Catholic fundraisers gather at annual conference
Howard Lake | 21 September 2023 | News
Advancing the work of the Catholic Church following a time of immense change was the focus of the Catholic Fundraising Conference in Salford this week. Fundraisers for dioceses, Catholic charities and schools reflected on their roles in the post-COVID Church for the good of society.
The opening presentation from CAFOD detailed the changed demographic of the Catholic community in England and Wales in the wake of COVID.
The National Churches Trust, which makes church maintenance grants, outlined their new strategy and Catholics in Fundraising convenor John Green’s survey of Catholic charities noted that collectively Catholic charities voluntary income equates to being one of the top 20 UK charities.
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Matt Parkes of Scenius Consulting flagged the not uncommon problem of charity management having a ‘wish list’ for fundraisers and that organisations need to counter this with a realistic and structured plan that engages at all levels of the charity.
Charity recruitment specialist Harris Hill detailed the shortage of fundraising professionals that increased the importance of Church charities communicating their values to prospective candidates.
Suzanne Wheeler, Director of Development at Stonyhurst College said of the conference: “This was an invaluable chance to survey the situation of Church fundraising following a period of unprecedented change and share experiences with those involved in this specific fundraising sphere.”
The conference was sponsored by Yeomans and and GoodHub, formerly InvestMyCommunity.
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- First Catholic fundraisers conference to take place in Rome (21 August 2017)
- Catholics in Fundraising marks 15 years (14 June 2022)
- Pupils from Catholic schools banned from fundraising for Comic Relief (7 March 2005)
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.