Deepen your fundraising knowledge with FIA’s professional development program

Wherever you are in your career, FIA’s program offers a practical and engaging way to learn the latest fundraising strategies, concepts, techniques and trends.

Managing vulnerability

Fundraising Institute Australia (FIA) has launched a new short course on understanding and managing vulnerability in donors and supporters, developed as a result of the FIA Code Authority’s compliance monitoring on code-related issues.

Over the past two years, compliance monitoring of FIA members to the FIA Code has shown the challenges that fundraisers face in being attuned to the clues and cues of donors in potentially vulnerable circumstances – an issue with increasing and heightened awareness for fundraising organisations of all types and sizes. 

 The new course is led by a highly-experienced senior fundraiser, delivered online over two hours, covering key areas such as:  

• what constitutes vulnerability;
• why it’s so important; and
• how you can improve our ability to recognise and identify vulnerability and a path forward to developing a framework for organisations when encountering vulnerability.

Responding to huge demand, FIA offers the course once a month, which allows for smaller group discussion and case studies.

The course follows on from the FIA Code course which is designed to provide FIA members, and those involved in fundraising, with a practical understanding of the code and how to conduct fundraising in accordance with ethical best practice. 

FIA’s mission is to advance ethical, best-practice fundraising and it uses its remit as a training institute to ensure that fundraising professionals have all the tools needed to make an even greater impact. 

Career advancement

While ensuring ethical best-practice through the code course and Managing Vulnerability course, FIA is also the leading provider of ongoing professional education to advance your career. 

FIA offers short courses that equip fundraisers quickly with solid, practical skills. There’s a one-day Fundraising Essentials workshop for those at the beginning of their fundraising career. Those further down the track in their careers can hone their skills, through short courses like Copywriting for Impact and Donor Journey Mapping.

A more detailed study of fundraising is available for mid-level and senior fundraisers via the FIA Certificate in Professional Fundraising or the 12-month Diploma in Professional Fundraising. 

All FIA courses allow fundraising professionals to achieve points towards the Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) qualification.

The digital and data imperative  

FIA continues its partnership with Digital Ninjas to deliver a Digital Gifts in Wills Strategies course, to show fundraisers how to create more impact with their bequest programs. In this one-day course, Digital Ninjas director and founder Jonathon Dawson will explain how to acquire qualified gifts-in-wills leads through digital channels, and how to create the perfect proposition, best practice audience targeting, and tips for managing creative and supporter journeys.

Digital Fundraising for Donor Retention is delivered by professional fundraiser and digital expert Maisa Lopes Gomes and takes a deep dive into digital and data to help you grow a warm base and cultivate new opportunities. Seasoned data-driven marketing and analytics professional Richard Harris delivers Safeguarding Donor Privacy and Data, where you’ll learn more about your own data, how to prepare for risk, and anticipate and adapt to future change. 

 FIA also has courses in the gifts in wills and major gifts areas, both very much in-demand in the current climate, and focused on building skills from early career to advanced fundraising.

The offerings are available on the FIA website.

Free mentoring program available to members

Marking an increasingly important way to achieve career advancement, FIA Members have access to the FIA national mentoring program which has impacted the lives and careers of hundreds of members since its national launch in 2019.   

Through the program, mentees can obtain career advice, find support for their ideas, and learn more about the fundraising sector. For mentors, it’s a chance to give back to the profession and impart their considerable knowledge and expertise to an interested audience.

FIA also offers in-house training, which can be customised and tailored to a fundraising team’s needs. There’s also the pinnacle of the profession – the CFRE. FIA offers regular CFRE study sessions to help fundraisers prepare to obtain this prestigious credential, which is recognised globally.

FIA courses are currently offered online (either self-paced or tutor-led) however, in-person sessions are scheduled for the second half of 2022. 

Need to know more? Ring FIA on 1300 889 670, email training@fia.org.au or visit fia.org.au/professional-development/