Let’s be honest, fundraising is difficult!

With tens of thousands of registered charities in Australia and finite funding available, raising significant funds for your cause, no matter how big or small your organisation is, is a challenging task.

The good news is that there are proven solutions to ensuring your fundraising success. 

In this presentation, Luke Toebelmann CFRE (FIA Young Fundraiser of the Year 2021) will join Peter Dalton CFRE FFIA (former FIA Chair, Arthur Venn Lifetime Achievement Awardee 2016) to discuss how to rise above the six daily dilemmas of fundraisers and raise major funds.

Based on Peter’s almost 50 years of experience in fundraising, this will be a lively, informative and interactive session, with each dilemma discussed via relevant, timely organisation case studies presented by incredible, career fundraisers who have faced these dilemmas head on! 

• Steffi Chang CFRE MFIA – Philanthropy Lead at Plan International Australia and former Philanthropy Manager at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Steffi was awarded the FIA Young Fundraiser of the Year 2020, has raised over $130m and is currently undertaking her MBA in Social Impact
• Karen McComiskey MBA CFRE– CEO at The Different Co. and former Fundraising Director at Brotherhood of St Laurence, where she led her team to be awarded the FIA  Fundraising Team of the Year 2021. Karen also holds a Doctorate in Business Leadership and is a trained leadership facilitator
• Dan Kneipp– CEO at Amy Gillett Foundation and former Director of Fundraising at Orygen Youth Mental Health and Essendon Football Club.

The 6 Fundraisers’ Dilemmas that we’ll unpack include:

1. Staff Turnover Dilemma: staff retention data shows not only that people are leaving for-purpose organisations in larger numbers but also that the length of their tenure is getting shorter.
2. Cost Ratio Dilemma: underfunded for-purpose organisations are striving to fix some of the world’s hardest problems while being asked to operate more efficiently than their for-profit counterparts.
3. Tied Funding Dilemma: there is a ‘disconnect’ between tied funding and delivering a total solution for a problem.
4. Product or Hope or Misery Dilemma: which approach should fundraisers take?
5. Crowded Market Dilemma: fundraising is getting more crowded by the day with a constant increase in new foundations and for-purpose organisations having to meet the increasing needs of more and more, well-deserving beneficiaries and causes.
6. Pecking Order Dilemma: fundraising directors and teams are often excluded from the decision-making centres within charitable organisations.

The 6 Fundraisers’ Dilemmas came out of the research for Giving Hope: The Journey of the For-Purpose Organisation and Its Quest for Success, published in 2019.