Obama's fundraisers share best practice Last week I attended the DMA Nonprofit Conference in Washington DC. As you can imagine there was a lot of excitement about the presence of Meaghan Burdick, director of marketing, Obama for America, who was delivering the opening keynote presentation. I had to say I was a little sceptical as to how much detail would be shared about the campaign that raised USD600 million.

I've just signed up for membership to a certain London cultural centre because, among other reasons, I'm a bit fancy like that. But just as I was about to place my order, I got asking - where's the gift aid?

One of the joys of working for a really tiny charity is that there is none of the tension between the fundraisers and the service delivery staff which seems to be endemic in some larger organisations. In Thai Children’s Trust there are just six of us in the office, so there is no space for territorial jealousy. All of us have to be prepared to turn our hand to almost everything. And of course all of us get to visit the children we help support, so there is an astonishing amount of job satisfaction.

Last week I had a city break with a difference. I was invited by Owen Watkins, formerly of the Dialog Group, now Unicef's international face to face specialist to a unicef international skill share at their headquarters in Geneva. The conference brought together staff from 15 countries from across Europe who either do, or are planning to do face-to-face fundraising. I was only there for day 2, but it was incredibly interesting and useful and I have brought back ideas that Mencap can use in the future.