Treating Donors Fairly: Managing Vulnerabilities Within your Organisation (13-Mar-25)

Relationship BuildingRisk and Reputation ManagementEquality, Diversity and Inclusion
13 March 2025
10:00AM to 04:30PM

Individual Prices

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Package Type Available To Price
Individual Member Fee All Days Individual Members £199
Non-Individual Member Fee All Days Non Members £257

This course has been designed to support fundraising professionals working directly or indirectly with those in Vulnerable Circumstances so that they can work effectively, ethically and with care.

Standard Content

Charities must be confident they are empowering and supporting people in vulnerable circumstances – circumstances which could, for example, significantly disadvantage or harm people because of unfair treatment, exploitation, or discrimination. Getting this right can bring great positive impacts for everyone involved. 

This training will cover the What, Who, Why, When and How of Vulnerability, demonstrating how being able to recognise vulnerability can improve your programmes of work, supporter experience and staff wellbeing. 

This course will present best practice examples and principles for working with Vulnerable groups, answer questions, and provide actionable advice on things you can start doing right away to improve your work with donors, supporters, staff and volunteers.

Really enjoyed the well-paced course. Matt is clearly very informed and a great communicator. He's given us lots to think about in terms of the theory and practice. We're now applying our new knowledge to our Supporter Care procedure.

Michelle, Supporter Care Supervisor at National Autistic Society

What is covered in this course?
  • What Vulnerability is, and how this applies to fundraising
  • The professionals standards for fundraising with people in Vulnerable Circumstances
  • How to fundraising with people who use your services, or their friends and family
  • Fundraising with members of the public (when you might not know their needs, preferences or circumstances)
  • Communicating highly sensitive and impactful content with care and respect
  • Creating empowering and inclusive campaigns, especially when working with particularly disadvantaged groups
  • Making supporter journeys and communications more inclusive, especially for groups in Vulnerable Circumstances
  • Personalising and tailoring your fundraising communications to audiences in Vulnerable Circumstances
  • Supporting your wellbeing and the wellbeing of others (including supporters and the people you work with)
  • Championing the voices of different groups and audiences, fairly and authentically.
  • Responding to situations and feedback from Supporters in Vulnerable Circumstances
Who should attend?

Because this training covers the foundations and principles of working with people in Vulnerable Circumstances, it is suitable for all staff and volunteer levels (from Assistant to Trustee), with no previous experience required.

For anyone already working directly with Vulnerable groups, this training will cover direct principles and practices to develop and support your work and benefit the lives and experiences of people in Vulnerable Circumstances.

Teams who take part in this training commonly include:

  • Supporter Acquisition and Retention
  • Legacy and In Memory
  • Supporter Experience
  • Community Fundraising
  • Events Fundraising Supporter Care
  • Philanthropy

For fundraisers wanting to directly train as designated safeguarding officers or professionals, we recommend looking at seperate safeguarding courses (as these will focus more heavily on the roles and responsibilities of these roles), however the training is regularly delivered to safeguarding professions who want to develop their skills and expertise in this area (included content is designed to support and integrate with common safeguarding practices).

Learning outcomes

By the end of this training, you will be able to:

  • Define and understand different types of Vulnerability
  • Identify some of the key issues and considerations when working with people in Vulnerable Circumstances
  • Review, assess and develop your work to support people in Vulnerable Circumstances
  • Use a framework to assess your personal needs and Vulnerabilities, and reviewing how to best manage these as part of your role to support your wellbeing
  • Plan and respond effectively to incidents involving people in Vulnerable Circumstances

THE LIVE VIRTUAL TRAINING EXPERIENCE

The Chartered Institute of Fundraising's live virtual training is delivered by trainers who are leading experts in their chosen discipline. Each virtual course has been especially designed to deliver a rich virtual learning experience. Your course will feature:

  • Zoom platform learning environment
  • Interactive engagement with the trainer and peers
  • Group discussions and exercises
  • Real-life case studies and examples
  • Ample Q&A opportunities throughout the sessions

Technology Requirements

The course is being delivered via the online platform zoom. To enable you to interact with your tutor and your class you will need to have access to a microphone (or access to a landline phone) and ideally have a working video link via a camera. To test compatibility with your system, you can join a test meeting via this link https://zoom.us/test

About your Trainer

Matt Radford founded Vulnerable Paths, supporting organisations working with people in Vulnerable Circumstances.

He believes investing in Vulnerable groups, and working with them well, has significant benefits for organisations and individuals. For organisations this can be financial, and improving service delivery in the long term. For supporters, staff and volunteers it can benefit their wellbeing and engagement with an organisation.

He has 10 years experience developing policy, guidance and best practice for working with people in Vulnerable Circumstances, as well as training professionals who work with them. This is supported by 15 years experience leading supporter acquisition, retention and experience programmes and working extensively with supporter care teams. He is also the Data and Marketing Association’s (DMA’s) governance committee specialist for consumers in Vulnerable Circumstances and a member of the CIOF's professional conduct committee.

Members Only Content