Financial Innovation & Resilience (FIRE) Essentials

August-December 2026

A series made up of 5 live Zoom sessions, e-learning modules, expert briefings, and a comprehensive set of tools for self-directed learning.

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Join a global cohort of changemakers igniting powerful financial futures for social and climate justice work, and get hands-on practice with strategies to power your organization’s mission.

The work you do is complex, and the need to adequately resource it is ever-present. In this 4-month-long series, you'll be introduced to the essentials of financial health and resilience and explore new tools for responding to increasingly volatile political and funding landscapes. With support from Spring’s team of international finance and fundraising experts, and by exchanging ideas with the people in your cohort, you’ll unlock the confidence you need to spark new ideas and build greater mission-aligned financial strength.

You’ll leave the series with:

A new toolbox you can start using immediately.
A customized action plan
A budgeting strategy that projects and captures income, costs and full cost recovery.
A set of financial health indicators to create a dashboard that can be easily absorbed by your staff and board.
A creative, entrepreneurial communications approach to growing and strengthening your supporter base.
Invaluable knowledge for engaging with funders, so you can nurture both transactional and transformational relationships.
A fresh capacity to respond to changes in the funding and financing landscape.

What to expect

FIRE Essentials is a highly interactive and hands-on series. We put your mission and goals at the centre of your learning, and support you with new perspectives, strategies and tools to apply in your unique context.

During the live Zoom sessions, we will explore four key areas to building financial strength: funding landscapes, strategic finance, resource mobilization, and purposeful communications.

We will close on the fifth session, where we deepen the learning journey by looking at specific case studies and experiences. In addition, and for six months following, participants will have access to e-learning modules and other tools for self-directed learning.

A woman speaks into a microphone holding up a

A group of women stand with cards representing their relationships with money. One smiles and wears a headscarf. The other four smile and hold up their cards.

Who is FIRE Essentials for?

Would you like to:

Bring the same energy and resilience you apply to your programs to your finances, too?
Use a creative, entrepreneurial approach to growing your funding base?
Gain new perspectives on money to inform your strategies?
Employ user-friendly financial health indicators in decision-making?

If the answer to any of the above questions is “Yes”, then FIRE is for you! Cohorts typically consist of executive directors and senior staff who lead in the areas of finance, resource mobilization, and strategic communications, as well as grantmakers providing financial support to these leaders.

We enthusiastically invite you to join FIRE as a team, since we’ve consistently observed that the organizations that sustain the most significant leaps in mission-driven fundraising and finances do it by working together from the start.

Details in brief

Language of instruction: English

Group composition: Executive directors and senior staff who lead in the areas of finance, resource mobilization and strategic communications, as well as grantmakers providing financial support to these leaders.

Workshop materials: Multimedia resources including e-modules for self-directed learning, animations, videos, primers, tools and templates via Spring’s FIRE Learning Lab.

Live zoom sessions will take place on the following dates and times:

Session one

THURSDAY, AUGUST 27, 2026

12:00 - 14:00 UTC

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Session two

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2026

12:00 - 14:00 UTC

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Session three

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2026

12:00 - 14:00 UTC

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Session four

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2026

13:00 - 15:00 UTC

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Session five

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2026

13:00 - 15:00 UTC

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Sliding scale

We work to make our programs as accessible as we can and offer a sliding scale with three tiers of program payment rates. When you register below, please choose the fee based on your circumstances.

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1. Redistribution Rate: US $2,000

This is for organizations based in the Global North or with an annual budget above US$2 million. It’s also designed for individuals with access to wealth or with an annual income over US$70,000. Payment at this rate covers the costs of the program and allows for a contribution to support the participation of organizations and individuals with less access to wealth.

2. Full Cost Rate: US $1,500

This is for organizations with an annual budget above US$1-2 million. It’s also designed for individuals with an annual income of US$50,000 - US$70,000.

3. Solidarity Rate: US $500

This is for organizations with an annual budget of under US$1 million. It’s also designed for individuals with an annual income of under US$50,000. Payment at this rate covers 50% of total costs.

Don’t see an affordable rate?

If the Solidarity Rate is not affordable to you, please get in touch with us to let us know and we can discuss what might be possible. View details on Spring's sliding scale.

Register now

Please note that in order to pay using PayPal, you just need a debit or credit card. A PayPal account is not necessary.