AFP Canada’s Narrative for Canadian Fundraising continues to be of interest to fundraisers around the world and is part of the session line up at the Association of Fundraising Professionals International Conference (AFP ICON) in New Orleans, April 16-18. 

The original Narrative, published in 2019, was commissioned by AFP Canada and developed by independent U.K. think tank, Rogare, as a toolkit for discussions about the value and impact of fundraising and philanthropy. After a review through a diversity and decolonizing lens, a second iteration of the Narrative was published in 2022 containing new data points, resources, and Canadian-specific examples to further contextualize and address the myriad of issues fundraisers are currently confronting. This is the first training offered on this new version. 

The highly interactive Narrative training session gives fundraisers a chance to practice incorporating some of the building blocks and key messages from the Narrative into a variety of responses to some of the main ideas about charities and common objections to fundraising encountered every day with colleagues, the media, and donors. 

The AFP ICON session, called A Narrative for Professional Fundraisers, will introduce participants to the Narrative and how to use it to effectively communicate the impact of the work fundraisers do. Participants can expect to learn: 

• How to feel more positive about the need to ask for money and its critical role in supporting the mission of their organization;
• How to talk about fundraising and its contribution to improving communities;
• How to explain the work and impact of fundraising to key stakeholders; and 
• Questions to consider when looking at the fundraising profession through a diversity and decolonizing lens.  

More than 500 fundraisers in Canada and Australia have already been trained on the Narrative.   

For more information on the Narrative for Canadian Fundraising, visit http://afpglobal.org.