Fundraising

What is a fundraiser? What do they do? What traits, skills, and knowledge do you need to be successful? Where can funds be raised from? All these questions and more are answered in the Fundraising Diploma Course.

This course lays out all the information you need to know to become a professional fundraiser. In addition to the fun parts of the role, this also includes learning about the rules and regulations that you will be expected to adhere to. This set of standards is based on the ‘Code of Fundraising Practice’ developed by the Institute of Fundraising (IoF) and the Public Fundraising Association (PFRA) and it will ensure you operate legally and ethically.

The course explains contemporary and traditional methods of fundraising and the various donor sources available; outlining the benefits to both giver and recipient in each case. You will learn what trusts, foundations, legacy donations and major donors are and gain insight into event and corporate fundraising.

The Fundraising Diploma Course gives particular focus to 3 types of fundraising: direct marketing, community, and social/digital. You’ll learn the about the various media that direct marketing fundraisers use, how to write appeal and thank you letters to donors, and the metrics you need to be aware of to manage and evaluate campaigns. You’ll explore the opportunities, challenges, and benefits community fundraising presents, be given hints and tips on being creative with this form of fundraising and examine how to recruit and deal with volunteers and organise your own community fundraiser. Social fundraising (fundraising on digital platforms) is relatively new. You’ll discover how it has become successful, how it operates through social media and “crowdfunding” platforms such as Kickstarter and CrowdRise, and how to start your own social fundraising campaign.

Putting your newly-discovered knowledge to use, the Fundraising Diploma Course guides you through developing your own simple and effective strategic fundraising plan that can be put to use in a real-world charity or organisation.

Upon successful completion of this course you will:

• Know what professional fundraising entails
• Have a fundamental overview of Britain’s fundraising codes of practice
• Be fully au fait with the main sources and methods of fundraising, including trusts, foundations, legacies, major donors, direct marketing fundraising and community, corporate and event fundraising
• Be confident in writing fundraising appeal letters and thank you letters to donors
• Understand the importance of volunteers in a fundraising effort and be clear on how to recruit and manage them
• Be able to organise your own community fundraiser
• Know how to set up a social fundraising campaign
• Be able to create a strategic fundraising plan

This specialist course is designed for anyone who is interested in fundraising for a charity, an organisation or themselves. You may have no previous experience of fundraising, work for a fundraising organisation and want to improve your prospects or have done some fundraising yourself and would like to turn it into a career. No matter which of these might apply, there is something here for you that will inform, build your confidence and guide you on the track to becoming a successful professional fundraiser.