big4 fundraising
Three days of specialist learning
Choose the sessions most relevant to your role, take a deeper dive with a specialist masterclass or attend the full Big4 experience.
Specialist masterclasses Tuesday 10 November
Intensive, practical learning for fundraisers ready to strengthen their skills and their programs.
Major Gifts and Grants
Wednesday 11 November
Explore prospect and funder research, cultivation, stewardship, organisational readiness and the path to more significant support.
Gifts in Wills and Corporate Partnerships Thursday 12 November
Strengthen long-term supporter pipelines and build corporate partnerships that create shared value and impact.
Masterclasses are purchased separately and may be attended on their own or added to a main conference registration.
Specialist learning for the work you do
Big4 gives fundraisers dedicated learning across four distinct disciplines.
Choose your stream to explore its sessions, speakers and practical takeaways.
Choose how you attend
Attend a specialist masterclass, choose the conference day most relevant to your work or attend both conference days by purchasing a ticket for each day.
F&P members receive 20% off conference registration prices.
Opening plenary
Ten years of big giving
When the first AFR Philanthropy 50 was published in 2016, Australia’s 50 largest givers donated a combined $471 million. By 2025, that figure had more than tripled. In the Big4 opening plenary, JBWere’s John McLeod will draw on 10 years of data to explore how the scale, sources, structures and priorities of Australian philanthropy are changing – and what those shifts mean for fundraisers.
John McLeod
Philanthropic Services, JBWere
Program highlights
The long game to the big gift
Go behind the stewardship journeys that grew donor support from $600,000 to $3 million and from $50,000 a year to a commitment worth up to $1 million.
Marietta Asaad, Peter MacCallum Cancer Foundation
Getting invited in
Learn how to identify aligned Giving Funds, make appropriate contact and build trusted relationships before invitation-only opportunities arise.
Kate Eddy CFRE, STREAT
Making Gifts in Wills everyone's business – how ChildFund Australia transformed its bequest program
Many supporters chose to leave gifts to the individual child they had sponsored, creating highly restricted bequests born from genuine emotional connection but limiting the organisation's ability to invest those gifts where they could have the greatest impact for children.
Joanne Walsh, ChildFund Australia
Beyond the volunteer day – turning corporate volunteering into long-term partnerships
Corporate volunteering is growing, but too often the value created for nonprofits is limited. For organisations without obvious hands-on volunteering opportunities, finding meaningful ways to engage corporate partners and their employees can be particularly challenging.
Ash Rosshandler, GoodCompany
Strengthen your practice and your program
"I spent most of my time learning about major gifts and partnerships. I have lots of ideas for how I can improve our fundraising program"
James Atkinson
FUNDRAISING DIRECTOR, aUSTRALIAn YOUTH CLIMATE COALITION
Big4 is designed to help you:
- Improve how you identify and develop donors, funders and partners
- Strengthen cultivation, stewardship and relationship management
- Learn from organisations building and growing successful programs
- Understand the internal conditions that enable specialist fundraisers to succeed
- Return with practical ideas you can adapt to your organisation
- Connect with peers who understand the opportunities and challenges of your work
Whether you are building a specialist program from the ground up, taking it to its next stage or managing a mature portfolio, you will find learning relevant to your work.
Build stronger relationships. Grow support.
Join specialist fundraisers from across Australia at Big4 Fundraising 2026.
MAJOR GIFTS // grants // gifts in wills // corporate partnerships
Melbourne | 10–12 November 2026