WPA Fundraising Webinar
On March 03, 2022, the WPA held a Fundraising Webinar. It was a very successful event in which renowned speakers from all over the world participated that included fundraising experts, patients advocates and industry partners representatives. Hussain Jafri, WPA Executive Director moderated the webinar. The webinar was attended by a large number of patients advocates and patients organizations from all over the world.
The webinar started with welcome and an introductory presentation on WPA and its activities by Andrew Spiegel, Chair of WPA. Andrew was followed by Mike Splaine, Owner and Principal in Splaine Consulting. Mike provided an introduction to Fundraising, which included information of fundraising fundamentals. The organizations must have a defined & unique funding mission and a clear ask for fundraising, moreover, patients organizations should also develop a menu of options for funders including project budget. Michael Marcus, Principal of Consultants for Community Resources gave a presentation on how foundations fund NGOs. Michael provided an in-depth information on how foundations fund NGOs and what all patients organizations require for successful application to foundations. Moreover, Michael also provided useful resources for getting funding from foundations.
The next speaker was Patti Jewell, Senior Director, Patient Advocacy, US Co-Lead, in Pfizer’s Global Health & Social Impact department. Patti gave ideas and tips on how patient advocacy groups can work with the biopharmaceutical industry in raising funds to support their mission. She highlighted common themes across industry and stressed upon open and transparent communication on areas of mutual interests and goals for the partnership. Cathy Traz, Executive Director & Head of Global Advocacy, Bristol Myers Squibb presented on “can working with industry benefit patients?” Cathy highlighted a number of partnerships between patients groups and industry that have helped patients globally. The examples included PEER, the largest cross-disease, cross cultural, global advocacy initiative in healthcare that is working towards a broader Advocacy Exchange to unite advocacy organizations, patients and industry leaders for meaningful growth and partnership across disease areas to improve outcomes for patients. The last speaker of the webinar was Kenneth Kabagambe, Founding Executive Director of the National Organization for People Living with Hepatitis B (NOPLHB), Uganda, who presented a case study on their successful fundraising through funding application.
At the end of the webinar, a very active and lively Discussion and Questions & Answers session was held, which was moderated by Andrew Spiegel.
