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Right! We're at the 21st IFC and I'm with Giles Pegram who is the director of
fundraising at the NSPCC who most people will know is retiring this year.
So this is probably going to be his last IFC so Giles, how long have you been coming here?
Well I've been coming pretty much since the second IFC in Zurich, some
27-years-ago and I've come to every
one since. And what have been the highlights
of your time at the IFC? I think there are three that I can
remember. One is hearing Guy Stringer, the
ex-director of Oxfam, recently deceased, and he
talked to fundraisers about fundraisers being a real
force for good, about being agents for change and I think that
was the first time that I really felt proud to be a fundraiser
knowing that I was making a difference in the world.
The second
highlight for me was hearing
Austrian Greenpeace talking about a new fundraising technique that they'd
discovered
of wearing tabards and going out with clipboards into Austrian shopping centres
and signing people up to a regular gift. And I just remember
the audience being completely wowed
by that presentation
and going off to their own countries and their own organisations and saying why can't we do
this? Why can't we do this?
And that was the beginning of face-to-face fundraising as we know it.
And then the third highlight was hearing Karen Osborne from the United States
coming over and talking about stewardship of donors
and the whole idea of nurturing donors, not just raising money from them
and I think once again that's an idea
that's been taken back and now every organisation in the United Kingdom is talking
about stewardship. How do you think it's changed
over the years? You know? I presume you're going to say it's got better but I just wondered
how you have seen it change? Well, I think it got worse and then it got better.
I think in the early days, in the Guy Stringer days,
it was about donors and it was about beneficiaries
and I think in the mid-eighties I think it lost its way slightly
and I think it became much more about fundraising technique
fundraising processes, products, spreadsheets, analysis,
and the donor got lost.
And what's really pleased me about this year's session
is the, I loved the opening plenary.
It wasn't all fireworks and jamboree. It
was people talking with real passion about the difference that fundraising makes in the
world.
So I think in a sense the IFC has come round full circle
so although it's my last one, I'm leaving on a high note.
Do you think it really will be your last one or do you think you might be back at some
time in the future? Well, that depends if anyone invites me back!
Where would you, if you could see it, where would you like the IFC to go
in the future, what do you think are the challenges that are still available to it they can tackle?
I'd like it to continue
going back to its roots of being a donor focused, beneficiary focused
conference
that looks at new ways of connecting donors with the causes that they
want to meet.
And do you know what, I'm sure that you will be back!
Thank you very much. Giles, thank you.