Last week, fundraisers from around the world converged on a quiet corner of the Netherlands for the annual International Fundraising Congress. This year, David Milton (pictured) went for the first time. He shares the first impressions of a debutant conference delegate.
DAY ONE:
'I've been so impressed'
Well where to begin? So I’m a first-timer at the International Fundraising Congress and yes, getting on the bus out to Noordwijkerhout does feel a little bit like the first day of school.
It feels rather odd. I’ve worked in international charities my entire career and yet it is almost daunting how much combined knowledge and expertise there is here from around the world and consequently, how ignorant I feel. Luckily though, everyone is also rather nice so there’s few worries about getting your metaphorical lunch money stolen.
It’s early days so far – we haven’t even had the opening plenary, and so I feel hesitant about making any judgements. For those of you who like a good read, unfortunately at the moment I’m going to be really rather uncontroversial and say how impressed I’ve been! Sitting in Geraldine Kilbride’s masterclass session on Transformational Leadership was a brilliant experience. Interacting with delegates from across the globe, over a very relevant topic and with such a talented facilitator does leave you reeling with ideas and food for thought. From World Vision, through to Transparency International the challenges are clearly the same. Geraldine’s ability to help frame out all of the details into the root of the problem is hugely inspiring.
And yes, I’m sure there are many of you out there reading this who will interpret my enthusiasm as the naivety of a man early in his career. However I believe if you are a good fundraiser, nay competent professional… you are a sponge. Ideas and inspiration should flow from every opportunity and I’d challenge anyone to sit in a masterclass session at the IFC like the one Geraldine just ran and not take something positive from it!
DAY TWO/THREE:
Root of fundraising problems are the same the world over
An end to Wednesday and I must say, a day of contrast. Going from a ‘masterclass’ into a standard workshop, there was a marked difference in quality. A funny title that the IFC have given to their ‘workshops’ as it seems many actually took on more of a format of lecture rather than workshop. A real shame as many of the speakers clearly had a fantastic knowledge base and I feel that many would have got a lot more out of the sessions had audience participation been an option.
Still, it was brilliant to see such a range of sessions to choose from over such a variety of different topics. Speakers like Graham Precey (head of CSR from Legal & General) really were invaluable in bringing their personal expertise from outside the sector in to comment on methods to improve it. Throwing that in then with an international audience that could reflect on issues from a variety of backgrounds led the conversations in interesting directions. However interesting, no matter where you seem to go in the world or what type of fundraising you are doing, the root of the problem does remain the same. I won’t mention the ‘c’ word (let’s be honest, it’s almost jargon now) but it does seem surprising how many stumble at this stage.
I must confess; I decided not to take the IFC up on their offer of attending the Global Awards. No doubt all of the winners have done some fantastic fundraising work in the last 12 months, however you can’t help wonder why those people who really have done something truly spectacular aren’t even at the conference? I suppose it’s the same as with any other sector, those that are blazing trails are usually out doing just that. And those that attend conferences (myself included) are those keen on learning how to follow (or just sell their consultancy services).
Perhaps Friday I shall feel in a less cynical mood!
DAY FOUR:
Why are all the important questions being asked in the bar?
As I write this, I’m sitting in a lecture led by the magnetic Tony Elischer. Perhaps a slip of the tongue but he keeps referring to it as the morning plenary. Perhaps I got it wrong, or perhaps he’s frustrated he’s not been asked to do the actual closing plenary (which has been scheduled for a few hours’ time). Who knows? Putting the politics of conferences aside, Tony’s doing a fantastic job of leading the audience.
However I am struck by something so profound, I felt I couldn’t wait until the end of the conference to share it. I referred to Tony’s speech at the beginning of this blog entry as a ‘lecture’. This, my friends, was no mistake (nor a suggestion that Tony was boring). But let me outline why I’ve drawn comparison to a university lecture theatre.
The room is full of people, many of whom are feeling the after-effects of too little sleep and too much alcohol the night before. There are some studious individuals sitting in the front row next to me, furiously scribbling down every word out of the speaker’s mouth. Undoubtedly there are some cool kids at the back contradicting everything being said in hushed conversations between one another. The speaker is using a number of statistics, many of which seem to only have been chosen to support his/her own opinion. And, of course, there are some smug smartarses blogging on their phones and not paying enough attention!
But seriously, why have we all packed ourselves into this room to listen to Tony? Yes, we’ve all heard his name as though he were some sort of guru and he is a good speaker. But will watching some videos about interesting new brand strategies improve our ability to instigate the change our charities are designed to deliver? Throughout this conference, charity figureheads and their supporting agencies have been engaging us with; searching for the next big thing, or what the ‘private sector’ is doing, etc. Don’t get me wrong, all useful stuff -but come on! Where’s the chief executive with 20-plus years of experience in the sector leading a debate on how to solve the issue of voluntary trustees managing professional fundraisers? Or the agency marketing expert presenting ideas on changing public opinion around charity pence-in-a-pound ratios?
We are leaders in a sector that’s sole purpose is to bring about change. So why do we only ask these political questions of ourselves in the bar at night?
David Milton is head of fundraising at the Association for International Cancer Research
