C Black
National Major Gifts Fundraiser
The Wilderness Society

I would like to say a great big thank you to ASI Smart Scholarships for the wonderful opportunity to attend Madison Down Under (MDU) 2008.

It was not without a tinge of trepidation that I began my journey to MDU, concerns that I was about to be held in ‘fundraising boot camp’ surfaced. However warm smiles, friendly greetings, re-united friends and cocktail parties soon made me feel comfortable and ready to be invigorated and inspired.

MDU provides a forum for dedicated fundraising professionals from USA and Australia to share knowledge, skills, expertise, experience, ideas and solutions to help us do our job better. My classmates were generous, courageous people enabling change across the health, education, environment and creative sectors. A very inspiring group indeed!

I have a better grasp of the fundraising process, researching potential donors, matching people’s needs with positive outcomes, understanding why people give, how to make the big ask, and expressing appreciation. Our captivating group of presenters shared theoretical and practical knowledge through talks, workshops, case studies and discussions. Problems and solutions were shared. The role-play exercise allowed us to test this new information and was also very entertaining.

With these new tools at hand I feel more capable of contributing to our fundraising efforts. The challenges facing The Wilderness Society are enormous. The ASI Scholarship has helped both me, and The Wilderness Society, face some of these challenges.

Thank you ASI, for your generous support.

T Brown
Fundraising Manager
Time for Kids Inc

Thank you for providing me the 50% subsidy to attend Madison Down Under – Strategic Management Track.

Time for Kids is a small South Australian charity that was not in a position to send me to MDU so the scholarship enabled me to attend. Time for Kids helps ‘at risk’, or disadvantaged children by giving a much needed break from what can often be a stressful home life. The children are matched with a volunteer family in their local community and given the opportunity to spend time with the family on a regular basis over the long term. Our aim is to give these kids positive childhood experiences, useful life lessons for later in life, and acceptance, love and care.  

The Strategic Management Track was extremely beneficial in my current role as the presenters took the participants through some useful information that can be applied immediately. 

Having attended MDU in the past and participated in different tracks it was refreshing to be able to utilise the information in my current role, without having to wait for programs to be implemented.

In particular we discussed Strategic Plans and management of staff, which were particularly relevant as we are in the process of addressing our Strategic Plan and as our organisation is growing we are looking to hire more staff.  The track was very practical and relevant with the entire group participating in discussions.

Apart from the educational aspect of MDU it provided wonderful networking opportunities. From these I was able to establish some valuable relationships that will have an impact on the work of Time for Kids as well as enable me to develop professionally.
The benefit of the event being live-in over 4 days, you get opportunities to discuss issues at length, which is not often the case at the traditional type of conference.

Thank you again for the opportunity.  The scholarships provided by ASI are often the only way many smaller charities can attend MDU and that is often vital for the charities fundraising success.

The Review Panel for the December 2008 Round of funding will consist of:

Paul Ramsbottom - ASI Managing Director (and Chairman of the Fund)

Julie Willett - ASI Director Administration/Human Resources

Andrew Wilton - ASI Customer Care Manager (on rotation)

A Lee
AngliCORD

Thanks to ASI ‘SMART Company’ Scholarship Fund who funded 50% of the Madison Down Under 2008 FIA’s intensive educational program, I attended the Strategic Marketing for Fundraising track and came away with inspirations of what I can enhance in fundraising for AngliCORD.

Our track chair, Michelle Campbell together with the advisory panel of Clare MacAdam and Graham McKern provided participants with an information packed interactive program where we not only learned the importance of theory and practical ways of strategic communication and marketing, but we also developed our own marketing plan that we could apply in our workplace.

There was a wonderful cross-section of fundraising organisations represented in this track, so there is a lot of learning and sharing information from each other as well as networking.

Some of the important aspects of the program I learnt were:

• self audit of several current marketing factors for organisation’s readiness for marketing
• marketing objectives
• design marketing strategies and action plans
• consider the most appropriate communication mix
• stewardship - backing up the marketing promise
• having a case for support, including price points

Amongst the many knowledge I have acquired is one of ‘how to market unrestricted giving’. In an era where so many donors are designating their gifts for a specific purpose or projects, it is becoming much more difficult for AngliCORD to have the freedom to fund necessary programs, including our fundraising costs.  This I would be sharing with my colleagues and design a plan of action in the coming months. 

Mr Ramsbottom, once again THANK YOU for giving me this wonderful opportunity for professional development in this not-for-profit sector. 

D Bayard
Manager: PR & Fundraising
Hutt Street Centre

I admit I somewhat reluctantly agreed that this year I would finally attend Medison Down Under (MDU) - having found excuses not to in the past! What a fool I was? MDU was by far the most stimulating, inspiring, intense and fulfilling training course I have ever undertaken.

Whilst having worked in fundraising for 8 years I have flown by the seat of my pants - without any formal training. Choosing the Fundamentals Track at MDU has given me some of the basic building blocks which will enable me to confidently reassess my fundraising strategy, re-evaluate my 3 year plan, rebuild my program to make the best use of my resources and maximise my organisation’s potential for raising funds.

MDU has taught me the real value of my database and given me new ideas on how to best utilize our most important resource - our community of supporters. It has also given me the confidence to introduce new fundraising activities at Hutt Street Centre which I previously felt I lacked the skills and knowledge to initiate.

The quality of presenter in Track 1 enabled participants from a variety of not for profit organisations, and with a vast array and level of experiences, to increase our skill base and our capacity to put our new knowledge into practice back in our work places.

I believe that one of the fundamentals of a fundraiser’s character is the ability to represent the organisation in which they work with confidence, passion and integrity. MDU is presented in such a way that participants leave with the confidence that our work is important and valued, not just by our employers, but by those who want to support our organisations. Donors, sponsors, boards and foundations need to know that the person and the organisation in which they are entrusting their money have integrity, skills, knowledge, confidence and expertise in their field. The intense learning opportunity provided by MDU definitely helps to build that capacity.

I am pleased to admit I was wrong in my expectation of what Madison Down Under could offer me. I will definitely be one of the first to register again next year and I am extremly grateful that ASI assisted my organisation, Hutt Street Centre, by providing me with a scholarship to attend.

Applications for the September round of funding in 2008 have now closed. We have had a great response again particularly for our Fundraising Leadership Program scholarships. The Review Panel is currently considering the applications and will announce the Scholarship recipients in early October.

Applications are welcome for the December round of funding.  Applications close for this review period on Wednesday 10 December 2008.  So start thinking about your professional development needs for 2009!

Be sure to go to our main scholarship website at www.advsol.com/ap/scholarship and click on ‘pre-approved courses and scholarships available’ to check how many scholarships are still available.

The deadline for the September 2008 round of funding for the ASI SMART Company Scholarship Fund has been extended to Friday 12 September (from Wed 10th Sept).

This is the time to apply to attend FIA’s Fundraising Leadership Program (FLP)- an intensive four day program covering advanced professional issues in fundraising and philanthropy, transformational leadership and social marketing.   One full scholarship is available along with up to 5 part scholarships (25% of early bird member rate registration fees).  More details about the scholarships is at www.advsol.com/ap/scholarship and the FLP at www.fia.org.au.

For further information please contact Marla at ASI on                +61 3 9869 7503         or email info_aust@advsol.com.