The connections that really matter: why taking your team to Fundraising Convention is one of the best investments you can make as a fundraising leader.

Matt Smith, Director of Transformation & Innovation at THINK Consulting Solutions

There are many ways that you as a leader can nurture the talent within your fundraising team, and constantly looking for new and varied opportunities to do so can generate real excitement and build value for your fundraisers.

Nurturing the people in your team provides many benefits for them and your charity, including:

  • Retaining fundraisers! Folk stay with your charity for longer, meaning their knowledge and expertise deepens over time
  • Reduced recruitment costs and turnover – recruiting for a fundraiser can be time-consuming and expensive
  • Stronger team morale and a more positive culture, which has knock-on effects for the rest of the organisation
  • Greater performance from your fundraisers as engaged, growing colleagues are more likely to innovate and hit targets
  • Better succession planning - developing people internally means you have pipeline talent when senior roles become available.

For your fundraisers, providing opportunities for them to grow their professional knowledge and personal skills will help them to feel supported, invigorated and committed.

One way that you can support your whole fundraising team with their development, and help them to feel invested in, is to take your team to Fundraising Convention.

The event, which this year takes place on 4-5 June, offers numerous ways for your team to connect with other fundraisers, to learn from their peers facing similar challenges, and to expand their fundraising knowledge and insight.

Supporting your team to prepare for networking

To get the most from an event like Convention, it’s a good idea to do more than just turn up and see what’s happening. At THINK we always recommend delegates do some prep ahead of the event and we suggest that fundraising leaders encouraging their teams to think about it as an event to connect with others, as well as a place to learn from the speakers.

Having a pre-Convention conversation with each team member about their goals and what gaps networking might help fill, will help them to identify the types of connections they could seek out at the event.  

As a leader you can encourage junior or newer fundraisers who may feel daunted by networking, normalising it as a skill that improves over time.  

Additionally, you could pair up team members so they can support each other, especially for those who find it nerve-wracking, are neurodivergent, introverted or need additional support to connect with others.

 

Structured networking at Fundraising Convention

Throughout both days of Fundraising Convention there are multiple opportunities to take part in guided networking sessions. Ask your team to add these to their daily event agendas and give networking equal weighting to the track sessions. These sessions will be full of people who want to chat and connect with their fundraising peers.

Both days start with a networking opportunity for those who are attending the event for the first time. Fundraisers can enjoy breakfast and a chat with other people - it’s a relaxed space to meet new people and maybe find someone to explore Convention with.

Later on both days there will be cause-led networking sessions, where fundraisers can meet peers who work in the same cause area. These lightly-guided sessions will be a place for your fundraisers to share challenges, ideas and practical learning in small groups of people who work in a similar area. The cause-led networking sessions take place four times over the two days and are inclusive, flexible and focused on creating genuine peer connections.

 

Identifying who to connect with and why

As part of your team’s pre-event homework, encourage them to look at the list of speakers on the Convention App and speak to the fundraisers they already know in advance of the event, to identify who will be good to chat with.

The team at THINK will be making plans with people we already know, to meet for a catch up. There are plenty of spaces in the venue to meet, have a coffee, lunch and connect.

You could contact speakers in advance to arrange a meeting or try and catch them after their session to speak to them.

It’s also a good idea to meet with fundraisers from similarly-sized or similarly-resourced organisations, charities working in the same region, or doing similar work (for example hospices, animal welfare, homelessness) as sometimes the most useful conversations can happen between people facing similar challenges.

Encourage your team to think about what they can offer others, not just what they want to gain as networking is about building a community, giving and receiving support.

 

Using the exhibition and breaks strategically

As well as the dedicated networking spaces and sessions at Fundraising Convention, there’s also the exhibition area which is where companies who provide services to fundraiser will be super happy to chat with fundraisers about what they offer. It can be a great space to find people who can support the fundraising work your charity does. The exhibition space is where lunch and refreshments are served, and has space to sit and chat with peers – make the most of it!

There are breaks between sessions, where fundraisers could speak to someone who is leaving the same session – find out what they thought of it, how it might support their work, or what their key takeaways from the session are. Make sure your fundraising team knows that making a connection with a stranger is a little bit easier if you’re both fresh out of the same session.

 

Following up after Convention to maintain connections

Growing a network is all about following up with people, continuing those conversations and finding ways to support each other. 
Connecting on LinkedIn or dropping an email to a new connection is a great start. Here is a list to share with your team of other things they could do after Convention to build on those connections:

  • If you connected with someone who lives in your region, could you meet at a co-working space and spend a day some time working alongside each other?
  • Schedule a regular call to catch up and chat about how your fundraising and work is going.
  • Find out what else they learned at Convention and do a knowledge swap – both sharing learnings from sessions you went to.
  • Offer your knowledge to help them on a project, and ask for their insight on a project you’re working on
  • Celebrate each other’s wins
  • If they need help with something, ask your existing network if anyone can help
  • If you come across an article, report or resource that would be useful to someone you met, send it over. It keeps the relationship warm without requiring a time investment.
  • Could your new connection speak at a future webinar or event you're running? 

 

How these relationships support career development

Building relationships throughout a career is vital for your team’s development and it enhances job satisfaction in many ways. Fundraisers will often move between charities so building positive and reciprocal relationships with peers now could help everyone in the future.

Having a trusted peer to support you when you have questions, need an alternative or outside perspective, to sense-check something – is incredibly valuable to your fundraisers as well as your team’s culture.  

Empowering your fundraising team to build their networks and deepen their relationships with other fundraisers, offers long-term support for them and Fundraising Convention is the place to make that happen.

 

Book tickets for your team to attend Fundraising Convention