Fundraising Short Courses

Are you ready to take your career to the next level? In addition to our professional qualifications and leadership programs the Cii Academy offers a range of short training courses - to help you become a more effective fundraiser.

How are the Fundraising Short Courses structured and delivered?

Each course is delivered 100% online with a mixture of content including interactive activities (including an online student discussion forum), readings and case studies.
Up to 120 minutes of interactive on-demand course content plus three live stream sessions with Ireland’s top fundraising professionals.
The short courses are delivered over a one week period.
First you start with an introductory session where you will meet your tutor and be supplied with a recommended timetable to guide you through the material.
Then a mid-week session and then one at the end of the week with your class and tutor. These are typically 30 minutes long.
The rest of the course work is in your own time and at your own pace throughout the week!
You can expect to spend 6-8 hours on the course during the week, including the content, meetings and any extra material you may be given.
Finally the course assessment is based on completion of an online exam, comprising 25 multiple choice questions. Pass your exam and we’ll send on your certificate.
The online course is housed in a Learning Management System where you can manage your details, access your calendar and review your progress and any tutor feedback.
You will have access to each short courses’ learning outcomes, readings and activities enabling you to consolidate your knowledge and put your learning into practice. Other resources may include, relevant articles, videos, and links to useful websites.
The student discussion forum will enable you to post comments and feedback in response to tutors’ and your fellow students’ postings.

While these short courses can be taken individually, when they are combined with each other, they form the professional qualification Certificate in Fundraising, which is accredited by the European Fundraising Association!

Learn More About the Certificate in Fundraising

Fundraising Planning

The Fundraising Planning module is designed to give students an understanding of the fundraising planning process, an overview of how to conduct a fundraising audit, and an understanding of how to set fundraising objectives and how to develop strategies and tactical plans.

Learning Outcomes:

Develop an understanding of the overall fundraising planning process
Understand how to conduct a fundraising audit
Be familiar with strategic planning tools and frameworks
Understand how to set SMART fundraising objectives
Be familiar with various strategic options
Have an understanding of how to develop tactical plans from overall strategies and objectives
Be familiar with how to develop a budget for tactical plans
Understand the control and monitoring cycle

Course Date: 11th March 2024

Venue: Online

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Regular Giving & Face to Face Fundraising

Regular Giving, like all forms of fundraising is about providing the financial resources required for an organisation to deliver its programme and mission. This income stream is particularly important as a predictable source of unrestricted income. This course examines the key aspects of building your Regular Giving plan, with particular emphasis on F2F acquisition. This course is designed to develop a better understanding of face to face fundraising, for face to face team leaders and coaches to deepen their knowledge, and for board members and CEOs who want to gain a better appreciation of this fundraising channel.

Learning Outcomes:

Understand the core competencies of face to face fundraisers, team leaders/supervisors and managers
Be familiar with the importance and purpose of regular giving
Understand the impact of face to face fundraising on revenue
Be familiar with the regulation governing face to face fundraising 
 Understand the benefits and drawbacks of face to face fundraising
Be familiar with the key behaviours of face to face fundraising in practice
Be aware of the key factors to consider before initiating face to face fundraising as a fundraising channel
Be familiar with the external factors affecting face to face fundraising

Start Date: 8th April 2024

Course Dates (live stream sessions with your tutor):
Monday, Wednesday and Friday (times TBC)

The course includes 120 minutes of interactive on-demand content plus three live stream sessions with one of Ireland’s top fundraising professionals.

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Donor Care & Experience

The Donor Care & Experience module is designed to give students an understanding of best practices in donor care and retention, an understanding of the value of data in donor care and retention, and an introduction in to the key stages in building a donor retention strategy. The course focuses on individual giving programmes and not major gift or corporate supporter management programmes.

Learning Outcomes:

Understand the main aim of donor care
Understand the importance of life-time value as a metric for retention planning
Be aware of the key characteristics of relationship based donor care
Understand the essentials of building a winning donor care strategy
Understand the value of data, how to make more of your data and the key data needed to enhance donor retention
Understand the essentials of data segmentation
Be aware of the key stages in building a donor retention strategy

Start Date: 13th May 2024

Course Dates (live stream sessions with your tutor):
Monday, Wednesday and Friday (times TBC).

The course includes 120 minutes of interactive on-demand content plus three live stream sessions with one of Ireland’s top fundraising professionals.

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Community Fundraising & Volunteer Management

The Community Fundraising & Volunteer Management module is designed to give students an understanding of the key traits of community fundraising, an understanding of best practice in community fundraising, an overview of the key tasks involved in recruiting and managing volunteers and the key stages in building a community fundraising strategy.

Learning Outcomes:

Understand the main features of community fundraising
Understand best practice in community fundraising
Understand how to evaluate community fundraising using financial and non-financial measures
Understand how to recruit, manage and retain community fundraising volunteers
Understand different conflict-handling styles
Be aware of the key stages in building a community fundraising strategy

Start Date: 10th June 2024

Course Dates (live stream sessions with your tutor):
Monday, Wednesday and Friday (times TBC)

The course includes 120 minutes of interactive on-demand content plus three live stream sessions with one of Ireland’s top fundraising professionals.

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Legacy & In Memory Giving

The Legacy & In Memory Giving module is designed to give students an understanding of trends in legacy giving in Ireland, an overview of the reasons why donors leave bequests, the barriers to legacy giving and a framework for developing a legacy fundraising strategy.

Learning Outcomes:

Be familiar with trends in legacy giving in Ireland
Know the reasons why people leave bequests
Understand the barriers to people leaving bequests
Be familiar with a framework for developing a legacy fundraising strategy
Have an understanding of In Memoriam and Tribute giving

Start Date: 8th July 2024

Course Dates (live stream sessions with your tutor):
Monday, Wednesday, Friday (times TBC)

The course includes 120 minutes of interactive on-demand content plus three live stream sessions with one of Ireland’s top fundraising professionals.

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Corporate Partnerships

The Corporate Partnerships module is designed to give participants an introduction to the nature of corporate support (how and why corporates support charities), an overview of the essentials of an effective Corporate Fundraising Strategy and key techniques that can be used to increase success in securing corporate support.

Learning Outcomes:

Understand why corporates give
Understand the various forms corporate support takes
Be aware of key trends in corporate partnerships
Understand the concept of fit
Understand how small charities can leverage corporate support
Understand the essentials of a corporate fundraising strategy
Be aware of key techniques to increase success in securing corporate support

Start Date: 12th August 2024

Course Days (live stream sessions with your tutor):
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (times TBC)

The course includes 120 minutes of interactive on-demand content plus three live stream sessions with one of Irelands top fundraising professionals.

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Direct Marketing

The Direct Marketing module is designed to give students an understanding of why people donate and why they stop, an understanding of the key stages in the donor recruitment process, and an overview of the essentials of creative briefing.

Learning Outcomes:

Understand why people donate and why they stop donating
Know the key stages in donor recruitment planning
Understand the importance of segmentation, profiling, and targeting
Understand the key factors in media selection and planning
Understand the importance of fulfillment
Know how to calculate key performance metrics
Understand the key issues in writing a creative brief
Know what should be included in the creative brief

This course will provide the essentials of how to create a winning direct marketing campaign and include a wide range of formal learning opportunities designed to engage, educate and connect potential or active donors.

Start Date: 9th September 2024

Course Dates (live stream sessions with your tutor):
Monday, Wednesday and Friday (times TBC)

The course includes 120 minutes of interactive on-demand content plus three live stream sessions with one of Ireland’s top fundraising professionals.

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Digital Fundraising

The Digital Fundraising module is designed to give students an understanding of how to build a digital fundraising strategy and integrated digital campaigns. In this context and a backdrop of accelerated fundraising digitisation, it includes a deep dive into peer to peer fundraising and advertising campaigns.

Learning outcomes:

Have an understanding of key trends in digital fundraising
Be aware of the key attributes for an effective fundraising website
Be familiar with strategies for driving traffic to your website e.g. SEO, Google Ads
Understand how to use email to fundraise
Understand peer to peer fundraising
Be familiar with how to fundraise using social media and advertising campaigns
Understand how to develop a digital fundraising strategy

Start Date: 7th October 2024

Course Dates (live stream sessions with your tutor):
Monday, Wednesday and Friday (times TBC)

The course includes 120 minutes of interactive on-demand content plus three live stream sessions with one of Ireland’s top fundraising professionals.

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Fundraising from Trusts, Foundations and Government

The Trusts, Foundations and Government module is designed to give students an understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of grant making trusts and foundations as a source of fundraising, an overview of best practice in researching and building relationships with trusts and foundations, an understanding of the grant cycle and an understanding of the reasons why grant applications fail

Learning outcomes:

Be familiar with trends in Trust and Foundation Giving
Understand how to research Trusts and Foundations
Be familiar with the advantages and disadvantages of trust and foundations as a fundraising source
How to design a suitable stewardship process for trusts and foundations
Be familiar with grant cycles
Have an understanding of why grant applications fail
Have an understanding of what can be done to improve likely success rates of grant applications

Start Date: 4th November 2024

Course Dates (live stream sessions with your tutor):
Monday, Wednesday and Friday (times TBC)

The course includes 120 minutes of interactive on-demand content plus three live stream sessions with one of Ireland’s top fundraising professionals.

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Managing a Team & Group Dynamics

The Managing a Team & Group Dynamics course is designed to give students an introduction to group dynamics, teams and teamwork, an overview of key leadership skills, and an understanding of how to manage and motivate teams.

Learning Outcomes:

Understand the main stages in group development
Understand the threats to group effectiveness
Be familiar with different roles within teams
Be aware of the characteristics of effective teams
Be aware of the key skills needed for effective leadership
Understand the importance of team building
Be aware of needs and goal-based motivation theories

Start Date: 2nd December 2024

Course Dates (live stream sessions with your tutor):
Monday, Wednesday and Friday (times TBC)

The course includes 120 minutes of interactive on-demand content plus three live stream sessions with one of Irelands top fundraising professionals.

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Follow the links below if you'd like to contact us, or check our Cii Academy qualification course booking Terms & Conditions.

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