At the Fundraising Institute of Australia’s (FIA) recent awards night, RFDS Victoria was honoured to win National Fundraising Team of the Year.
Held annually, the FIA Awards for Excellence in Fundraising recognise and celebrate outstanding effort and success in fundraising, as well as the best teams, fundraisers and volunteers who enable those in Australia’s not-for-profit sector to have the greatest impact.
The award for National Fundraising Team of the Year is always hotly contested – and considered one of the most prestigious awards of the night – and we are incredibly proud of our Marketing and Fundraising team for their success.
This accolade has been a few years in the making, with our team showing continued effort to drive impact through creativity and innovation, excellence in data and insights, donor care and storytelling.
The award submission detailed the importance of increasing connection with our supporters in FY21, but also prioritising team wellbeing and remaining connected with each other as an antidote to the pandemic and remote work. This approach drove great fundraising outcomes, despite gloomy sector wide predictions.
Our team delivered high quality campaigns with growth in all revenue streams. Stand out achievements include:
- An industry leading 12 month retention rate of 65% for face-to-face regular givers (IVE benchmarking 2021)
- 23% growth in major giving revenue
- An impactful and highly segmented donor survey which provided insights for all areas of RFDS, not just fundraising
- Effective advancements in data stewardship and analytics
- A successful matched giving day, which unified the team behind a shared vision to launch a service dedicated to transporting palliative patients to a place of personal significance in their final days
- Advancing the fundraising strategy with new funding sources including corporate partnerships and digital
- Great creative, storytelling and virtual events
- Excellent donor care, systems and processes
Fundraising team leaders ensured success with:
- People centric leadership and a proactive team building and professional development program, which led to internal promotions and secondments
- An all of team approach – all team members are a part of fundraising achievements whether or not they are in a fundraising specific role
We extend our congratulations to the team and all who have supported the organisation’s efforts by participating and supporting our communication and fundraising campaigns.
