China’s second annual Fundraising Conference, themed “Fundraising, Connecting for Good”, took place in Beijing on the 28th to 29th of July 2016. 300 fundraising experts, business marketing specialists, and frontline fundraisers gathered for an exchange of ideas on fundraising. The conference was jointly organized by Narada Foundation, One Foundation, China Foundation of Poverty Alleviation, Dunhe Foundation, Alibaba Charity Fund, and Recende Fundraising Research Center. The two-day event underlined five key issues: “the way”, “the principle”, “the time”, “the method”, and “the people”, in other words, the theoretical and practical development of the fundraising sector, fundraising opportunities in the Internet Age, fundraising tools and modes, and the career path of professional fundraisers.
Xu Yongguang, director general of the Narada Foundation, kicked off the conference with an opening speech, explaining how fundraising connects the organization with its supporters and the role of the fundraiser. Special guest Professor Adrian Sargeant from Plymouth Univeristy then shared his latest research on relationship fundraising. He explained that relationship fundraising is an approach based upon the donor’s satisfaction, commitment and trust, which focuses on the needs of the donors as much as on those of the beneficiaries. This approach is fundamentally different from the norm and is seldom practiced by non-profits, whose rates of donor retention are often quite low. Professor Sargeant also suggested that we should make use of research into philanthropic psychology and interactive marketing theories in order to build a connection between charities and donors.
Also of note is that during the first annual conference on fundraising which took place in 2015, the CAFP released China’s first statement of ethical principles in fundraising, based on the International Statement of Ethical Principles in Fundraising. At this year’s conference, the CAFP signed an agreement and officially became one of the initiating agencies for the International Statement of Ethical Principles in Fundraising.
