Growing Donor Value
Harnessing the Power of Telephone Fundraising
Six 30-minute sessions including live Q&As.
Tuesday, April 8, 2025

10:00–13:00 CET

Session recordings available on demand after the live event
Reserve your place

Event Topic

Join us for an insightful event focused on maximizing donor relationships through integrated telephone strategies. Discover how the telephone can play a crucial role in growing donor value, facilitating upgrades, building lasting relationships, and winning back lapsed donors. This event will explore innovative approaches to sustain long-term, valuable donor connections, essential for any organization's fundraising success.

We will delve into various campaign types and present compelling case studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of placing telephone fundraising at the core of your fundraising strategy. Learn from industry experts and share experiences with peers as we explore the art of nurturing donor relationships through the power of personal communication.

Reserve your place

Programme

Telemarketing European Forum

Date: January 29 - January 30, 2025

Venue: Talent Garden Roma Ostiense

Talent Garden Ostiense

Join us in the heart of Rome for the inaugural Celebrating Telephone Fundraising event, a unique opportunity to connect, collaborate, and innovate within the telephone fundraising sector. Over two inspiring days, participants will engage with thought leaders and peers to explore global trends, ethical challenges, and best practices in telephone fundraising. This event emphasizes the power of sharing experiences and insights to foster growth and enhance fundraising strategies.

With a dynamic program featuring keynote speakers, panel discussions, and facilitated learning sessions, attendees will leave equipped with actionable strategies and a renewed passion for integrating telephone fundraising into their overall fundraising mix. Conclude your experience with an unforgettable Italian party filled with music and dance, celebrating the connections made and ideas shared.

Key Features

  • Networking opportunities focused on collaboration and inspiration
  • Insights into global trends and ethical considerations in telephone fundraising
  • Facilitated learning sessions for organic discussions on challenges and solutions
  • Open speaker hour allowing participants to share their expertise
  • A vibrant celebration to conclude the event

This event is not just a conference; it’s a movement towards enhancing the impact of telephone fundraising. Don’t miss this chance to be part of a transformative experience!

Speakers

Day 1: Arrival and Networking

  • Afternoon (13:00–14:00): Arrival and Registration
  • Welcome to Rome (14:00–14:45)
    Daniele Fusi and Jacob Møllemose
    Welcome and introduction to the programme and sessions.
  • Networking Session (14:45–15:30): Join our dynamic unconferencing session where participants connect through informal discussions, identifying shared interests and collaboratively exploring themes that matter most to everyone.
  • Break (15:30–16:00)
  • Global trends in Telephone fundraising (16:00–16:45)
    Filipa Morais Santos
    Explore the latest trends shaping telephone fundraising with industry experts and guest speakers. Join our dynamic sessions combining online and in-room participation, followed by collaborative discussions to share experiences and insights.
  • Ethics in telephone fundraising (16:45–17:15)
    Cristy Cunnick and Alex Weeks-Smyth
    A discussion on ethical considerations, regulatory challenges, and maintaining donor trust in a rapidly evolving landscape.
  • Reflection on ethical challenges (17:15–17:45)
    Cristy Cunnick and Holger Menze
    Expert panellists examine ethical practices in telephone fundraising, exploring responsible donor engagement and privacy protection. Two audience members will join our discussion, sharing real-world ethical challenges and solutions.

Day 2: Keynotes, Panels, and Facilitated Learning

  • Is telephone fundraising a dead-end job? (09:30–10:15)
    Holger Menze
    A dynamic session exploring how we can empower and elevate our most valuable asset - our fundraising callers. Together we'll chart the future of telephone fundraising, focusing on maximizing caller potential to increase donor engagement and campaign effectiveness.
  • Building the Case for Telephone Fundraising (10:15–11:00)
    Ilja De Coster
    Experience why telephone fundraising is essential: delivering unmatched personal connections and proven results that strengthen every successful fundraising program.
  • Integrating Omnichannel Approaches in Fundraising (11:00–11:45)
    Ilja De Coster
    Our expert speakers explore telephone outreach and digital strategies for donor engagement. We'll invite two participants to join our panellists to share experiences and insights.
  • Break (11:45–12:15)
  • Building Bridges: Research-Industry Partnerships (12:15–12:45)
    Jacob Møllemose
    Explore how to evolve strategic partnerships between suppliers, researchers, and charities to enhance telephone fundraising effectiveness through shared insights, collaborative innovation, and evidence-based practices.
  • Lunch Break (12:45–14:30)
  • Open Mic session 1 (14:30–14:45): 15-Minute Open Mic: This informal, energetic format creates an opportunity for spontaneous knowledge exchange. Share your most impactful fundraising moment, innovative idea, or valuable lesson learned with your colleagues!
  • Open Mic session 2 (14:45–15:00)
  • Open Mic session 3 (15:00–15:15)
  • Break (15:15–15:45)
  • AI and Telefundraising: Enhancing Human Connection in the Digital Age (15:45–16:15)
    Daniele Fusi
    Through real-world cases, explore how AI and digital tools enhance (not replace) human connections in fundraising. Learn practical ways to integrate these technologies to strengthen donor relationships and improve outcomes.
  • Value based telephone fundraising (16:15–16:45)
    May-Elén Vinaskei
    A practical session on how a value based leadership approach works in performance driven enviroment. Puttin people first, and not having to let results come in second.
  • Decoding Telephone Fundraising (16:45–17:15)
    Edlira Shehu
    Delve into a captivating study of telephone fundraising, where AI and meticulous research intertwine. Led by Professor Shehu, this session illuminates the powerful potential analysing the conversatoins we have with donors.
  • Global Perspectives on Telephone Fundraising - where to now? (17:15–17:45)
    Edlira Shehu and May-Elén Vinaskei
    Featuring insights from the event and lessons learned - how do make it to the next level.
  • Close of the conference (17:45–18:00)

Evening Celebration

  • Italian Party (19:00 onwards)
    Music and dance to celebrate the achievements of the event.

Key Themes Addressed

  • Global trends in telephone fundraising
  • Major challenges such as ethics and best practices
  • The importance of collaboration and sharing within the sector

This program is designed to inspire collaboration, drive innovation, and address critical challenges within the telephone fundraising sector while highlighting its essential role in a comprehensive fundraising strategy.

The inclusion of facilitated learning sessions allows for a more dynamic exchange of ideas among participants.

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Sessions

The True Value of a Donor

Session

1

Donors are more than just financial contributors. While Lifetime Value (LTV) helps us measure donations over time, Donor Value captures the deeper connection—engagement, activism, and purpose.
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This speech explores how we can transform donors into purpose-driven supporters, making them feel part of something bigger. Through clear messaging, personalized interactions, and brand-aligned campaigns, we can amplify loyalty (or better yet, relationships) and long-term impact.

Donors don’t just want to give—they want to belong.

Emerson Marques
SOS Children's Villages in Portugal
Meet Emerson

Thankathon: Insights, Gratitude & Engagement in Action

Session

2

How do you turn a simple phone call into a powerful tool for supporter engagement?
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In this 30-minute session, I’ll explore how I've used supporter insights to design a “Thankathon”, that strengthened relationships and built loyalty both with supporters and supported a culture of supporter experience with internal staff. By involving internal staff across all levels, you can create a culture of gratitude, deepen connections, and reinforce the impact of supporter contributions. Join me to learn how meaningful dialogue—backed by insight and organisational buy-in—can transform supporter engagement.

Cam St-Omer Donaldson
Fundraising Everywhere
Meet Cam

Why Mid-Level Donors Matter (& Why You Need a Strategy Just For Them!)

Session

3

Mid-Level donations live up to their "Messy Middle" nickname. Most non-profits are completely stumped by how to categorize this donor base (let alone what tactics to use for outreach!).
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Join Mid-Level Donor expert, Kel Haney for a quick (but deep!) dive into why strategically growing mid-level donations is a brilliant way to cultivate long-term donor relationships AND fill your donor pipeline.

Kel Haney
Kel Haney Consulting
Meet Kel

Next Best Offering: Optimizing Donor Upgrades Through Personalized Engagement

Session

4

Discover how Swiss Save the Children transformed their upgrade strategy by moving beyond traditional asks.
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Using proactive telephone engagement, they matched donors with alternative giving opportunities based on individual preferences and interests. Learn how this donor-centric approach led to improved satisfaction and increased giving through personalized pathways.

Jawad Harzallah
Save the Children Switzerland
Meet Jawade

Increasing High Performers: Understanding the WHY Behind Results

Session

5

In this data-driven session, Kara Dive, Founder of Outcomes Tracking, reveals how staff retention directly correlates with fundraising success.
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Through Australian fundraising data, she'll demonstrate how experienced fundraisers consistently outperform industry averages, and how their innovative tracking tool helps organizations retain top talent. Learn how investing in long-term staff development creates a cycle of success: better performance leads to higher retention, and longer experience yields exceptional results.

Kara Dive
Outcomes Tracking
Meet Kara

Show Me The Money: How Payment Models Shape Fundraising DNA

Session

6

A refreshingly theoretical (but never boring!) deep-dive into how hourly rates, contact-based fees, and CPA/CPO models fundamentally alter fundraising behaviour.
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Just like the Danish saying "you become what you eat," your payment model shapes your program's DNA. This mind-bending session challenges conventional wisdom and explores the hidden psychology behind fundraising compensation.

Jacob Møllemose
Impact Talks
Meet Jacob

Call for Speakers

Do you want to join us as a speaker at the Telephone Tuesday events?

Do you have an interesting case to share, a novel approach to dialogues with donors – or a groundbreaking reflection that will enrich your fellow fundraisers – please fill out the following form.

Telemarketing Tuesday is a virtual event, sharing new ideas, best practices and inspiring case studies. 

We will help you produce a pre-recorded speaker session of 10–15 minutes, which will be followed up by live Q&A sessions for the viewers to connect and reflect with you on the topic. 

We will be paying our speakers for their time, to give everybody the opportunity to join – this also shows that we appreciate your time.

Call for Speakers

We offer two types of memberships

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Individual

Perfect for professionals looking to expand their knowledge and network.
One-month free trial.
€650/year
or €65 monthly
Join now
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Organisation

Provides unlimited access for your entire organisation, ensuring your team benefits together.
€1,250/year
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Best value

Telephone fundraising celebrates the art of talking with your donors instead of about them.

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Holger Menze

Spenden Manufaktur GmbH
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We as a sector dont have the investments that other sectors have, but we have the desire to share and grow – this is one of our competitive advantages.

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Jacob Møllemose

Impact Talks
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