Building a Community of Purpose-Driven Fundraisers in Australia

Ryan Ginard, CFRE | Brisbane, Australia

Ryan Ginard is a fundraising and community development professional based in Brisbane, Australia. For more than 20 years, he has managed fundraising and philanthropic campaigns for government, academic, and athletic institutions. 

He earned his CFRE in 2021 and currently works to support social equity and environmental causes. Additionally, he uses his expertise to help identify, recruit, train, and empower emerging fundraising talent, connecting them with the tools and opportunities that will help them supercharge their careers and deliver transformative change in their communities.

We talked to Ryan to learn more about how earning the CFRE has helped him accelerate the impact he’s had on the fundraising community in Australia . . .

Bringing Out the Best in Australia’s Fundraising Community

Australia is a generous nation. It’s currently ranked fourth in the World Giving Index, which considers three measures of generosity: 

• financial, 
• time, and 
• acts of service. 

But its rates of giving, in relation to GDP, are low in comparison to similar societies worldwide (0.81 per cent).

The research paper, “A Literature Review of Empirical Studies of Philanthropy: Eight Mechanisms That Drive Charitable Giving,” drew from 500 other papers to identify the key factors that drive giving. What they found is that for more than 85 percent of charitable donations, people gave because someone asked them to.

Investing in fundraisers is a sound investment with a typical average return of 300 to 400 percent. Some reports, such as The Nonprofit Fundraising and Administrative Cost Project, calculate an average yield of $1 for every 24 cents spent. With the Australian government seeking to double philanthropic giving by 2030, there is a real opportunity to develop a new culture of giving within the country and to develop the infrastructure to ensure this goal is realised. 

A critical part of that infrastructure will be frontline fundraisers—those who build cases of support and will need to make these additional ‘asks’ to grow and secure a larger share of funding. But they are often missing from the conversation and have been ultimately missing from the policies informing the government’s 2030 goal.

Mission to Recruit a Fundraising Army

At Fundraise for Australia, our goal is to recruit and train 1,000 new Australian fundraisers by 2030. I’m hopeful that, if we’re successful, a large number of these fundraisers will go on to receive their CFRE credential. As the organization’s founder, having the CFRE helps me walk the walk when discussing a career in fundraising and encouraging continued education for those we recruit into the profession.

We’ve currently reached 10 percent of our recruiting target, with one recruit having earned their CFRE. Because the majority of funds raised in Australia go to large charities, our goal is to place grads at small to medium not-for-profit organisations. While some of our grads have joined major NFPs and raised more than $1M in their first year, most have gone to smaller education, animal welfare, and arts organisations. 

A number of our program’s graduates have received promotions in their first year of being a fundraiser. Some Fellows have created their own apps and social enterprises and even secured major gifts as a result of the skills they acquired through Fundraise for Australia. Others have started joining NFP boards.

Building the Recruiting Infrastructure

When recruiting fundraisers, we’re looking for values and transferable skills. Much of our recruiting process comes from networking with organisations that have open roles. It’s a win-win for everyone–we help organisations find new talent, and we encourage those new to the sector who are applying for their first fundraising role to be referred to the program, so we don’t lose the initial drive to make a difference in their communities.

We also partner with the Fundraising Institute of Australia to scale our training up to approximately 250 new fundraisers a year. Part of our efforts are to engage in government advocacy to bring a greater understanding of the profession and how regulatory tweaks can help achieve the goal of doubling giving in Australia. This culminated in the first-ever “Fundraisers on the Hill” event to educate fundraisers on how to engage with government through in-person meetings with the Federal Charities Minister and other Members of Parliament.

In an effort to build visibility for the fundraising profession in Australia, I created the nation’s first ever fundraising textbook, “Fundraise for Australia – The Fundraisers Handbook: Mastering The Basics”, tailored to the unique vehicles, approaches, and regulations of the local for-purpose sector, to provide new and early-career fundraisers with the foundational knowledge to thrive.

Additionally, we founded Fundraiser Appreciation Day to shine a light on the profession—the people, the career benefits in this space, and a celebration of those who work in the sector.

Addressing Obstacles to Achieving Our Goal

Scaling the program was a major roadblock in the beginning. We worked with the Fundraising Academy in San Diego for our first cohort. Their program is amazing, but is more geared towards the American market and those transitioning into major giving roles. There’s no way we could scale our program unless we created our own curriculum which had to be built from scratch if it was to lend itself to the Australian market.

Having my CFRE helped me navigate this, giving me resources to tap into a group of other CFREs to help inform the curriculum and share best practices. It also helped me weave into the curriculum the importance of continued education as part of your career and help new fundraisers navigate the sector with the help of others’ experience.

A Passport to Career Opportunity

As I’ve indicated, holding CFRE certification has opened doors for me both personally and professionally. I pursued the CFRE to further my work growing the fundraising community and to play a part in professionalizing the field. I want our profession to be seen and understood. Just having those baseline factors go a long way towards increasing donor trust, fundraiser retention, and intentional investments to secure more resources for the communities we serve.

The CFRE became an international passport for me as well. Had it not been for the credential, I wouldn’t have been able to move back home with my family in Australia. During times I’d considered moving back (before earning the CFRE), I rarely heard back from the roles I’d applied for. I believe having the CFRE changed hiring managers’ thinking, and de-risked many of the concerns that come with someone relocating back after a decade in another country. And now I’m here, identifying and empowering a new generation of Australian fundraising talent.