F2F Fundraising Congress 2027 returns to Vienna
Howard Lake | 12 October 2026 | News
The third International F2F Fundraising Congress will bring the global face-to-face (F2F) fundraising community to Vienna from 15 to 17 March 2027.
Hosted by Fundraising Verband Austria (the Austrian Fundraising Association), the in-person event takes place at the Austria Trend Hotel Savoyen Vienna. It is expected to draw fundraising professionals, agencies and sector leaders from around the world to discuss innovation, ethics and professional development in F2F donor acquisition.
Ruth Williams, CEO of the Austrian Fundraising Association, said F2F remains the main source of long-term supporters worldwide, and that the Congress gives the global community a platform to learn, share skills and bring fresh energy to their direct dialogue fundraising strategies.
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Programme: retention takes centre stage
This year’s theme is retention, examined from several angles: donor value, motivation, leadership, inclusion, team culture and human-centred management. The organisers say the focus is on what keeps both donors and fundraisers engaged for the long term.
Confirmed programme highlights include:
- Marianna Rudyk (Bilyk) of the Ukrainian Red Cross on how F2F fundraising transforms lives, in a keynote moderated by Roland Csaki of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
- Siri-Anna Roswall Mattsson and Anne Karina Wulf of Børns Vilkår (The Danish Child Helpline) asking whether objection handling actually works, and letting the data decide.
- Daryl Upsall (Upsall International) and Martin Gaffney (SG Support) facilitating a participatory debate on the hottest topics in F2F, titled “Face to Face Fundraising On Fire”.
- John Jeffries (New Canvassing Experience) drawing on decades of experience in a session on motivational theory and practice.
- Emily Bracken of Upsall International (Spain) and Filipa Morais of SOS Children’s Villages International (Portugal) on the changing donor acquisition landscape across markets.
- Bruno da Silva Machado of the Norwegian Refugee Council in a keynote titled “Value over Volume”, sharing early donor retention strategies that are already showing results.
Event details
Tickets cover full participation from Monday to Wednesday, catering throughout the event and admission to an official dinner party on the Tuesday evening. Travel and accommodation are not included.
Early bird tickets are available for a limited time at €1,650. Additional discounts are offered to returning delegates, attendees travelling long distances, fundraisers under 30 (“Next-Gen”) and groups of three or more.
The event hashtag is #F2FCongress27.
F2F Conference 2025
Can you explore photos from the last international F2F Conference.
- RNLI to recruit 160 face to face fundraisers (25 February 2026)
- Five of the funniest responses given to face to face fundraisers (22 December 2017)
- Global council launches to support F2F fundraising standards (22 September 2022)
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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.