Supporter Experience Conference 2026

Programme

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Sessions

Room 1

Closing the Supporter Engagement Gap: An Opportunity For 2026
Speaker: Lou Barton, Manifesto

• You’ll leave with a practical framework for evaluating and identifying where your engagement is breaking down, and how to redesign the moments that matter most to close your engagement gap in 2026.

How to gather the stories you need for impactful stewardship
Speaker: Lisa Clavering, Fireside Fundraising

Sharing real, personal stories is the best way to show your supporters the incredible value of your work. Your history, your high profile patrons, your milestone fundraising appeal – these are all meaningless if you can’t talk powerfully about the impact of your work.

When asked to tell a story, we think of a polished case study or a perfect video. It can be scary to try and think of something on the spot. But a story can be a single sentence, if you’re including the right ingredients.

In this highly practical session we’ll share our simple framework for capturing stories that will, in turn, capture the imagination of your supporters. You’ll leave with the confidence to source and build your own stories, bring out a range of emotions and inspire and motivate your supporters.

Key learnings from this session:

• Why emotion really matters in our stories
• What the key ingredients are to create powerful stories
• The power of a “pointless” detail

Proving the Value of Supporter Experience
Speaker: Andrew Sargent, Sequoia

We all know supporter experience matters. But can we prove its value?

Many charities are now measuring their supporter experience, yet only a few can demonstrate how it affects long-term supporter value. This session explores the crucial question: does a better supporter experience actually lead to higher supporter value?

Drawing on real examples from charities and the commercial sector, we’ll show what it looks like when experience and value measurement are properly connected. This includes how Battersea has built a framework that tracks supporter value alongside loyalty scores as two core KPIs, as well as lessons from other sectors such as how McDonald’s links complaints data to customer lifetime value.

From simple before-and-after analysis to control groups and incrementality testing, we’ll share practical approaches you can take away and apply in your own organisation. Wherever you are on the journey, you’ll leave with clear, actionable ideas for demonstrating the value of supporter experience.

Key learnings from this session:

• How to link supporter experience metrics with supporter lifetime value.
• Practical methods for measuring impact, from simple analysis to control groups and incrementality testing.
• Real examples from charities and other sectors showing what happens when experience and value measurement are joined up.

Essential Supporter Experience Skills For All Fundraisers
Speaker: Leigh Sandison, Real Path

Learn the key skills that fundraisers need to develop kick-butt supporter experiences for any supporter type. We will be talking about challenging assumptions, asking the right questions, getting away from transactional relationships, and championing supporter-centricity.

By looking at in practice examples from non-profits big and small (and even some huge global for profit corporations), we will explore these skills and why they are crucial to building supporter experiences that people want:

• empathy
• clear communication
• data and insights
• experience design
• collaboration

You will learn how to connect with supporters to find out what experience they’re having, how to listen well to hear when to ask more, what to look for to define insights and how to pull all of that together in understanding the current supporter experience and how to make it better.

Key learnings from this session:

• What skills are needed to create better supporter experiences
• How to develop those skills
• How to put them into practice to implement better experiences

Room 2

More than a “thank you”: creating Thankathons that spark long-term loyalty

Speaker: Debra Chand, The Leprosy Mission and Kay Harrison, About Loyalty

Combining practical insight with real world experience, Debra and Kay will guide you through the ins and outs of running a high impact Thankathon – and clearly demonstrate how meaningful gratitude drives supporter loyalty and long term income.

In this session, we’ll explore:

• What makes a great thanking experience — and why it’s no longer a “nice to have” but a core part of an effective supporter experience strategy.
• How to take an organisation wide approach to gratitude, securing buy in from every team and turning thanking into a shared mission.

You’ll leave with practical tools, proven techniques, and real examples of what’s working right now, giving you the confidence to deliver an outstanding thanking event that inspires supporters and energises your whole organisation.

Key learnings from this session:

• Thankathon 101: top tips and advice for successfully running your own thanking event.
• The science behind the magic: the evidence you need to demonstrate that great thanking directly increases supporter loyalty and long term income.
• Success stories of thanking in action: find out how The Leprosy Mission have transformed their Thankathon into a Thanking Retreat, tapped into their mission and values, and strengthened the connection they hold with their supporters.