Annual General Meeting
21st November 2016
At the RIF Annual Conference
The Barbican Centre
London EC2Y 8DS /
Co-Chairs’ Report for the Annual General Meeting 2016 – Researchers in Fundraising
Committee, changes and meetings
The Committee currently comprises 12 members. The following were co-opted to committee during the year:
Dalilah Baruti (Water Aid) – Publications Officer
Jason Briggs (Sheffield University) – Conference Lead Officer
Becky Cackett (British Heart Foundation) – Conference Officer
Martha Christie (LSE) – Marketing and Sponsorship Officer
Laura Owen (Christian Aid) – Data Protection Officer
Esther Priest (Sue Ryder) – Secretary and Website Officer
Suzie Stephens (Save the Children / The Prospect Development Company) – Awards Officer
Leanne White (Royal Society) – Treasurer
Martin Mina retained the role of Mentoring Programme Officer
Will Whitefield retained the role of Committee Membership Officer and Bursaries Officer and also joined the Data Protection working group.
Helen Hays and Heather Kiel took on the role of Co-Chairs of Committee. This is to better balance the workload of the Chair role with full time jobs and ensure that cover is always provided. Both Helen and Heather also participate in the Events sub-committee which takes the lead on Conference, and the seminar series.
Emma Preston (Kew Gardens) stepped down this year as Publications Officer
Ed Brown (LSE) stepped down this year as Chair
Simone Kraemer (Kent University) – Conference Lead Officer, Morna Black (Glasgow University) – Secretary, Sofia Kelesidou (Scope) – Publications Officer and Andy Warnock (Wales Millennium Centre) – Website Officer, all stepped down after Conference 2015
We would like to thank them all for their hard work and contribution to RIF.
In 2016 Committee has met seven times. To help reduce costs some committee meetings are run by teleconference. Others are face to face. We are very grateful to both the Prince’s Trust and Christian Aid for hosting Committee meetings at their offices. We have begun posting short reports on Committee business through the RIF UK Group and on the website.
Seminar Series
This year we have organised two seminars, both in London, as follows:
4th August 2016: Comprehensive Prospect Identification Strategies was given by Deb Darling, the Director of Prospect Development at Imperial College. This was a very popular session and 115 people attended.
29th September 2016: ‘Rainmakers, Unicorns and Bankers' was given by Tony Duggan, the Prospect Research Manager at University of Cambridge. Again a very popular session but our venue could only hold a maximum of 30 people. Tony is therefore repeating his session at conference today so that more people, particularly from outside London, can benefit.
Plans for next year are already taking shape. We are hoping to host Jen Filla from the US who is in Italy in 2017 and willing to come to London for a one day session. We are also planning sessions with Jo Carr at Kings, and possibly Josh Birkholz, also from the US, if he comes to the UK.
In future we plan to make a nominal charge for workshops so that we can cover costs and retain funding for delivering other RIF activities. We also hope that a small charge will limit people dropping out without notifying us, and help us to manage reserve places as sessions are always popular. We would particularly like to do more workshops outside of London, and will be looking for potential people to help both deliver and organise these.
APRA Bursary
The RIF bursary scheme was first established in 2009 and has since helped nine members of the Researchers in Fundraising community attend the APRA conference in the United States. The RIF Bursary contributes £2,000 towards the registration, travel and accommodation costs of the conference. In 2016 there were 12 applicants for the award with experience in the prospect research field ranging from 10 years to less than 1 month. The applications were judged by RIF committee members Heather Kiel (co-Chair), Helen Hays (co-Chair & former bursary winner), Emma Preston and Martin Mina (former bursary winner). The winner was Hannah Bishop from the Art Fund. This year we also awarded bursaries to two runners-up who received free tickets to the RIF annual conference. These were Antonia Jennings from The Climate Group and Ben Rymer from Age UK.
Advertising and sponsorship
We are very grateful to our Conference sponsors this year, some of which are new to conference. We are aware that for some sponsors conference dates were not provided early enough to commit budget to sponsorship this year, but we do already have a long list of 12 companies that are interested in sponsoring Conference 2017.
We are grateful to the moderators of the PRUK discussion group, who have helped to re-direct advertising for fundraising research jobs back to the RIF site. A small charge is made for adverts (currently £50+VAT) andthis will help maintain revenue which can be used to deliver RIFservices.RIFcan also advertise paid for training workshops run by other providers, at a similar small charge per advert.
Awards and recognition
Following feedback, the RIF Committee made a decision to postpone the annual awards ceremony which has historically followed on directly from the Annual Conference. This is to enable us to commit the time and energy that the awards and their recipients deserve. Prior to making this decision, we did receive a handful of nominations under three of the four existing categories.
These nominations will be carried over into the new awards format, which is currently under review, along with expanding the awards categories and changing the ceremony structure. We hope the awards ceremony will take place in the first half of 2017, finances permitting. If anyone has any suggestions, or would like to get involved in the planning and management of the 2017 RIF Awards, please get in touch with Suzie Stephens, RIF Awards Officer. We are also looking to engage with potential sponsors for this event – do speak with Suzie, or our marketing and sponsorship officer Martha Christie if this is of interest.
Conference
Following feedback received over the previous two conferences, Committee took the step of changing the venue to accommodate both larger numbers and more content. It has been a huge amount of work to change the venue, the format and support new committee members in their new roles. A survey from the conference will be used to assess these changes and help with planning for 2017. We have 246 delegates at conference this year, the biggest yet. We have also welcomed delegates from all over the UK and also from Europe and the US.
Website
Esther Priest, the Secretary of Committee, has also taken on the role of updating and improving the RIF website. This is an ongoing project but sections that have already been updated include the RIF committee membership with bios and photos, links for contacting committee, how we present AGM information as well as reports back from committee meetings, notices about forthcoming events and an overview of RIF activities and the history of its formation. Look out for more improvements in the coming months and if there is something that you cannot find or you think of something to add please let us know. The website compliments the other communications channels
RIF communications
Communications go out to a Yahoo group now comprising some 920 members. The group is not a discussion forum – it is a notifications group regarding RIF activities and updates. It is also used, for a small charge, to advertise training courses run by others and jobs in fundraising research and development.
2015 / 2016RIFUK Yahoo Group Members / 789 / 920
RIFUK Yahoo Group emails / 40 / 58
RIFUK Yahoo Group job adverts / 14 / 8
LinkedIn members / 2552 / 2706
Twitter Followers / 624 / 716
This is a breakdown of the types of communications we have sent via the Yahoo email
Conference / Job Adverts / Seminars / Awards / Other / APRA Bursary14 / 8 / 10 / 4 / 14 / 9
Looking forward, we intend to use the RIF LinkedIn group more, in addition to the Yahoo Group, for notifications and adverts. The Marketing and Sponsorship Officer, Martha Christie, has started a weekly digest on LinkedIn of interesting articles and notices. We will also consult the RIF community on ways to deliver the most efficient communications channels.
Data Protection
The RIF Data Protection Working Group was established in July 2016 by the RIF Committee following increasing concerns in the sector around data protection and the potential impact it could have on the research community. The group very much acts in an advisory capacity and helps the committee to decide next actions and steps to take in regards to data protection.
In our first meeting in July we discussed the NCVO guidelines, FPS and the new Fundraising Regulator and what the RIF Committee should do going forward.
The second meeting in September discussed developments in data protection, putting together a brief on what prospect research is and the upcoming RIF conference presentation.
RIF has been working closely with the IoF and have begun talking to the ICO. We hope to continue this in the New Year and to start talking with the Fundraising Regulator. The IoF have met with the Fundraising Regulator and they are interested in hearing more about the work of RIF and the DPWG. We have also been talking to the Insight SIG and are looking to engage the MD SIG.
We have also been writing data protection updates for the RIF community – there are currently 3 updates which you can view on the RIF website. Ultimately, we hope that we can work together to produce guidance on data protection for researchers.
Mentoring
Since last conference the mentoring scheme has facilitated mentors for 11 people. Following a recruitment drive we also have a further 7 people who are available to mentor new entrants to the scheme. If you are interested in finding a mentor, or would like to offer your services as a mentor, please speak with the RIF Committee Mentoring Officer Martin Mina at the ask the experts mentoring desk today, see the RIF website or contact Martin directly:
Regional work
The Committee is very conscious that much of its activities centre on London. In 2017 we will be reviewing how we can deliver more activities for the regions and wish to recruit two Committee members with specific responsibility for liaison with regional groups, one covering the North and one for the South. Being able to deliver work outside of London will depend on members of the RIF community volunteering to organise and host activities and liaising with the North and South officers. The RIF Committee will be in touch with existing regional RIF structures, such as SWRIF, to take this work forward. Developments on this and information about how to get involved will be communicated via the website, the RIF LinkedIn Group and the RIF UK Yahoo Group.
END: 17th November 2016
Heather Kiel – Co-Chair
Researchers in FundraisingAnnual General Meeting
21st November 2016
At the RIF Annual Conference
The Barbican Centre
London EC2Y 8DS /
Treasurer’s Reportfor the Annual General Meeting 2016 – Researchers in Fundraising
As a Special Interest Group of the Institute of Fundraising, our accounts form part of the Institute’s wider filings. I am happy to report that we are up to date with our quarterly returns to the Institute and that they are satisfied with our accounting methods and processes. The Institute of Fundraising’s accounts have been professionally audited and were approved at the Institute’s AGM in July 2016.
During the 2015/16 Financial Year RIF had a total income of £17,798 (FY2014/15: £14,269). Expenditure during the period was £8,521 (FY2014/15: £10,355). This expenditure included one APRA bursary at £1,500.
As a result, RIF generated a surplus of £9,276 during the 2015/16 financial year. This was largely as a result of a more profitable than expected Annual Conference.
The Committee held healthy reserves at the beginning of 2016/17. These funds have been used to increase our offering towards the APRA bursary from £1,500 to £2,000, and to pay for a change of venue for the 2016 conference.
The projected expenditure for the current financial year is £27,005, largely due to this year’s new venue and increased content for conference. Overall, RIF is estimating a surplus of £5,392, thanks to the support of our sponsors and a modest increase in ticket prices. In future, we are also planning to cover costs for the seminar series through a nominal charge for attendees and have begun advertising research jobs again through all our channels which also generates a small income. This means we will continue to be able to provide RiF activities next year, to include seminars and conference as well as consider training and development funding again and it is hoped that activities will extend to the regions. We will also consider an awards and recognition event when all expenses have been reconciled to end 2016.
END: 17th November 2016
Leanne White - Treasurer