About The Scholarship Program

Overview

The Association of Fundraising Professionals offers several different conferences at the international, national and regional level to share best practices and support members' professional development. Conferences feature inspirational speakers, chances to network with peers and educational sessions that count towards your CFRE eligibility requirements.

The AFP International Conference on Fundraising is the largest single gathering of fundraisers in the world and is held annually in March or April somewhere in North America. The AFP Toronto Chapter's Congress is an international level conference with a uniquely Canadian flavour held annually late in the year in Ontario. Closer to home, the Western Fundraising Conference is jointly hosted by the Calgary and Edmonton AFP chapters and is usually hosted in the spring.

The AFP Vancouver Chapter realizes the cost of attending out-of-town events is beyond the reach of some of its members. The Chapter's Scholarship Program was created to help defray this cost and ensure the opportunity to attend these conferences is available to all AFP members who seek to excel in their field and strengthen the local chapter and the fundraising community.

Each year the scholarship committee reviews our resources, which conferences are being offered and the needs of local chapter members to determine which scholarships to offer. This year four scholarships will be offered by the Vancouver Chapter:

A scholarship package of $2,000 towards attending the AFP International Conference on Fundraising. This scholarship is funded through local contributions to the AFP Every Member Campaign ($1,500) and the Chamberlain Scholarship Fund ($500).
Two scholarships of $1,100 each towards attending the Congress in Toronto.

Eligibility & Evaluation

Applications will be accepted from those who meet the following eligibility criteria:

Candidates must be members of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.
Candidates must be employed as a fundraising professional or a substantial amount of their time must be devoted to fundraising.
The successful candidate agrees that AFP may announce and/or publish his/her name and current position.
The successful candidate agrees to submit an account of his/her conference expenses including copies of all receipts.
The successful candidate agrees to submit a brief report indicating which aspects of the conference were most interesting and beneficial.

In addition, applicants for the $2,000 scholarship package cannot have attended the AFP International Conference on Fundraising in the past.

The committee is committed to fairness and full transparency in our evaluation process and to that end we have developed an evaluation guide that can be used as a resource by scholarship applicants.

Application Forms

The applications for the 2009 AFP Western conference in Banff is available below:

2009 Western Conference Application

For more information on the scholarship program contact:

Leanne Denis, CFRE 604-215-5206 ldenis@bc.cancer.ca