I 'heart' the IFC & Bill

I’ve just got back from the International Fundraising Conference in Holland.

The thing I love about this conference is that it’s a chance to get away from my desk in London and spend three days immersing myself in the sector that I love.

This year I was really pleased to see that Bill Toliver from The Matale Line was doing the opening plenary. I love Bill. Two years ago I saw Bill speak at an IFC session called ‘From Google to Ghandi'. It’s a session I went to because Mrs DG told me it was amazing, she had been the day before. I went with Bethan Holloway who I worked with at the time.

That session has been my point of reference for my approach to fundraising ever since. I realise that sentence makes me sound like an agency tosser. But I mean it. 

Mrs DG wrote some notes up from that session two years ago, I’ve pasted some of them below.

As fundraisers we are agents of change. We create social movements that suspend individual motivations and come together to get something done.

Our job is not just getting people to act it’s getting them to commit. Don’t just build a database; build a true base of support.

We are the voice of those with no voice; our excellence is a moral obligation, not just a business necessity.

All social change requires that someone motivates a critical mass of the right people to commitment to that change.

There will be many headlines and turmoils, particularly in recession that create potential obstacles – these do not define who we are, they test who we are.

Ever since that session I’ve bored people to tears about how good it was, how much it means to me and what an amazing speaker Bill is. So I was very pleased when a) a few people told me that they went because I go on about it all the time and b) they were as impressed by Bill as I am. I bumped into Bethan later in the bar and we both agreed that Bill had done good!

Here's Bill introducing his session.

Reuben has written a post on his experience of this year's opening plenary here.

I got a bit over excited and lost a few followers on Twitter for using rude words to describe how good it was. So to make up for the rudeness, if you want Mrs DG's notes. Drop me a line I will send them to you.