause, or look elsewhere to make an impact?

How do you manage and develop an ethical MG program during a fundraising and communication world in rapid transition?

What structures are required to build/maintain donor relationship engagement when key stakeholders from Board members to fundraising staff naturally transition out of the organisation?

Peter Mac will share how it has successfully, and sometimes unsuccessfully, engaged with major donors to grow its Major Gift program.

This session will help crystallise some of the ethical challenges, as well as the structures, processes and key relationship considerations needed to sustain philanthropic giving in a dynamic world.

Carl Young CFRE – Philanthropy and Fundraising Director, Peter MacCallum Cancer Foundation

Session Grading: Intermediate

Leadership and culture are crucial to successful fundraising. In fact, leadership is arguably your most valuable asset, and it isn’t reserved for the chosen few. Taking bold leadership means building knowledge within the entire organisation, from the front line to the board that embraces the role of philanthropy in achieving mission. Rather than being constrained by fear of the future, step towards your organisation’s capacity to change the future. In this session, Andrea McManus will lead a deep dive on how to advance culture using philanthropic literacy throughout an organisation.

Andrea McManus CFRE, ViTreo Group, Canada

Session Grading: Intermediate and Advanced

In this unmissable rapid fire session. three panellists well versed in social media will share case studies on making the most from this powerful medium. What you haven’t learned from these diverse 10 min presentations you can then ask, challenge or debate as we engage in a 20 minute Q&A on all things social. The panel features Elana from Loud Days Agency who will share how they launched AFL Women’s Competition from unknown entity to cult social media following in weeks. Lachlan from Pareto Fundraising will detail how The International Anti-poaching Foundation used new ad types within Facebook and Instagram to engage audiences, encourage click-through and drive donations. Lastly Samara from Vinnies, who knows what it is like for small or resource poor organisations or those who have never dipped their toes into digital marketing startegy but have big ideas. Samara will share how its never too late to dive in and tap into the power of social. These three dynamic presenters are always up for the challenge of debate – there is nothing they don’t know about social media but there is lots they want you to know!

Elana Harari – Managing Director, Loud Days Agency

Lachlan Dale -Digital Strategist, Pareto Fundraising

Samara Gentle – National Digital Specialist, St Vincent de Paul Society

Session Grading: General, Beginner and Intermediate

UNICEF Australia has engaged in a fully integrated campaign with a heavy emphasis on digital marketing. Taking learnings from other global UNICEF offices, Melanie Verges shares how marketing to Baby Boomers through digital channels is increasing awareness of gifts in Wills. See creative examples from the campaign, learnings from 2018, and plans for 2019, and hear how digital marketing is unchartered territory in the legacy space.

See creative examples from the campaign, learnings from 2018, and plans for 2019, and hear how digital marketing is unchartered territory in the legacy space.

Melanie Verges MFIA – Legacy Fundraising Manager, UNICEF Australia

Session Grading: Intermediate and Advanced

Learn how One Girl has grown their Do it in a Dress campaign with limited staff, small budgets but utilising their supporter base and networks. One Girl is a small non-profit dedicated to making education available to all girls on the planet.
Do It In A Dress is their flagship fundraiser where participants are encouraged to put on a school dress and take on a physical challenge to raise enough money to pay for one girl’s education for a year in Uganda or Sierra Leone. Since it began in 2011, the campaign has seen more than 2,500 participants from all over the world raise well over AU $1 million for One Girl’s education projects.

Jez Hunghanfoo – CEO, One Girl Australia

Session Grading: General, Beginner and Intermediate

Hear how in the space of two years, Jesuit Mission grew their fundraising impact, and significantly increased revenue by introducing more appeals and more donor care.

Dan Geaves MFIA – Co-owner and Creative Strategy Director, Marlin Communications

Join our expert panel of corporate partnership practitioners who work within a charity or with charities to secure business partners.

Participate in this interactive panel of corporate partnerships experts as we explore the challenges and opportunities with in-house partnerships teams and working with partnership and sponsorship consultants.

Abby Clemence MFIA – Managing Director, Infinity Sponsorship

Sacha Koltun MFIA – Head of Business Partners, Leaukaemia Foundation

Karen Laws – Client Relations Manager, LifeFlight

Eddie Skelic – Corporate Partnerships Manager, Good2Give

In late 2015, Dan took on the fundraising challenge at a youth mental health research organisation called Orygen. This was a perfect storm of fundraising problems, including a tight deadline to secure $8million for Orygen’s new building. To make this fundraising extremely difficult Orygen didn’t have a history of fundraising or a culture of philanthropy within the organisation. Other challenges included:
* No CRM
* No database or regular givers
* No fundraising staff
* No bequest program
* No public knowledge of the organisation (“No, we’re not Origin the energy company”)
In just over two years, over $15.5million was secured in support, including the final $8million for the capital campaign. This project went on to win the 2018 FIA award for excellence in the capital campaign category, as well as Most Outstanding Fundraising Project.

Dan Kneipp MFIA – Director of Fundraising, Orygen Youth Mental

Session Grading: Intermediate

In the face of continuous change, leaders struggle to keep their people positive and motivated. There are many examples of change initiatives or restructures that not only fail to achieve expected benefits, but devolve into toxic environments that don’t deliver productivity or performance.

What makes an organisation or team’s culture thrive? Current research suggests that how people feel at work has more to do with performance than you might think. It’s not about being happy, it’s about feeling engaged and energised. This practical session will explore how leaders can impact and influence people to perform at their best, with specific behavioural recommendations you can implement immediately upon return to work.

Professor Anne Lytle, Monash University and Leda Pty Ltd

Session Grading: Intermediate and Advanced

Timing is key! Learn how Amnesty International developed an agile framework to harness external media moments and supporter journey touchpoints.

Digital fundraising lead Eddie O’Loughlin will share two case studies on agility, the first detailing how they can quickly be live within hours of an international crisis. The second on embedding agility into your website journeys through step up asks and how Amnesty has converted thousands of donors with a simple tweak.

In this session Amnesty’s digital fundraising lead Eddie will share two case studies on agility. The first will detail how Amnesty focussed on internal culture, readiness and ‘go or no go’ processes to enable them to be live to market within hours of an international crisis. The second case study will explore how you can embed agility into your website journeys through ‘step up’ asks and how Amnesty has converted thousands of donors with a simple tweak!

Eddie O’Loughlin – Digital Fundraising Manager, Amnesty International

Session Grading: General and Intermediate

Keeping a watchful eye on Gifts in Wills fundraising programs and research that is happening overseas is an invaluable way of sharing best practice amongst practitioners and encouraging collaboration amongst charities. Professor Russell James will share some of his latest research and insights from his studies in America. He is a world-leading Gifts in Wills researcher and his sessions are always full of new ideas and great insights that are eagerly anticipated by fundraisers.

In October 2018, seven Australian Gifts in Wills fundraisers travelled to London, attended a leading Legacy Fundraising Conference, met with representatives from UK charities and learnt about working with government and regulators.

This panel session will provide an opportunity for Gifts in Wills fundraisers to share some of the lessons and insights from America, the UK and beyond. A chance to hear a wide range of thoughts about Gifts in Wills best practise, discover new ideas from charities overseas and a lively discussion about some of the concepts that we can adapt and adapt here in Australia.

Professor Russell James, Director of Graduate Studies in Charitable Planning, Texas Tech University

Helen Merrick MFIA, Director, Include a Charity

Vicki Rasmussen FFIA CFRE, Executive Director, Charlies Research Foundation

Nadia Aden, Planned Giving, The Fred Hollows Foundation

The overarching goal of the session will be to provide a frank and honest insight into the process around creating a new signature event from a standing start – from building budgets, forecasting income, securing internal stakeholder buy-in, working collaboratively across departments – the good, the bad and the ugly!

Killian Feehan – Freelance Fundraiser

Session Grading: Intermediate

We all know the undeniable value of regular giving to our organisations. But every regular giving product and program is the result of a very unique (and often never ending) journey. In this session, you will hear from several charities about how they’ve navigated some difficult challenges to achieve regular giving success.

Louise Bonomi, Animals Australia

Tom Duggan CFRE, Plan International Australia

Yani Ferdinandus, CanTeen Australia

Scott Nicholson MFIA, Make-A-Wish

Session Grading: General

Whether big or small, building collaborative corporate partnerships is essential to long term corporate support. Learn how to turn a one-off engagement into an ongoing, broader partnership.

Amelia Hart – National Partnerships Manager, Redkite

Universities and hospitals seem to get the lion’s share of the big donations, right? When you think of capital campaigns, endowments and large transformational multi-million-dollar gifts, tertiary institutions certainly come to mind first. But what about the rest of us? What can we do to access this incredibly important financial support? Do you work within human rights causes, poverty, environment, refugees, or animal welfare?

This session will showcase Oxfam Australian’s Major Gift team and will provide insights as to what is happening in Australia, and also what has been implemented at Oxfam that has led to a 150% increase in income, from $2m to $5m, in just 4 years.

Micah Demmert –  Major Gifts Manager, Oxfam Australia

Session Grading: Intermediate

Learn about how Cancer Council Victoria has introduced an innovation approach to reinvigorate old fundraising products and develop new ones.  This session will include an overview of innovation methods, stories of failure, and real case studies from Cancer Council Victoria where innovation theory has been applied to achieve new income, or has improved net return on older campaigns.

Marlene Cirillo –  Head of Innovation & Business, Cancer Council Victoria

Session Grading: Intermediate and Advanced

There’s a lot of hype about how AI is going to transform every area of life for the better in the media these days. Gartner estimate that by 2020, ~80% of all our digital interactions will be automated and managed by bots. In today’s donor centric climate, competition for consumers’ attention is escalating and donors’ expectations of personalised engagement and servicing are ever higher. Michael and Brendan will explore the nexus where donor engagement and retention meet and examine how charities can help secure first mover advantage by restructuring their traditional business models to seamlessly integrate humans and AI Bots into a more streamlined, holistic, donor centric system that delivers better outcomes for our donors, our direct response fundraising campaigns and for donor support and servicing teams.

Michael Turnley –  Head of Digital (Strategy, Marketing, Engagement & Fundraising), UNHCR
Brendan Scott – Managing Director, CTO, RunGopher

Session Grading: General and Intermediate

What does it take to deliver excellence in Australian fundraising? This session launches the findings of a major new research project commissioned by the FIA. How do organisations that truly excel in fundraising in Australia achieve that growth and success? In this session you’ll learn about the characteristics of the leaders that lead successful fundraising programs. We’ll focus on their leadership styles and relationships between specific styles and success. You’ll also learn about how these individuals lead the fundraising function (i.e. what they choose to manage) and how they approach solving their greatest fundraising problems. The session will also cover how fundraising leaders interact with their Boards and what it is about the nature of those interactions that contributes to outstanding fundraising success. Of course, Boards should give and facilitate fundraising, but how can they “charge” and motivate their fundraising team to achieve their goals?

Professor Adrian Sargeant, The Philanthropy Centre

Following its successful launch at FIA Conference 2017, ‘Myth Smashers’ has become one of the Conference’s most popular sessions.

A fast paced, dynamic session where up-and-coming stars present for six minutes only on the biggest myth they heard when they started in fundraising.

Once everyone has presented we’ll be asking for the audience to vote on the best myth smashed.

The day-one closing plenary will include a Fellows Recognition

Chair:  Luke Edwards -Elevate Fundraising

Panellists:

Shannon Fleming MFIA – Action Aid
Jan Chisholm MFIA – Royal Women’s Hospital Foundation (VIC)

Chair: Gavin Coopey FFIA – More Strategic

Panellists:
Bisi Alimi – Angelic Troublemaker
Shannan Dodson – UTS Indigenous Department
Donna Purcell – Commbank

So often we hear from fundraisers that they are not quite sure how to broach the subject of a leaving a legacy – a gift in a will. After all, it’s such a taboo subject isn’t it? But it doesn’t have to be. Heather will use her knowledge about legacies, vibrant personality and well-honed communication skills to help show you how to share the joys of leaving a Gift in a Will with your supporters. You will pick-up essential tips so that you can effectively communicate with your donors about this donation option from the very first time you have contact with them.

Join Heather in this fun, energetic session to learn how to share with your donors the joy in their decision to include a gift in their Will, the impact of their legacy, and help them feel the love from your organisation – all while having a blast at work!

Heather Stott, – Planned Giving Coordinator, Royal Flying Doctors QLD

Session Grading: General, Beginner and Intermediate

This exciting session will cover four key areas:

• Diversification – played to strengths and will continue but have identified the need to diversify and keep supporters’ year round
• Future of fundraising is to bring people on a journey, taking action at multiple times and getting them to care
• Way people consume news/info has changed and need to use multiple platforms (whole content/storytelling team)
• Tech helps to make this happen

Gavan Duffy – Global Experience Designer, Movember Foundation

Session Grading: General

This case-study driven session will explore what’s really driving Middle Donor response and value (and how you can reap the rewards from the rest of your donor-base). Offering practical tactics and insights, Fiona McPhee will show you how to get started fundraising to these important donors, maximise their direct response and build Middle Donor income.

Fiona McPhee, Pareto Fundraising

Session Grading: General

Learn about the role of a corporate partnerships manager and the value of the role and what it can bring to your charity.

Karen Laws – Corporate Partnerships Manager, LifeFlight

Session Grading: General

Disruption is coming from all directions. It is changing the way we do business and not for profits are being asked to do more with less.
As a fundraiser, it is imperative to keep pace with the evolving landscape.

This session will provide insight on the mega trends that are driving change in Capital Markets, and the new approaches and expectations of potential investors and funders of your organisation

Christopher Thorn AM – Partner, Social Finance, Impact Investment & Philanthropy, Ernst & Young

Session Grading: Intermediate/Advanced

An examination of recent trends in giving by channel to help you set realistic expectations and budgets

Martin Paul FFIA – Director, More Strategic

This session demonstrates the use of biometric technology across a variety of channels from television advertisements, website journeys, face to face training and donor conversations and explores how it can be used to inform the future of journey evaluation and understanding the pain points of a supporter’s experience.

Karen Armstrong FFIA CFRE – Director – More Strategic

Session Grading: General

Gifts in Wills represent one of the last big fundraising opportunities. Yet very few organisations ask their supporters to include them in their Will in the most effective way. In this fast moving sessions we’ll explore why people include charities in their Wills, how they select organisations to give to, what they think of our current approaches and how to build powerful and effective solicitations.

We’ll look at the science behind the language you should be using and show you many practical examples of what organisations that succeed in gifts in Wills fundraising are doing.

The session will conclude with 10 powerful takeaways that will lift bequest-giving to your charity and allow you to meet and exceed your gifts in Wills targets.

Professor Adrian Sargeant, Executive Director, The Philanthropy Centre UK

Session Grading: General and Intermediate

What do you do when your once successful event nose dives? MS was challenged by this scenario when their flagship fundraising event, the MS Sydney to Gong Ride, experienced a significant decline. Following 34 years of success the event went from selling out and raising more than $4m each year, to seeing participants drop by 28% and fundraising nearly halve. In this session, Tamsin & Luke will share the strategies and tactics used to re-connect with the MS Gong Ride market – in 2018 the event sold-out 13 weeks after launch and 4 months before the event.

Tamsin Loy – Program Manager, Events Marketing & Fundraising, MS Limited

Luke Edwards MFIA – Director, Elevate Fundraising

The advancement of telephone fundraising has been stunted in recent times. Embracing new thought and technologies offers the chance to re-invigorate this valuable channel. In this session, MonDial and UNICEF will demonstrate their strategic approach to combining best practice with new technologies; which has created more meaningful and successful conversations with donors. Whether your telemarketing program is mature or in its infancy, you will hear crucial insights about how you can use this channel to your best advantage.

Ashley Rose MFIA – CEO, MonDial

Georgina Murray – Direct Marketing Manager, UNICEF

Session Grading: General

Are you ready to say no or yes to a partner, and what guides that discussion? What do you do when things go wrong (e.g. partner controversy)? How do you exit a partnership? This all-in session will discuss partnership values, ethics and key guidelines, processes and policies to manage partnerships effectively on a State and National basis with case studies.

Alex Struthers MFIA – General Manager Supporters, Leukaemia Foundation

Leigh Cleave FFIA CFRE- Fundraising Director, Brien Holden Vision Institute Foundation

A demand to connect profit with purpose, from philanthropic foundations, Private Ancillary Funds (PAFs) and private investors, is largely driving the social impact investing movement.

Philanthropy is increasingly adding the power of their investments to the power of their grant-making, with some foundations and PAFs investing part of their endowment into social impact investments that align with their philanthropic purpose and values.

What opportunities or treats does this provide for YOU, the fundraiser?

Panelists

Nigel Harris FFIA CFRE, CEO Mater Foundation

Christopher Thorn AM, Ernst & Young

Jackie Coates, Head of Telstra Foundation

Session Grading: Intermediate

In early 2018, four WA based charities took the bold step to truly work together on an innovative, unique and co-operative fundraising program.  Understanding the need for charities to collaborate, the four charities established the “Western Charity Alliance” with a view to make it easier for supporters to help more charities in a single transaction.

The Western Charity Alliance is a joint fundraising initiative between Royal Life Saving Society WA, Rebound WA, Diabetes WA and Children’s Leukaemia & Cancer Research Foundation.  Each charity are equal stakeholders in a program to engage the community through financial support that is shared equally across four different causes.

This session will detail the journey of the four charities as they embrace a new approach to collaborative fundraising.  Addressing key issues of trust, brand management, data ownership, media, risk management and decision making, the Alliance partners will share their experiences and challenges in bringing the Alliance to market.

We are not in this alone, we are in it together.

Allan Godfrey FFIA, Royal Life Saving WA

Customer support can make or break an organisation. It is one of the most costly, complex and emotionally exhausting areas of any business. Eva Ross, Chief Marketing Officer at Sendle, an innovative and customer centred courier company, will explore what charities can do to leapfrog the five-year lag between corporates and charities. Eva will deliver an insider account of Sendle’s approach to customer service excellence that truly puts the customer at the heart of everything they do.  You will leave this session armed with new approaches including visual and emotional mapping, aware of technical quick wins to get you ahead of the game and understanding three simple ways you can get ahead by designing for trust, behaving like Disney, and helping customers to help themselves.

Eva Ross – Chief Marketing Officer, Sendle

Session Grading: General and Intermediate

Many for-purpose organisations have only an anecdotal view of the problem of “apparently lost gifts”. This refers to people who said while living that they made a gift in their will, but then no gift resulted from the person’s estate.  There are many different reasons – some you cannot influence, but many you can.  You will be surprised by some reasons you haven’t considered.

A retrospective analysis is presented for the “false positive” rate of estates with no gift, from a sample of organisations of varying size and sector. Knowing the possible loss of income helps you build an investment case for better planning of the gift in will pipeline, and for donor stewardship.  Practical steps are identified to reduce the false positive rate.  Charities could gain huge amounts by reducing this lost future income.

A simple method to project future value of a gifts in wills program will be shown step by step.

Roewen Wishart FFIA CFRE – Director, Xponential Philanthropy

Session Grading: Intermediate and Advanced

Hear about the evolution of Cancer Council’s The March Charge. How a change in proposition, acquiring participants through multi-channel communications and engaging participants through gamification and “story involving” has contributed to the fundraising success and growth, resulting in a YOY net increase of 190%.

Helen van Nooten – Campaign Manager, Cancer Council NSW

Session Grading: General

As Fundraisers we are often faced with including our entire organisation in the search for a great fundraising ask – and balancing everyone’s opinions with what actually connects donors to your cause can be a difficult challenge. In this session, you’ll learn how to bring all these parts together to create propositions and compelling campaigns across multiple channels. Regardless of your charity’s cause or mission, you’ll be given some great ways to identify your strongest ask and bring the rest of your organisation along for the ride.

Alice Anwar – Donor Development Manager, CARE Australia

Session Grading: General, Beginner

The ins and outs of a strong partnership created between The Women’s Foundation and SASS Clothing Company to assist vulnerable women in need of clothing during times of crisis. Betty Care packs (Betty Basics clothes, t/shirts, pants and cardigans) are provided by SASS clothing to women needing assistance during their time of care at the hospital. Women in need include homelessness, family violence, rape victims, financial hardship, alcohol and substance abuse and emergency admissions. After an initial 3-month trial period, regular feedback and an initial impact report it was noted that a strong and ongoing need for the card packages was required. After 16 months and an impact report of trial results for the corporate partner, the ongoing demand was clearly demonstrated, and SASS Clothing now wish to establish their own Betty Care Foundation in hope to support more vulnerable women across Australia and possibly New Zealand.

Susie Greig-Rouffignac – Philanthropy Manager, The Royal Women’s Hospital Foundation VIC

Session Grading: Advanced

Every day, more internal and external factors are changing the donor landscape and influencing our organisations’ ability to raise funds. The impact of technology, transparency, artificial intelligence, big data, mega giving, rage or venture philanthropy, government policy and more are all growing at a rapid pace….and, to say nothing about the increasing gap between the very wealthy and the not so wealthy. In this session, Andrea McManus will share insights, offer research, and poll the audience to gather perspective and, ultimately, help you understand the myriad forces influencing philanthropy and how you can adapt your fundraising for the donors of today and tomorrow.

Andrea McManus CFRE, ViTreo Group, Canada

Session Grading: General

Join Nigel Harris from Mater Foundation as he delves into all things political with a group NFP senior leaders that have extensive experience in the political arena.

This panel discussion will feature Pam Anders, Director of Public Engagement at Oxfam and previously Chief of Staff for John Brumby in Victoria.  Pam will be joined by Matt Tinkler, Director of Policy and Program at Save the Children who was previously Chief of Staff for Bill Shorten, as well as Nick Martin, Director of Public Affairs at Fred Hollows.  Nick was previously Assistant National Secretary and Deputy Campaign Director for the ALP.

Join us for a lively discussion about navigating the political landscape in what can only be described as interesting times!

Nigel Harris FFIA CFRE, Mater Foundation
Pam Anders, Director of Public Engagement at Oxfam
Mat Tinkler, Director of Policy and Program at Save the Children
Nick Martin, Director of Public Affairs at Fred Hollows

With a name change, coupled with the introduction of the NDIS, Wellways was under enormous pressure to increase both brand awareness and fundraising income. Enter Fansdonate; an exciting partnership between agencies Cornucopia and Curious Minds Media. Fansdonate provided Wellways with an end to end solution combining cutting edge social media advertising with personal online interaction to generate warm, engaged leads. Through a telefundraising campaign these leads were then converted to regular gifts or directed to Wellways services. A hugely successful campaign provided outstanding fundraising results as well as propelling Wellways from a relatively unknown entity to a leading advocate for change. Mission accomplished! Ross, Curtis and Fiona will take you on their journey and provide critical insights on how social media lead generation can deliver fundraising success!

Fiona Gillen MFIA, Wellways

Ross Howe MFIA- Director, Fansdonate

Curtis Moore – Fansdonate

Session Grading: Intermediate

As gifts in Wills fundraisers we spend much of our time inspiring our supporters to create a legacy that they want, for the causes that they are passionate about. Time is also spent understanding and recording their final wishes for the gift they’ve included in their Will. After they pass away, we sometimes encounter legal issues that can cloud their final wishes and create barriers to receiving the gift that they had intended to leave.

This panel discussion will explore some of these legal issues and provide insights about how and when charities need to engage legal advice and seek support to help us fulfil our supporters’ final wishes.

A leading expert in estate planning, probate and litigation is joined by experienced Gifts in Wills Program Managers to discuss the latest developments and approaches in estate legal issues.

Chair: Ross Anderson MFIA

Panellists:
Lachlan McKenzie – Estate Planning & Probate Practice Leader, Moores Legal
Martin Williams – Bequest Planning and Retention Manager, Australian Red Cross
Bethan Hazell – Bequests & Estates Manager, Peter MacCallum Cancer Foundation

Session Grading: General and Intermediate

In this engaging session we will hear from some of Australia’s leading event fundraisers as they discuss what is next for P2P fundraising in Australia.

Luke Edwards MFIA, Elevate Fundraising

Marcus Blease FFIA, Donor Republic

Based on 12 months of research into sector engagement and stewardship tactics, this session will take you through some of the most interesting findings with a view to providing fundraisers with insights and practical learnings that can be applied to their own programs.

For the top 40 Australian charities, Amplify Fundraising’s mystery shopping exercise has provided useful information on their internal stewardship practices and processes, as well as invaluable feedback on their engagement strategy from the perspective of a real donor.

Join Paul Bailey to see a Donor-Eye-View of the stewardship tactics and strategic journeys of Australian charities and how well they live up to the expectations of a new donor in the first 12 months of a giving relationship.

Paul Bailey MFIA CFRE- Director, Amplify Fundraising

Peer to peer fundraising offers a unique opportunity to strengthen the relationship between corporate and charity. Not only is it a starting point to plant the seed for a long-term partnership, it can also further cultivate an existing relationship. By giving corporate employees the chance to fundraise and advocate on your behalf, individuals form long-lasting ties to your organisation further transforming them into long-term donors themselves. Learn about how P2P fundraising can help create and further strengthen corporate partnerships for your organisation.

Justine Curtis MFIA, CEO & Founder, Inspired Adventures

Session Grading: General

Professor Adrian Sargeant, Executive Director at the Philanthropy Centre UK

Based on three years of experiments with donors and includes material new to air. It is the first time that anyone has tracked how donors experience relationship fundraising and how it makes them feel. Focusing on the contribution that we can make to an individual’s sense of wellbeing, massively increases giving. I call the session 3.0 because I think that focus on wellbeing will be (or perhaps should be) the next big thing in fundraising.

Adrian Sargeant, Executive Director at the Philanthropy Centre UK

Session Grading: General

Cats rule the internet, but why? With so much noise and activity online, how can you cut through and start a dialogue with your existing and potential supporters? In this session, Nicola and Kristy will explore the power of digital film and how it can deepen the relationship with your existing supporters. They will also explore how digital storytelling can help to increase acquisition of new regular donors through digital channels. Showcasing RSPCA NSW’s digital campaign as a case study, Kristy and Nicola will share learnings from digital campaigns run over the past 12 months and how, by harnessing the power of film, they have managed to engage and acquire a steady stream of new regular donors. This practical and innovative session will explore ways to use film within your digital and social strategy even when you can’t rely on cats or dogs.

Nicola Long – Marketing and Fundraising Strategy – Head of DTV Australia and New Zealand at DTV Group
Kristy Blake MFIA – Executive Manager Fundraising, RSPCA

Session Grading: General and Beginner Fundraising

Bisi Alimi went from being an anti-gay prosthelitizer, preaching hell fire and damnation to those who strayed, into the first Nigerian to come out on national TV and a world-renowned AIDS activist. Now based in London, he is the founder of the Bisi Alimi Foundation, which advocates for LGBT rights in Nigeria. He also consults with the World Bank, writes for outlets like The Guardian and Project Syndicate, and has appeared on shows like Tell Me More with Michele Martins, Christiana Amanpour, and BBC World Service. He is also the co-founder of Rainbow Intersection, a dialogue about race, culture and sexuality, and the biggest LGBT charity in Nigeria.

Bisi won the first London Moth Grand Slam and also spoke at the Aspen Ideas Festival. His TEDxBerlin talk received a rousing standing ovation. Bisi is an edge-of-the-seat storyteller with multiple lifetime’s worth of material. He brings an actor’s eloquence with an activist’s wisdom to any gathering, speaking to one of the most contested issues of our time.

Bisi Alimi –  Bisi Alimi Foundation