PLENARY: The Courage to Choose

Fundraisers rarely suffer from a lack of ideas. We attend conferences, collect new tools, launch activities and respond to opportunities – yet often return to organisations that are already overloaded and strategically fragmented.

This closing plenary explores why being busy is not the same as moving forward, and why fundraising problems are often symptoms of unclear organisational choices. When everything is a priority, fundraisers are expected to finance everything. When strategy follows available funding, even good fundraising can take an organisation in the wrong direction.

With honesty, humour and real-life examples from the NGO sector, Giedrė will invite participants to rethink strategy not as a document, but as the courage to choose: what matters most, what deserves investment and what we must be willing to stop doing.

Participants will leave not with another long to-do list, but with one idea to act on, one thing to deprioritise and one important conversation to begin when they return to work.

Learning outcomes

• Recognise how constant busyness, competing priorities and opportunity-led decision-making can weaken fundraising.
• Understand why sustainable fundraising begins with clear organisational choices and shared strategic priorities.
• Reframe strategy not as a formal document, but as the ability to focus, make decisions and say no.

Who should attend

• Fundraisers,
• Fundraising Managers,
• NGO leaders,
• Executive Directors,
• Board Members.

Suggested level of participants

• Intermediate fundraisers and leaders