I recently had the opportunity to attend the 2025 Chartered Institute of Fundraising Fundraising Convention in London on 9 & 10 June, while remote working from the UK for a month (in between annual leave).
Having not attended an International Conference for a few years outside of Australia and New Zealand, it was great to hear international perspectives, the challenges and commonalities, globally, working in the for-purpose sector and new and interesting speakers, experiences and skills. Here are some of my key take-aways.
It’s conference time in sunny London!
AI – Artificial Intelligence
One of the standouts for me, was the Day Two Plenary by Priya Lakhani, OBE. Priya explained AI to delegates that made it so easy to understand from a mathematical and technical perspective. Essentially, it uses maths and tech to perform tasks that would otherwise be completed by humans, the simulation of human intelligence.
Maths is the foundation of AI. AI is the assignment of numbers to words so that the AI can analyse all the data / text and depending on which type of AI is at play, the maths can be simple (in relative terms) or complex – not just completing tasks but learning and adapting.
It is also important to remember that AI is not new. It has existed since the 1950s. Of course, over time and in more recent years, with the advancement of technology there has been the evolution of the various forms of AI. And the marketing and sales buzz of course is surging!
All AI models are different, as are every single human’s brain neural networks. Hence the complexity and why you might find it difficult to wrap your head around.
Narrow AI requires humans to feed the tech with all the information, so it learns and knows the rules. It is designed to complete specific jobs. Think Siri and the AI behind your Spotify recommendations based on your listening preferences.
General AI aims to replicate human cognition. While all AI is based on maths, General AI, through maths-based logic, can learn and adapt.
Generative AI generates new media including text, audio, images, video and code. E.g. Claude is used by our software development team. A rather scary example was given of using generative AI to superimpose someone else’s voice over a request to obtain confidential information! Which brings us the always necessary warning – proceed with caution!
Non-generative AI analyses and categorises existing data. It is predictive and enables forecasting for example, on things like demand and income, using the existing data.
Priya summarised with a great slide of the practical applications of AI – The 3 Ps: Productivity (Automating and Augmenting), Predictions, and Personalisation.
The takeaways:
- AI is here to stay and it is advancing at a rapid rate. The marketing and sales spins, even faster!
- An important point to remember is that AI strategy is built on the underlying data strategy. Data is AI’s lifeblood. So, a good first check when speaking to suppliers who are spruiking AI services – what is the data source behind the AI functionality? Without good data, the AI will be limited in its accuracy.
- And of course, does your organisation have the AI knowledge and expertise to know how to use it and in what contexts? Do you have a policy in place and the appropriate data confidentiality and protection rules and processes in place? It’s recommended to hire experts to make sure you proceed with caution (as per this recent research by Apple) and use appropriately.
AI insights from Priya Lakhani’s keynote at the Chartered Institute of Fundraising Convention.
Leadership
The opening plenary on Day One was a winner with Monty Halls inspiring delegates with his breadth of amazing career and life experiences and qualifications.
Monty’s leadership referenced his Marine training that was based on the OODA Loop decision-making model; Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. The OODA loop was developed by military strategist, John Boyd and emphasises continuous cyclical feedback and adaptation to dynamic environments, allowing for continuous adjustments and improvements. Particularly relevant in our rapidly changing tech-driven world.
I loved Monty’s messages to Fundraisers, to be clear on:
- This is who I am
- This is who I represent
- These are my values
And his key takeaway that has underpinned his life and career, again oh so relevant to fundraising – Persist, Persist, Persist.
Common challenges for the for-purpose sector across the globe
Throughout the conference it became clear that there are many commonalities in the challenges faced by for-purpose organisations, across the world. I would surmise that a skills-shortage in the sector is felt more keenly in the UK than Australia. As such, under-resourcing is a problem and The Pay What It Takes dialogue certainly doesn’t seem to be present, as per a question I posed to a funder panel.
The role of fundraising and its role in an organisation was also a key focus point across a number of the sessions I attended, and like Australia and New Zealand, those organisations who have Fundraising represented at Executive level, are the organisations doing very well with their major donors, partnerships and grants.
Commonalities of best practice in engaging major donors, corporate partners and grant-makers
The first session I attended was “From Transactional to Transformational Funder-Charity Relationships.” Key messages were the same with developing mutually beneficial relationships the key goal. The panellists represented a great cross-section of funder types; The Hospital Saturday Fund, Big Give, The Childhood Trust and Prism the Gift Fund.
Donor Advised Funds (in Australia – think sub funds and PuAFS) are seeing a growing interest in philanthropy by individuals. The role of Advisers is increasing in promoting philanthropy and understanding the relationship between Advisors and the Donors is key to strong engagement and outcomes.
From a range of other sessions in the Major Donors, Partnerships and Grants stream:
- Engage. Attend events and try to make contact with funders. Research and be clear on the impact they want to achieve.
- Feedback from their trusted, engaged beneficiaries, makes them better grant-makers.
- Grant-writers must be able to bring the organisation to life and make the application stand out from the rest.
- Depending on the funding size and type, it may be most appropriate for the CEO to attend meetings.
- Conversations with funding partners can elicit information that may not be visible on websites and in guidelines.
- Decision-making processes are not always visible. Relationships can help to understand how decisions are made, giving you greater insights in to how to present your submission.
- Key messages are essential. Know your cause and be able to explain it in a way that funders want to know more.
- Funders and Advisors who are impressed with your engagement and reporting will refer you to others.
- Be honest and transparent when things are not going to plan.
- Unrestricted funding comes from long-term relationships and demonstration of delivery capability.
- Present the solution to address the problem your organisation is seeking to solve.
- Corporate partnerships rely on engagement with all staff. You need to be innovative in the ideas to engage staff in the corporate partnerships space.
I would be remiss not to shout out to my fellow Aussie contingent, the fabulous Ruth Wicks, More Strategic and Sarah Flanagan, Peter MacCallum Cancer Foundation, for their fabulous presentation, The Untapped Universe, Strategies and Insights for Engaging Satellite Supporters.
They received excellent feedback, and I heard one delegate say that their session had crystallised her thinking in how to move forward with her strategy. Well done ladies!
Ruth and Sarah on the Chartered Institute of Fundraising convention stage!
All in all, a great experience and encouraging to know that we Down-Under, are doing things well, and I would say, more proactively in leading the dialogue on Pay What It Takes between funders and fund-seekers, and in mobilising more and better philanthropic giving, especially with the requirement of Private Ancillary Funds (PAFs) to make minimum annual distributions.
It was fun to meet other fundraisers from all over the UK and to step off the tube nearest the QEII Centre, and be faced with some of London’s classics, Westminster and Big Ben. Plus, London summer is really turning on the great weather!
Jo Garner is CEO / Founder of Strategic Grants, providers of Grants Expertise Management System (GEMS) – the most trusted & comprehensive grants database in Australia and New Zealand. Find out more here.