What a Year!

Wow, what a year 2022 has been! If you want to skip my video above, here's a brief list of just some of our successes:

• In April, the world’s number one fundraising conference, AFP ICON, returned in-person after a two-year hiatus. And boy, it was great to see all of you again.
• Fast forward to October, we hosted the largest AFP LEAD conference ever with over 500 attendees.
• Throughout the year, the AFP Foundations for Philanthropy awarded over 250 scholarships to AFP conferences and funded groundbreaking research.

Speaking of that groundbreaking research, we continue to keep IDEA (inclusion, diversity, equity and access) at the forefront of all we do. (If you haven't read about Speaking Truth to Power in Fundraising or the Interaction of Gender and Personal Values in Donor Response to Appeals, I highly recommend that you do so.) We've also added additional affinity groups and continue to grow our mentor programs to foster even more connections in our community.

At the AFP Global office, we moved to a new office space, welcomed some wonderful new faces to our staff team, and continue to update our processes to provide the best membership experience possible (including a substantial membership database update/transition—more to come on that).

Through these difficult past few years, AFP and the fundraising community has forged ahead, continues to grow (AFP membership is back to more than 27,000 total members), and is looking to the future. And I couldn't be prouder.

All of this incredible work could not be done without you. YOU are what makes up this wonderful community here at AFP, so thank you!

I also want to recognize all the incredible work each of you have done for your own organizations.

Fundraising truly is the impact profession!

As this year comes to a close, I hope you have a restful and wonderful holiday season. All of us at AFP Global look forward to seeing you next year. Thank you!

As always, please don’t hesitate to reach me via email at Mike.Geiger@afpglobal.org or on Twitter at @AFPMikeGeiger.

Mike Geiger, MBA, CPA