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Overview
This course is designed to support progressive organizations and political parties in integrating small-donor fundraising into existing digital organizing programs. It is tailored for groups that can already collect donations online but have yet to develop a comprehensive strategy to diversify fundraising appeals, increase donor retention, or establish recurring giving avenues.
For the past four years, the European Center for Digital Action (ECDA) has partnered with progressive organizations, political parties, and movements to build people-powered campaigns. ECDA’s mission is to equip campaigners with the tools, strategies, and skills necessary for success—from digital organizing and small-donor fundraising to cutting-edge technology and campaign tactics. ECDA supports groups in growing their communities, engaging supporters, and mobilizing for social and political change.
Having helped hundreds of progressive groups build small-donor programs from the ground up, ECDA provides expert guidance for sustainable movement building.
Description
ECDA’s small-donor fundraising training is a three-week program designed to help participants and their organizations develop effective, integrated, and sustainable fundraising campaigns built on the power of small donations.
A supporter-funded model offers numerous benefits, allowing organizations and parties to operate more democratically and build mass support while fostering long-lasting relationships through recurring donor programs. This training equips participants with the skills and knowledge required to build a fundraising model that prioritizes supporters and provides a level of organizational independence that traditional models often fail to deliver.
Throughout the course, participants are exposed to both theory and practical examples, with dedicated time to practice and apply new skills. The curriculum covers user journey design, optimization of existing fundraising pages, and the integration of small-donor fundraising into broader digital organizing work to ensure it remains a core, rather than siloed, function.
Who is this training for
This program is for progressive practitioners (political parties, NGOs, or trade unions) currently working in digital organizing or fundraising.
Prerequisites
To ensure the training is practical, participants and their organization should have:
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Infrastructure: A working email list, a CRM and mass-mailer, and a way to process small donations.
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Data access: Permission to access your organization’s metrics and activity archives (exercises will not affect live plans).
Software
Our trainers will be using Lunda (fundraising) and ActionNetwork (CRM & mailer) for demonstrations. Having these platforms is not a requirement, but as stated above, comparable software for organizing supporters, writing mass emails and collecting donations is required.
Registration
Please note that registration does not guarantee acceptance; all candidates are evaluated against the registration criteria, and the trainers make the final selection of participants.
We have a total of 15 places available for this course. Registration closes on Friday 22 May at 24:00 or when spaces are exhausted.
What you will learn
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Learn the foundations behind successful small-donor fundraising programs:
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Review the essential concepts of successful small-donor programs.
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Articulate the long-term value of a people-powered donor base over traditional high-net-worth models.
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Map your organization’s fundraising landscape and operational readiness.
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Learn how to integrate digital organizing with small-donor fundraising:
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Plan offline and digital campaign actions that include small donor fundraising.
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Design donor journeys for one-off and recurring supporters focused on long-term retention and upselling.
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Build your own year-round fundraising calendar driven by SMART goals, KPIs, and real-world case studies.
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Learn skills and best practices for building donation pages, donor journeys and optimized user experience:
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Design effective donor UX by streamlining fundraising pages, daisy chains, and website calls-to-action across Lunda and Action Network.
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Evaluate and then optimize your organization’s donation pages and donor journeys.
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Meet the trainers
Liza Baranyai, Senior Fundraising Consultant at ECDA
Liza has dedicated over 20 years to providing fundraising and organizational development consultancy support to global, international, and national organizations and movements in Europe and Asia. She works in fundraising and engagement strategy development, organizational development, and growth management.
Dates & structure
The course runs over 3 weeks in June with weekly workshops and activities to complete after each workshop.
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Weekly training sessions via zoom
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Tuesday, 9 June 10:00AM-12:00PM CET
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Tuesday, 16 June 10:00AM-12:00PM CET
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Tuesday, 23 June 10:00AM-12:00PM CET
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Each week participants will need to complete a short practical activity each week related to the training.
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Weekly readings and materials to review
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Weekly 30 minute mini-consults with our experts
Cost
Cost for participation is €200.00 per person (VAT not included). An invoice will be sent upon registration and payment must be made before the first session takes place. In case your party or organization is based in the EU and has a VAT number, please provide it for the invoicing purposes.
We have 3 scholarships available, if you'd like to apply for a scholarship, please apply using this form.
For team registrations: please contact Holly at holly.dawson@centerfordigitalaction.eu. If you have 3 or more staff, please enquire about a personalized training.