Upcoming fundraising and leadership conferences 2025
Each month fundraisers and charity leaders have a wide variety of conferences to consider that might help them in their knowledge, inspiration or contacts. Here are a few from around the world that are coming up.
They cover national and global conferences that are directly or partly relevant to fundraisers and fundraising leaders. Some are in person, some virtual, and some a combination of both.
Fundraising Forward 2025
Donorbox’s Fundraising Forward takes place on 31 January 2025 at Rockefeller Plaza in New York.
It’s an opportunity to “connect with 100+ of NYC’s top Development Directors, Executive Directors, [and] fundraising experts”.
Delegates will also see Donorbox’s product innovations in action, including a sneak preview of upcoming features.
Speakers include:
- Charles Zhang – CEO & Founder, Donorbox,
- Kelly Hernandez – CEO & Founder, Nonprofit Marketing Nerd
- Maya Crauderueff – Founder & President, Maya’s Hope
The event is sold out.
Fundraising Conference Norway
The Norwegian Fundraising Conference takes place on 13 February 2025 at Sentralen in Oslo. It is presented by DNB in collaboration with Fundraising Norway.
Speakers this year include:
- Alan Clayton, CEO at Revolutionise International Ltd
- Malin Stensønes, Secretary General of the Norwegian Women’s Sanitary Association
- Hilde Mobekk, consultant and associate professor at OsloMet
- Stefan Fagerström, Grandmaster Digital SCMT at 2XL
- Petter Gulli, driving force at 12YEARS
- Johan Lindelien Schwartz, Director Corporate at Redd Barna
- Mehwish Shahid Dar, digital strategist at Greenpeace
- Turid Kristensen, parliamentary representative in the Family and Culture Committee (H)
- Siri Nodland, Secretary General in Norway
- introductions from Opinion and the Salvation Army
The gala dinner will include the fundraising awards, with the winners announced in three categories:
- Fundraiser of the year
- Volunteer Fundraiser of the Year
- Campaign of the year
FIA Conference (Australia)
FIA Conference 2025 is held over three days from 19-25 February.
Wednesday features small group masterclasses, sector specific discussion forums, the Opening Plenary Session and the Welcome Reception. Conference sessions are held across Thursday and Friday.
Speakers include:
- Mark Phillips, Owner, Bluefrog Fundraising
- Rochelle Courtenay, Founder and Managing Director, Share the Dignity
- Fi McPhee, Director, The Benchmarking Project (and MD Australia and New Zealand) at Revolutionise International
- Dan Pallotta, entrepreneur and author (virtual presentation)
- Richard Spencer, Director, and Roger Lawson, founder and Director, About Loyalty
For the Paws: the Global Fundraising Summit
Hundreds of animal welfare fundraisers from six countries will come together to share, learn from their peers and build a network. The event takes place virtually from 4-6 March 2025.
The For the Paws Summit runs for 2.5 hours each day over three days in order to get many time zones together during at the same time.
19th ESR and Health 2025 conference (France)
The 2025 event from the Association Francaise des Fundraisers is for those working to develop private resources in the sectors of Higher Education, Research, Health and Social Care. It runs from 12-13 March 2025 in Paris and this year features five master classes.
Rebooting Britain
Anthropy UK is hosting Rebooting Britain, this year’s Anthropy event, “the UK’s largest gathering of future markers”. It is a national gathering that “brings together leaders and organisations from all sectors to shape Britain’s future”.
It runs from 26-28 March 2025 and again will be held at the Eden Project in Cornwall.
Fundraising and philanthropy-related sessions include those run on impactful giving by Charities Aid Foundation.
Fundraising Forum 2025 (Sweden)
Insamlingsforum 2025, the “Nordic region’s largest conference on fundraising and giving”, will take place from 10-11 April 2025 at Sergel Hub in central Stockholm. It is presented by Giva Sverige.
The first day of the conference will also end with a reception, dinner and presentation of the Stenbeck Prize in its five categories.
2nd International F2F Fundraising Congress
The second International F2F Fundraising Congress takes place in Vienna between 28 – 30 April 2025.
Like the inaugural congress it is being run by Fundraising Verband Austria, appropriately so given that Austria was the birthplace of face-to-face fundraising.
The Congress’ objective is “to help develop, professionalise and address shared challenges of F2F fundraising – still the primary source of new donors worldwide – by bringing together expert speakers to host interactive, outcome-driven sessions”.
Fundraising Summer School (Ireland)
The Fundraising Summer School takes place again in Dublin on 20 and 21 May 2025.
Speakers include fundraising pioneer, Ken Burnett, legacy thought leader, Russell James, Supporter Experience innovator, Lesley Pinder, the fundraising creative force, Lisa Sargent, and Great Fundraising inspirer at Revolutionise International Colin Skehan.
In 2024 they had open space discussions, conversations, panels, presentations and even a walking tour. The event, run by Ask Director and Charities Institute Ireland, sold out.
The event is designed to be “a place to combine best practice in fundraising with critical thinking about fundraising.
“The people on the platform don’t know everything and are not the only experts. Summer School should be an environment in which all participants can participate fully and share their own particular experience and expertise.”
The theme this year is “The world is on fire. We need to equip ourselves to fix our future. We need to challenge ourselves to be better. We need to fall in love with fundraising again.”
2025 Annual Online Papillon Fundraising Conference
This annual virtual conference is presented by South African agency Papillon Press & Consultancy, led by global South African fundraising consultant Jill Richie.
It takes place from 20 – 21 May 2025. Speakers include Bernard Ross, Khashifa Ussuph, Rachel Sikwane, Alan Clayton of Revolutionise International, and Ricardo Wyngaard.
German Fundraising Congress
The German Fundraising Congress “is the largest and most renowned industry meeting in the German-speaking world”. This year it takes place from 11 – 13 June 2025 in Berlin.
Every year fundraisers from non-profit organisations gather for three days of professional dialogue. In 2025, the German Fundraising Congress will take place for the 32nd time in Berlin with over 800 participants.
The congress is organised by the German Fundraising Association. The event includes the announcement of the winners of the German Fundraising Award.
23rd Spanish Fundraising Congress
The 23rd Fundraising Congress in Spain will be held from 11-12 June 2025.
It is run by the Asociación Española de Fundraising.
12th International Conference of the European Research Network On Philanthropy in 2025
The International Conference of the European Research Network on Philanthropy will take place at the University of Heidelberg on 24 September 2025.
The academic keynote speaker at this year’s conference will be Liv Egholm (Copenhagen Business School). She will present on “Philanthropy for the People, by the People? The Roles, Organisations and Motivations of Philanthropy in Contemporary Democracies and Social Structures.”
ERNOP was founded in January 2008 by collaborating philanthropy researchers in Europe in order to advance, coordinate and promote excellence in philanthropic research in Europe.
Events you might have missed
Here are some conferences for fundraisers or relevant to some fundraisers that have just taken place. Consider this a year’s notice to book for the next one, on the assumption that many of these events run annually.
Political Tech Summit
Europe‘s first Political Tech Summit took place in Berlin on Saturday 25 January 2025. It was described as “where politics meets technology. It was “the first attempt to bridge expertise between democracies on the European continent and beyond” and was designed to “bring together political professionals, consultants, academics, start-ups, and technologists”.
Fundraising and campaigning platforms were present, including FundraiseUp and Nationbuilder, together with several foundations, media companies, and academic groups.
