Course Catalogue

90-day Donor Accelerator Program

Course overview

Plan and run a structured donor campaign that fits your organisation's size and capacity.

This course is for your organisation if:

We don't know how to grow our donor income.
We rely too much on grants and events.
We don't know how to move donors from one off to regular giving.
We don't have a clear fundraising strategy.
We don't know where to start with philanthropy.

Many small and emerging charities rely heavily on grants, events, or one off appeals to generate income. This practical course will show you how to take a more strategic approach to individual giving by building a donor campaign that grows stronger supporter relationships and creates more sustainable income over time.

Across two interactive online sessions, you'll learn how to plan a donor campaign that suits your organisation's size, capacity, and goals. You'll explore how different donor groups engage with your organisation, how to communicate with them effectively, and how to encourage ongoing support.

You'll leave with practical tools, templates and a campaign planning framework that you can adapt and start using straight away.

Course aim

By the end of the course, you will have:

A practical framework to design and deliver a structured donor campaign for individual giving.
Examples of campaign materials to guide your communications.
The confidence to choose the right campaign focus for your organisation’s goals and capacity.

What you’ll learn

By the end of this course you will be able to:

Plan a structured individual giving campaign.
Identify and engage different donor groups, from first time donors to regular, mid value, major and bequest supporters.
Develop communications that match each stage of the donor journey.
Use practical templates and campaign resources to support your fundraising.
Build a realistic campaign plan that fits your organisation's capacity.

Targeted skills

Foundations for Growth – developing the skills to establish a sustainable income that can fund dedicated fundraising roles and future campaigns.
Philanthropic Mindset – building confidence in approaching fundraising as a relationship-based, long-term practice.
Practical Planning – using frameworks and sample tools to map out a campaign approach (grassroots, regular givers, or major donors).
Communication Strategy – learning how messaging differs across donor segments and how to create multi-wave communications.
Donor Segmentation – recognising different levels of donor engagement (general, regular, mid-value, major, legacy) and why each matters.
Campaign Design – understanding how to structure a donor campaign that is achievable and aligned with organisational capacity.

Participant level

Entry - intermediate level.

Who is this course for?

Many small not for profits under $1M turnover already run fundraising activities such as events, raffles, grants, or appeals. This course focuses on building a structured donor campaign for individual giving and philanthropy, so you can grow a reliable base of supporter income over time.

Prerequisite knowledge

No prior fundraising experience is required. This course is designed for small not-for-profits taking their first steps into donor campaigns.

It is helpful, but not essential, for participants to have:

A general understanding of their organisation’s mission, programs, and impact.
Basic awareness of how their organisation currently engages supporters (e.g., newsletters, events, social media).
Access to organisational information, such as supporter lists or communication examples.

This course won’t explore

To make sure expectations are clear, please note this course does not include:

Development of bespoke campaign copy or materials for your organisation.
One-to-one coaching or customised strategy design.
Detailed tailoring of donor communications beyond the provided examples.
Training in corporate sponsorship, grant writing, or event-based fundraising (this course focuses specifically on individual giving campaigns).

The course provides a framework, sample tools, and examples that you can adapt for your own organisation.

Delivery

2 x 3hr sessions via Zoom (Friday and Monday)

A practical workbook to guide your learning and campaign planning.
Sample campaign materials – including letters, social posts, and communication examples.
A stewardship matrix to help you map donor engagement.
Case studies to illustrate different campaign approaches.
Access to templates and resources you can adapt for your organisation.
Two live, interactive online sessions with group discussions, breakout rooms, and real-time Q&A.

Meet the facilitator

Read Fleur Allen's bio. (PDF)

Guidelines for enrolment

Make sure you have a login for the FIA Learning Hub. Click "Sign In" or "Forgot Password" if needed.
You can enrol a staff member if they already have a login.
If you require assistance, please email training@fia.org.au.

CFRE

Full participation in Your First Campaign: Building a Foundation for Philanthropy is applicable for up to 2.25 continuing education points in Category 1. B – Education of the CFRE International application for initial certification and/or recertification.

FIA Code

This course relates to the following aspects of the FIA Code of Conduct:

Compliance (Section 2.0): All campaign frameworks and tools shared in this course align with legal and regulatory requirements for fundraising in Australia.
Ethical Conduct (Section 3.0): The course emphasises transparency, honesty, and integrity in donor communications, avoiding misleading or coercive practices.
Conduct Towards Donors (Section 4.0): Practical examples demonstrate how to respect donor intent, safeguard privacy, and build trust through stewardship.
Conduct Towards Beneficiaries (Section 5.0): Case studies highlight the importance of representing beneficiaries with dignity, avoiding exploitation in fundraising appeals.
Conduct in Supplier Relationships (Section 6.0): Participants are reminded to ensure fair, transparent, and professional dealings with external suppliers such as printers, mail houses, or digital providers.

By embedding these principles throughout, the course equips participants not only with practical fundraising skills but also with a values-led approach that fosters trust, integrity, and long-term donor relationships.

One Year Before Your Capital Campaign: A 12 month step by step guide to planning for success

Course overview

One Year Before Your Capital Campaign breaks down the 12 months before you start your campaign. In this course you'll learn what to do when you're 12 months, 9 months, 6 months and 3 months out from launching your capital campaign. And if you're already out of time, there’s also "In Case of Capital Campaign Emergency” section which you hopefully don't need but there if you do. Don't miss this chance to learn how to give your future capital campaign every chance to succeed.

This course takes a simple calendar approach, breaking down the year before your capital campaign feasibility study into 4 easy to follow sections: 12 months out, 9 months out, 6 months out and 3 months out. It will guide individuals regardless of their experience with capital campaigns on what steps to take and when, to ensure success.

It covers establishing initial activity for prospect research, gathering evidence, the campaign narrative and financial narrative, strategy and leadership, and how to gain both project and financial momentum in the lead up to a capital campaign.

Capital campaigns are often milestone moments in the life of any organisation. The complexities involved in preparing for a campaign can sometimes lead Boards, CEOs, and Directors of Fundraising to delay action, overlook key steps, or unintentionally deprioritise the planning phase.

What you'll learn

You will take away the importance of advanced planning as a significant contributing factor to capital campaign success. The presentation will deliver a framework of how to approach the 12 months prior to a capital campaign while also taking into consideration annual fundraising programs. Particular emphasis will be placed on the implications around being at, ahead or behind their annual goals and how this relates to capital campaign success.

Focus will be drawn to the practical and tactical: addressing and ensure you have visibility of common issues in advance of launching a capital campaign such as organisational readiness, governance, project related issues, financial narrative and of course early engagement of philanthropic donors and government representatives and much more! Fundraisers from the smallest non-profit to largest will leave with new knowledge, ideas and opportunities and the ability to apply them immediately. The result will be projects and organisations, and campaigns better positioned for capital campaign success.

Targeted Skills:

Who is this course for?

Not for Profit Fundraising Leaders, CEO’s and Board Members

Delivery

In-class is 1 x 8hr session hosted at a venue in Sydney

This course won’t explore

The workshop will not cover some aspects of capital campaign planning, specifically financial modelling, client or service modelling and in the case of building works, items related such as use of architects, quantity surveyors and the like.

Participant Level

Advanced/Leadership

Prerequisite Knowledge

It would be helpful if participants had a cursory understanding of capital campaigns before the workshop.

Meet the facilitator

Read Mark Quigley's bio (PDF).

Guidelines for enrolment

Make sure you have a login for the FIA Learning Hub. Click "Sign In" or "Forgot Password" if needed.

You can enrol a staff member if they already have a login.

If you require assistance, please email training@fia.org.au.

CFRE

Full participation in One Year Before Your Capital Campaign: A 12-month step by step guide to planning for success is applicable for up to 2.25 continuing education points in Category 1. B – Education of the CFRE International application for initial certification and/or recertification.

FIA Code

This course relates to the following aspects of the FIA Code of Conduct:

Professional Conduct (Section 2)

2.1 Competence: The course builds professional knowledge and skills around capital campaign readiness, supporting fundraisers to perform their roles to a high professional standard.

2.4 Accountability: Preparing properly for a capital campaign demonstrates accountability to donors, boards, and beneficiaries by ensuring the organisation can deliver on its promises.

Strategic Planning for Fundraising

FIA member (AUD) $1200.00

Non member (AUD) $1560.00

FIA member (NZD) $1235.00

Non member (NZD) $1545.00

Course Overview

Learn how to prepare a 3-year plan to drive sustainable fundraising growth.

This practical, hands-on masterclass will equip you to create an effective fundraising strategy. The session builds on valuable pre-work with interactive tools, group discussion, case studies, research findings and masses of experience to help you confidently craft the outline of your strategy. Working through our 6-step process, we examine the fundraising market, your organisational culture, donor motivations, your fundraising portfolio, how to influence donor behaviour and the enablers of success. The session draws on analysis of the drivers of fundraising success from surveys with over 700 fundraisers, more than 25 years of developing strategies for 100 organisations and acclaimed sessions run at IFC in Asia and Europe.

What you'll learn

By the end of the course, you will:

Understand the strategic planning process and be ready to apply it within your organisation
Have created an outline plan and identified key issues to address in your fundraising program
Understand the trends and influences on fundraising in Australia and what that might mean for your organisation
Have applied key benchmarks to your fundraising program to see where future returns can come from
Have access to a suite of tools to assist with strategic planning.

Who is this course for?

Fundraisers either at entry or intermediate level.

Designed for fundraisers wanting to take their approach to the “next level” this course is designed for anyone with responsibility or interest in developing overall or program specific fundraising strategies.
Ambitious fundraisers aiming to step up to leadership roles.
Those new to the fundraising sector are looking for valuable context and insights from CEOs or board members of organisations with emerging fundraising programs or strategies that need refreshing.

Key topics

Understanding the market: political, economic, social, and technological factors influencing fundraising; fundraising trends; and how to assess competitors.
Understand your organisation – fundraising culture (including survey results); ambitions and internal enablers.
Understand your audiences – your need, brand, proposition, and donor motivations for giving to you.
Manage your portfolio – review key drivers and the associated effort and reward for each type of fundraising, including key financial benchmarks and trends.
Influence donor behaviour – the importance of research, nudges and journeys.
Enabling success means creating a culture of innovation, making a case for investment, managing and mitigating risks, knowing what to measure, and understanding how to create synergy.

Delivery

3 x 5hr sessions via Zoom.

Course materials

Pre-work: Top-line benchmarking report. A fundraising success survey will be used to ascertain your fundraising readiness.

Take away: Business canvass with an outline plan and issues.

Content: Evidence-based benchmarks, case studies, examples, and research outcomes.

Meet the facilitator

Read Martin Paul's bio (PDF).

Guidelines for enrollment

Make sure you have a login for the FIA Learning Hub. Click "Sign In" or "Forgot Password" if needed.

You can enrol a staff member if they already have a login.

If you require assistance, please email training@fia.org.au.

CFRE

Full participation in Strategic Planning for Fundraising is applicable for up to 14 continuing education points in Category 1. B – Education of the CFRE International application for initial certification and/or recertification.

FIA Code

This course relates to the following aspects of the FIA Code of Conduct:

FIA Code 4.10 and 4.11 Conduct towards Donors.

Creating the Compelling Case for Support

FIA member (AUD) $530.00

Non member (AUD) $690.00

FIA member (NZD) $550.00

Non member (NZD) $690.00

Course Overview

Today’s hypercompetitive market for charitable giving is more challenging than ever. Facing the daunting obstacle of information overload, how can charities stand out? Only through the creation of a compelling case for support that can be easily understood and communicated.

The case for support is the vital first step in motivating donors to give. Yet too many charities miss the mark when they put forward conflicting and confusing messages about their important work. Many do not take the time to properly and succinctly communicate their mission and fail to clearly show how financial support will support that mission.

In this interactive short course, John Greenhoe will show attendees how to create a great case to serve as a solid base for all fundraising. When completed, the case will explain, in a simple and compelling fashion, what you do, why it is critically important, and how donors can help NOW. Don’t miss this opportunity to cut through the noise and foster unprecedented levels of giving!