Benefolk Income Summit 2025

In this session, Ari Magalhaes, a trusted expert who has delivered over $110 million in bottom-line improvements, will reveal the key strategies to cut costs, increase revenue, and achieve long-term financial success without compromising your mission. 

Learn the practical, real-world approaches that have worked for organisations like yours, and discover what sets successful transformations apart from those that fall short. You’ll leave with actionable steps to optimise your organisation’s financial health and ensure sustainable growth. You’ll also learn how to cut costs effectively while maintaining service quality and protecting you organisation’s core values.

Benefolk’s grant and tender writer Barbara Brangan has exceptional success with her clients, and will be sharing the five key ways to increase your success rate to secure multi-year funding. 

This will include tips on assessing fit, understanding what funders are really looking for in funding applications, building a strong project framework, better articulating your impact and capability, and demonstrating value, sustainability and outcomes. 

Presenter: Barbara Brangan

Suited to: Medium to large organisations with proven service models looking to scale through government, PHN or major philanthropic funding. Not ideal for start-up organisations.

Case Study: Hear about Footprints Community and their 75% win rate in securing several multi-million dollar contracts, how they successfully transitioned from ad-hoc tender submissions to a strategic, high-impact funding model. Their story highlights how a structured approach to tenders led to securing multi-million-dollar funding from Primary Health Networks and Government Departments. Barb has supported them to win Aged Care, Mental Health, Social Prescribing and Housing/Homelessness grants and tenders, and will share specific results.

Thursday 22 May 

12-1pm 

Corporate Partnerships: Understanding, and not under-valuing your assets 

Presenter: Linda Garnett

Suited to: Organisations of all sizes who want to learn how to strengthen their value proposition, improve their offer for corporates, and not waste time talking to the wrong prospects.

Case Study: Hear about Children’s Ground success with a new $9.5 million partnership, having laid down strong foundations in working with Linda and Sharon. 

Tuesday 27 May

12-1pm 

Presenters: Lyndal Kearney and Darren Taylor 

Suited to: All organisation sizes, who are keen to optimise their marketing spend in FY2026, and ensure they are crystal clear on who they are, why they matter, and how they can build lasting relationships with their communities. 

Case Study: See examples from Kids Under Cover and Australian Sports Foundation who have invested in their brand and are reaping the rewards. 

Wednesday 28 May

12-1pm 

Is your regular giving program a pathway to major donors and partners? And do you have your donors giving more, and consistently? If not, this session is for you. Regular Giving specialist Amy Estafthis shares the latest trends in program design to steward larger gifts and engagement. 

Amy will be sharing the latest industry research and benchmarks in regular giving and show you how to apply this information to your individual situation. She will also give examples of ways to create belonging, a strong program identity, creating pride and commitment, building emotional connection and fostering unity. 

Presenter: Amy Efstathis

Suited to: Organisations of any size, who have an existing Regular Giving program and seeking best practice strategies to enhance growth and long-term sustainability. 

Case Study: See how Tuberous Sclerosis Australia has harnessed data driven reporting, storytelling and effective stewardship to strengthen their fundraising program by 50%, without the risk of burnout and over-servicing of their clients.

Thursday 29 May

12-1pm 

Customer Journeys: Driving loyalty and stronger commercial outcomes 

Presenters: Penny Whitehead and Jessica Macpherson

Suited to: Organisations of all sizes, who are looking to maximise the value of their audience data to enhance engagement and create new revenue streams.

Case Study: Learn how Benalla Art Gallery and Benalla Art Gallery Foundation used data segmentation to gain deeper insights into its audience. By refining its membership database and understanding visitor motivations, the gallery was able to design targeted engagement opportunities—including exclusive events, donor programs, and tailored membership benefits. This strategic approach strengthened community connections and increased commercial outcomes, and established a sustainable fundraising and philanthropy model.

Monday 2 June

12-1pm 

Giving your fundraising team, volunteers and board more confidence to succeed can be as simple as an effective tool: your Case For Support. Often, organisations operate without one, or their documentation simply doesn’t work. In this session, our winning Case for Support team come together to share the pearls of wisdom that have seen their clients have great success. 

Hear from Teisha Archer and Justine Cubbin on the role of the Case For Support, why you should have one, how to build a best practice structure to inspire philanthropy, and learn key design considerations that support readability and connection with prospective supporters. Also learn about how to optimise your Case for Support for multiple uses including as a base narrative for all fundraising activities, and how to expand your fundraising reach by embracing both print and digital forms.

Presenters: Teisha Archer and Justine Cubbin

Suited to: Organisations of all sizes, who are looking to improve their engagement, improve communications, trust and credibility, and see a higher ROI on fundraising efforts. 

Case study: Go inside the Case for Support for Anchor Community Services – which has enabled them to quickly and comfortably secure supporters for a major new initiative.  

Tuesday 3 June

12-1pm 

Protecting your precious government funding during changing landscapes will be a powerful, not to be missed session with our government relations specialist Angus Crowther. Here, we will be helping you better understand electoral, budget and political cycles and timelines to understand their impact on your funding. 

Angus will also explain the minimum investment you need to make to both secure and maintain government funding, as well as the ways you can utilise your existing government and/or other funding as a launchpad for bigger government asks.

Presenter: Angus Crowther 

Suited to: Organisations of all sizes (revenue under $100 million), who work in areas with a strong government focus - education, health and social services. Also suited to organisations who have a long term vision for their organisation. 

Case Study: Hear about Playgroup NSW who has been able to achieve and maintain support from both state and federal government to sustain and expand its reach, offering vital support to parents, children, and carers throughout the state.

Wednesday 4 June

12-1pm 

Many non-profits either have an online education offering, or are looking at how to strengthen this. Whether it’s programming for schools, communities, the corporate market or organisation members, many have either moved to online during the pandemic and stayed there, or are exploring how best to utilise technology to support and reach their audience. In this session, we hear from online learning industry expert Rob Flude who will take us on a deep-dive into his world. We’ll be learning about the different commercial options from paid courses, memberships and subscriptions, as well as sponsorships and partnerships. 

Rob will also show us the different platforms used to bring together the service offering, and how these can be implemented effectively. You’ll learn about the different types of content that can be produced and the related income/business models that can be generated from online learning. If that’s not enough, Rob will show you the costs involved and how to keep these to a minimum, to maximise the margins. 

Presenter: Rob Flude 

Suited to: Organisations of all sizes, who are either considering online learning, or are already delivering online content and want to drive increased revenue and impact. This will also be inspirational for organisations who do not think they have any IP they could monetise, as chances are you do!

Case Study: Rob will share inspiration from a number of case studies.

Thursday 5 June

12-1pm 

Timing is everything, they say. And no more important when it comes to fundraising campaigns - be it Tax, Christmas or Matched Funding Appeals. Fine-tuning your campaign timings and finding the balance between under and over communicating is key to audience engagement and success. 

Learn from leading fundraising strategists Dominique Antarakis and Ainslie Page, as they provide practical techniques for tailoring campaign pacing to achieve optimal audience response, as well as how to fine-tune and adjust your campaign timings for improved retention and maximum impact. Attendees will leave with practical insights on how to time and craft the right messaging, which could lead to increased audience contributions and long-term income sustainability.

Presenter: Dominique Antarakis and Ainslie Page

Suited to: Organisations of all sizes that are currently running fundraising campaigns, and want to find the balance between audience fatigue and overwhelm, and meaningful connections.

Case Study: See real-world case studies highlighting successful campaigns.