Conference delegates to be linked by web service

By Emma Rigby, Third Sector, 10 October 2007

The Resource Alliance is using an online service that describes itself as a Facebook for charities to contact delegates to the International Fundraising Conference in the Netherlands.

The alliance, which stages the IFC, has set up its own profile on online charitable community Ammado to inform and encourage networking between delegates. Ammado claims it is currently used by more than 250 not-for-profits globally and is due to launch to the wider public in December.

The alliance intends to allow its 900 delegates to see who else is attending the conference, send messages to fundraisers who work in similar cause areas and organise national groups to create online debates.

The charity will also use its Ammado pages to set up separate online groups for speakers, delegates and volunteers and will use the delegate community to notify people of last-minute changes to the schedule.

"The IFC brings together fundraisers from up to 50 different countries, but until now the first you'd know about who else was going would be when you scanned the delegate list when you arrived," said Alan Bird, events director at the alliance. "It gave you no chance to see in advance who might be working in the same area as you or to contact them."

The community is currently accessible by invitation only and will soon include facilities to make donations online.

New users register here FREE for full access