Mar 6 • 2 min read

CIOF Major Donor Fundraising Conference: post-event highlights

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We had a great time sponsoring the Chartered Institute of Fundraising’s Major Donor Fundraising conference on Thursday. It was a fantastic event, with informative and engaging talks and panels from inspirational speakers across the nonprofit and higher education sectors.

Thank you to the Chartered Institute of Fundraising for organising such a fantastic event and for the opportunity to sponsor it. We look forward to continuing our support of the COIF and to participating in future events.

The sessions covered a broad range of topics, including donor stewardship, the nuances of mid-level, individual giving and major gifts, prospect research, and fundraising strategy. One of the key themes that came up throughout the conference was the importance of building and maintaining trust in the fundraiser-donor relationship, and of personalised, meaningful outreach and stewardship.

The speakers all raised the importance of truly knowing your donor, knowing what their values are and how they would like to be engaged.

Knowing who your donor is and what makes them tick even before the first conversation enables you to build strong, meaningful relationships. Xapien’s automated background reports can give insights into a donor or prospect’s background in 10 minutes, which gives insights into their work history, previous affiliations and both their capacity and propensity to give. Having this level of detail on who you donor before relationship-building ensures that their values align with your organisations, and that you can make the process as valuable and meaningful as possible for them.

Our Head of Comms Jess Denny also spoke with Joe Forrest from the RNLI in a session on using AI to fundraise effectively. They discussed another way in which AI can benefit the fundraising process, by protecting the organisation from reputational risk, and ensuring that you maintain trust with your donors by not affiliating them with someone who does not align with their ethics or values.

Joe and Jess discussed how reputational risk is stronger than ever in the current climate, and how technological innovations are necessary to prevent this, as well as help fundraisers build and maintain strong relationships with their donors.

Thanks to everyone who attended the session and talked with a member of the team on the day. If you’d like to book a personalised demo of the platform, you can book some time in here.

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