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Looking ahead to Convention...1

Fundraising | Jonathon Grapsas | 3 Jul 2009

I’m typing this from seat 36K on my flight from Toronto to London, on what seems like an annual pilgrimage to London for the Institute convention.

It dawned on me whilst typing away that this is my 6th time at the Convention, and ironically 3 of them have been whilst living abroad, in Australia and now in Canada. So it’s fair to say I must like it given the distance I travel to be here for just a few days.

I’ve been looking at the conference schedule and there are lots of sessions that catch my eye. Of course there is the Inspiration Show on the Tuesday evening. But as well as that I’m looking forward to people in the trenches telling us what really is happening on this side of the pond. Right from the trenches. I’m hoping there will be a spirit of sharing: good, bad and indifferent results from a tough 12 months.

Of course I’m also looking forward to presenting on Tuesday morning. My session is entitled How to look at what others are doing and use it to raise more money.

Does this sound like a shameless plug? Well maybe it is. But you can’t blame a guy for trying.

In essence what I’m going to be doing is showcasing a handful of brilliant examples of really solid and disciplined direct marketing from around the globe that worked. And worked really well. 

Like the Canadian organisation that increased income by 70% from its Christmas appeal in 2008.

Then there’s the Australian charity that more than doubled its legacy file in the space of a few months.

And of course I’ll talk about the Hong Kong charity who managed to get almost 4 per cent of their emergency donors to sign up to a regular gift.

But there’s still more!

Ok, I’m starting to sound like an infomercial now, so for fear of you turning me off, I’ll sign off. But I hope to see you at Convention. It promises to be a great three days.

Jonathon

PS – And as an excited Aussie, I promise not to talk too much about the Ashes…

Directory: Institute of Fundraising
Who's Who: Jonathon Grapsas