SWFF Fundraising on the Margins 2023

After last year’s inaugural ‘Fundraising On The Margins’ conference we’re excited to launch our event for 2023!

Last November, over 300 fundraisers joined us live and online for a virtual conference that supported them to deliver great fundraising – wherever they were. As well as joining live on the afternoon, hundreds of people were able to watch on catch up and feast on all the expertise and experience shared by a whole host of speakers.

And now for 2023!

We know that the fundraising landscape continues to be a changing one – it is still relentlessly busy and competition is tough.

And whilst many sector conferences have returned to ‘in person’ events, we know there are thousands of fundraisers for whom a whole range of barriers still exist in accessing that support – finance, travel, accommodation, location, physical accessibility and caring responsibilities to name just a few.

Therefore, the 2023 Fundraising on the Margins conference is remaining online with our great friends at Fundraising Everywhere to ensure no barriers exist for anyone who wants to learn and be inspired to succeed in their fundraising (whilst ensuring all the content is available on catch up for 30 days after the event).

Last year we saw many charities booking their entire teams on the conference. One fundraising leader commented -

‘I know that many of my team will be busy on the day of the event, but the ability for them all to watch all the content at a time that suits them over the next 30 days means that they all have access to great training and will feel that we are investing in them – thank you so much!’

On the afternoon of 16th November we will gather together hundreds of fundraisers from right across the UK to network, learn and be empowered to achieve more for their fabulous causes.

We are HUGELY grateful to our sponsors for making this event possible and for helping us to keep ticket prices as low as possible.

Headline Sponsor

donorflex - one database, one cause  donorflex, specialist fundraising and customer relationship management software www.donorflex.com

Making a Difference Locally  https://www.nisalocally.co.uk/community/

GifeEase Solutions  Gift Aid Services & Platform (gift-ease.co.uk) www.gift-ease.co.uk

Polly Symondson Recruitment - https://pollysymondsonrecruitment.co.uk

Take a look at the programme so far -

1300 – 1400 - Welcome and opening Plenary

Margins to Milestones: Toby Gorniak MBE shares his Journey from Church Hall, to Multi- Award-Winning Enterprise - Unleashing the Secrets of Freelancer-Funded Success

Toby G MBE will take us on an inspiring 18-year journey, recounting the company's humble beginnings in a church hall and the challenges faced while surviving as freelancers. He will share the transformative decision of reinvesting in the company for 13 years, as well as the pivotal moment when they discovered the world of funding, propelling them towards becoming a multi-award-winning enterprise. Throughout the session, Toby will impart valuable findings, knowledge, and expertise gained from this remarkable odyssey, aiming to motivate and empower you with lessons of resilience, resourcefulness, and innovation to apply in your own ventures.

14000 – 1410 – BREAK

1410 – 1455 – CHOOSE YOUR SESSION

ROOM ONE – Winning (and keeping!) support for your cause. Rachel Collinson, Chief Whisperer, The Donor Whisperer

Attracting new donors can be tough at the best of times - even harder when people are so worried about spiralling costs!  Rachel will explore how we can overcome these challenges to win (and keep!) more support for our causes.

OR

ROOM TWO – How to write a strategy people will believe in. Tess Nixon-Spiller, Philanthropy and Fundraising Consultant

What is a ‘strategy’ and how do you find the time to write one with all the business as usual work continuing?! This is the dilemma Tess recently experienced in a very busy, part time, interim role as Fundraising and Communications Director of a national charity. Speaking from recent experience Tess will provide a practical guide to getting started on a strategy, how to engage a wider range of people in the discussions and decisions and deliver a strategy that is memorable and inspiring. Whether you are a team of 1 or 100 there will be practical takeaways to help you get your strategy underway and Tess will share the challenges with honesty, inspiration and humour.

OR

ROOM THREE – How budget holders make decisions, Andy King, Fireside Fundraising When you picture a business leader, you likely picture a faceless, suited robot who has more in common with an excel spreadsheet than you. But these business leaders are human - just like you - and their brains work in similar ways. This session runs you through the leading behavioural science about how we make money-related decisions, and what this means for our corporate fundraising approaches. You'll leave refreshed, ready to nudge companies towards the 'yes' you need. 

1455 – 1505 – BREAK

1505 – 1550 – CHOOSE YOUR SESSION

ROOM ONE – What are Trust funders looking forward post-pandemic and how is the changing Cost of Living landscape influencing grant-making policies?

David Burgess, Director of Apollo Fundraising will host this Q&A panel of Trust and Foundation funders to explore what has changed over recent years and how we can all work together with funders to help them meet their developing priorities. Funder representatives to be announced soon.

ROOM TWO – Gift Aid Making Every Gift Count without letting the rules grind you down! Phil Robertson, Director of Client Services, Giftease Solutions

This whistle-stop workshop will bring clarity to understanding what drives the HMRC rule book, helping you to focus on what matters to simplify the process of claiming Gift Aid by recognising how to work with HMRC to produce no-risk, audit-ready tax claims.

ROOM THREE – Why are we still wanging-on about wellbeing? Claire Warner, Founder and Director, Lift workplace wellbeing consultancy

When I first started "wanging-on" about wellbeing (fundraiser wellbeing is where it all started!!) I'm not sure any of us had ever heard of Covid-19, furlough, lockdown or any of the other serious wellbeing-impacting occurrences that took over our lives in 2020 and 2021.  And yet, all of the things that we know were impacting wellbeing before 2020 are still happening.  We've just discovered a new layer of "stuff".  In this session we will look at the causes of good and not-so-good wellbeing, we will look at why they appear and where we do and don't help ourselves, and we will look at how we can maximise the good parts and minimise the not-so-good parts (or make them feel better).

1550 – 1600 – BREAK

1600 – 1700 – Final Plenary

Keeping pace with digital trends

Zoe Amar, Founder & Director of Zoe Amar Digital So much is changing in the digital space. How can you and your team keep up with trends, and how they might affect your charity, when time, money and headspace are at a premium? Join digital expert Zoe Amar who will take you through the top trends. This session will help you plan how to keep your team ahead of what’s happening and how to act on this information.

Please Note – the event organisers reserve the right to make changes to the event programme due to circumstances that may arise that are beyond their control. Any changes will be notified in advance to all attendees with updated schedules shared on the event website and across social channels.