The first annual Fund Raising Festival (www.festivaldelfundraising.it), organized by Bologna University’s Master in Fund Raising Program, was held May 8-10 in Castrocaro with the aim of generating a network between professional fund raisers, creating a point of encounter for individuals in the sector to meet and learn about the most important themes connected to fund raising.
More than 300 participants met in the beautiful ambience of the Grand Hotel Terme di Castrocaro. The majority of the attendees - and roughly half of the speakers - were women, some of whom work in large organizations such as Medici Senza Frontiere, Cesvi, Amref, Save the Children, and Amnesty International, just to name a few. Research in 2000 conducted by Valerio Melandri (Director of the Fund Raising Master at UB) and Giorgio Vittadini (Professor of Statistics at Bicocca University of Milan) demonstrated that while the majority of supervisors in the sector were women, the highest roles were filled by men.
The Festival may well become the event for le fundraiser to network and perhaps reverse this tendency of excluding women from higher level roles, especially since fund raising is a relatively new activity in Italy and has shown strong growth in the last few years.
The informative aspect of the Festival was highly effective, with more than 40 workshops organized in three levels: Beginner, Advanced and Sponsor. Each level featured 6 discussion topics so that each participant could tailor a program based on their personal interests. Among the topics covered were Large Donors, Businesses, Foundations or Individuals, Event Organization, and New Technologies in Fund Raising.
The Festival provided an atmosphere conducive for networking among individuals that share a very gratifying – but, unfortunately, often undervalued – profession of working in a non-profit organization. In addition to the informative sessions, the free periods offered attendees the opportunity to build relationships and to exchange experiences and ideas.
The highlight of the Festival was the plenary session seminar held by Stephen Pidgeon, one of the top UK experts in branding and direct mail, as well as president and founder of Tangible Response, one of the most important fund raising agencies in the UK. His event, entitled Earning loyalty, building passion and raising lots of money from individual supporters was enthusiastically received by the audience.
The second annual Fund Raising Festival is already scheduled for May 7-9, 2009, again in Castrocaro. It will certainly be even more successful and hopefully it will become a point of reference for those who work in this important field.