From 2023 to 2025 we worked with the European Fundraising Association to revise their Advanced Competence Framework (AF). ​The AF sets out the core knowledge that fundraising leaders and managers need to know, and is the foundation around which EFA members bodies (such as Chartered Institute of Fundraising in the UK and Giva Sverige in Sweden) structure their professional qualifications.​ Although only adopted in 2022, the AF had been written in 2018. But a lot changed in fundraising since it was written, including:

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• female fundraisers have shared their experiences of inappropriate behaviour by donors (and others)
   

• an increased awareness and understanding of diversity and inclusion issues
   

• AI has entered the fundraising arena
   

• decolonisation issues have begun influencing fundraising policy and practice
   

• there have been advances in the development of fundraising ethics.

As the AF is for leaders and managers, this new version very explicitly assigns different required knowledge for the two functions, using these new definitions.

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• Fundraising management enables a nonprofit organisation to achieve its fundraising goals effectively and efficiently through planning and organising. ​
   

• Fundraising leadership involves creating and improving the environment and context in which fundraising management can thrive. In addition to management competencies, leaders need deeper knowledge and skills in areas such as diversity issues, fundraiser wellbeing, building an organisational culture of philanthropy, new and emerging trends, and advanced fundraising ethics.

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We’ll be feeding this into our work on a consensus definition of fundraising (not yet on our website) and our aim is that these become widely adopted as the description of fundraising management and leadership.