International Fundraising Congress stalwart Tony Elischer will not partake in the planning of next year’s event after the Congress organisers enacted a policy which will see all key volunteers "rested" after a period of service.
Elischer has been a key element of the International Fundraising Congress (IFC) for decades, most recently in 2010 taking a lead in the planning committee, delivering the opening plenary and speaking in one of the conference’s key sessions on fundraising futurology.
His decision to end his involvement in the organising of next year’s IFC is the result of the Resource Alliance, the organisers of the conference, implementing a policy designed to bring new blood into the organisation and conference.
In an open letter to IFC speakers and volunteers, the Think Consulting Solutions director said that he felt the policy was targeted at him and “incomprehensible”.
"No charity pushes away its key volunteers, especially when they work tirelessly behind the scenes, happy to support others and see their success and joy," it said.
Elischer told Civil Society: “The IFC is a truly great event and I wish it every success into the future.”
Fresh blood for Resource Alliance
Jan Krol, vice-chair of the Resource Alliance, told Civil Society that the organisation regretted that Elischer had decided to leave. “It’s not what we were after. It’s not what we want,” he said.
Krol said that the resting policy has been in place for years, but that in 2009 the Resource Alliance decided to extended to the seven-person ‘faculty’ at the core of organising the IFC in order to bring in new talent and diversity.
“Any organisation needs new people, fresh blood,” he said. He said that no other member of the faculty had come to the Resource Alliance with any problems regarding the resting policy.
Krol said Elischer had been asked by the Resource Alliance to be rested in 2013.
“Tony is a very special person. Not only is he a great speaker, but he has dedicated a lot of time and we still want him to be with us,” he said.
“We want to develop successors for Tony.”
