European Leadership Forum

What European Leadership Forum does

European Leadership Forum (ELF) is a non-profit coalition serving evangelical Christian leaders across Europe. It is sponsored by Forum of Christian Leaders (FOCL), a US 501(c)(3) entity, and operates a UK sister charity, FOCL UK, which processes Gift Aid-eligible donations through Stewardship Services. The organization's core product is an annual invitation-only congress held in Wisła, Poland, in operation for over 20 years, with the 2026 edition scheduled for May 16-21. The event convenes evangelical pastors and ministry leaders from across Europe and, per the organization's own reporting, generates 800+ national ministry strategies annually.

The supporting technology stack is conventional non-profit SaaS rather than proprietary infrastructure: Constant Contact for email, Wufoo for forms, Cvent for event registration, PayPal for payments, and YouTube for content distribution. Around the flagship congress, ELF has built a year-round programming layer including Forum Initiatives, Forum Mentoring, Forum Global (delivered via FOCLonline.org), Master Classes, Pre/Post Forum Sessions on topics such as AI, gender, C.S. Lewis, spiritual warfare, justice, and church history, and a Forum Expo exhibitor program.

The business model is donation-and-fee based, with four revenue streams: individual contributions from US donors (via FOCL) and UK donors (via FOCL UK / Gift Aid), event registration fees, exhibitor booth fees, and volunteer travel contributions (one figure cited at $1,825 per volunteer). The platform is best characterized as a community-coordination and content-distribution layer built on commodity tooling, with no proprietary software or disclosed data assets.

Name

European Leadership Forum

Legal name

Forum of Christian Leaders

Website

https://euroleadership.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

European Leadership Forum is a non-profit coalition serving evangelical Christian leaders across Europe, operating an annual invitation-only congress in Wisła, Poland, alongside year-round mentoring, digital content, and ministry training programs.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Religious Leadership Training

NAICS

Religious Organizations (8131), Professional Organizations (813920), Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations (813)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600)

akta.pro primary industry

Executive Summits & Invitation-Only Forums (MPAGAGAK)

akta.pro secondary industries

Association & Society Conference Management (Nonprofit, Professional Bodies) (THAHACAA), Denominational & Ecclesiastical Governance Bodies (Dioceses, Synods, Conferences) (BPAGAJAB)

Keywords

• Christian leadership training
• Evangelical conferences
• Religious leadership development
• Clergy training programs
• Ministry mentorship initiatives

Headquarters

HQ city

Lisle

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Marketing or Sales, Personnel, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Donations and Charitable Giving: The primary revenue stream for ELF comes from donations made to the Forum of Christian Leaders (FOCL), a registered US 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Donations are also accepted through FOCL UK, a sister charity registered with Stewardship in the UK, where UK taxpayers can use Gift Aid to increase gifts by 25%.
2. Forum Registration Fees: ELF charges registration fees for the annual meeting. Attendees are invited after completing an application form. Fees vary depending on registration date and network selection. No refunds are available under any circumstances.
3. Expo Booth Fees: Organizations can purchase expo booth space at the annual meeting. Level 1 costs €150 for a basic booth; Level 2 costs €250 for a booth plus three featured options.
4. Volunteer Contributions: Volunteers contribute $1,825 each, which covers lodging, meals, transportation, and conference materials. This contribution is non-refundable and tax-deductible. Early registration (by November 7) offers a $100 discount.
5. Airport Shuttle Services: Optional airport shuttle service is provided from Krakow and Katowice airports to Wisła, priced at €55 one way or €110 round trip. This is non-refundable.
6. Pre/Post-Forum Session Fees: Additional fees for pre-forum lodging and meals are available: €115 for double room (€70 for scholarship recipients) or €165 for single room, covering three meals from Friday dinner through Saturday lunch.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

The European Leadership Forum organizes an annual invitation-only congress and accompanying year-round training, mentorship, and theological education programs for evangelical Christian leaders across Europe. Its programming is structured around plenary sessions, seminars, and peer-learning cohorts designed to strengthen leadership capacity among pastors, ministry directors, and emerging Christian leaders on the continent.

Product overview

The European Leadership Forum (ELF) is a coalition of Evangelical Christian groups that offers a multi-layered product portfolio centered on the annual ELF meeting—a week-long invitation-only congress in Wisła, Poland that unites, equips, and resources European Evangelical leaders. The portfolio includes Forum Initiatives (year-round specialized training including Year-Round Mentoring), Forum Global/FOCLonline (biblical resources and recorded media), and the Forum Movement (national strategy coordination). Supporting products include Master Classes (free 3-hour webinars), shorter Webinars, the FOCL Newsletter, an ELF Conference App (iOS/Android/Web), Pre/Post-Forum Sessions, specialized Networks (Church Revitalisation, Evangelism, Disciple-Making Leaders, etc.), Workshops, Forum Mentoring, and the Forum Expo. The organization is sponsored by The Forum of Christian Leaders (FOCL), a registered US non-profit.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Forum Global: Biblical resources provided year-round for Evangelical leaders across the globe
• Forum Initiatives
• Forum Movement
• Forum Annual Meeting
• Forum Mentoring
• Year-Round Mentoring
• Master Classes
• FOCLonline

Products and services

• European Leadership Forum Annual Congress

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 800 events, strategies, and partnerships are organised by Forum attendees in their home countries each year as a result of attending the annual meeting

Named customers1 record

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration7 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Forum of Christian Leaders (FOCL) UKcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFOCL UK is the Forum of Christian Leaders' sister charity in the United Kingdom, Charity Number 1163385. It enables UK taxpayers to support ELF through Stewardship with Gift Aid benefits, increasing gift impact by 25%.
• Hotel Gołębiewski (Wisła, Poland)minorOthersThe Forum's annual meeting venue in Wisła, Poland. All participants and volunteers stay at this hotel for the duration of the Forum.
• Galaxy Hotel (Kraków, Poland)minorOthersGalaxy Hotel serves as the volunteer accommodation after the main Forum concludes in Wisła, for the Kraków portion of the volunteer trip.
• Forum of Christian Leaders (FOCL) UScoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Forum of Christian Leaders (FOCL) is the sponsoring organization of the European Leadership Forum. It is a registered non-profit organization in the US. Donations to ELF are made through FOCL, and FOCL operates FOCLonline.org for distributing Forum resources globally.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• Q Ideas (Q Conference): Q Ideas hosts Christian leadership conferences and produces resources for leaders integrating faith and public life — comparable to ELF's content + convening model, though oriented to North American cultural leaders rather than European church leaders.
• Acts 29: Acts 29 is a church planting and revitalization network that hosts regional conferences, leadership residencies, and church planter assessments — overlapping with ELF's Church Revitalisation, Disciple-Making Leaders and Church Planting Networks, but more focused on church planting outcomes.
• Proximity Conference: Proximity is an emerging annual gathering for evangelical church planters and leaders focused on gospel-centered ministry, with year-round digital content — a younger-generation analogue to ELF with similar DNA (leadership convening + content + networks) but US-centric and smaller in scale.

Direct peers

• European Evangelical Alliance: EEA is the regional umbrella body representing evangelical Christians across Europe, coordinating advocacy, leadership networks and national strategy — the closest geographical peer to ELF's pan-European evangelical coalition role.
• Lausanne Movement: The Lausanne Movement organizes the global Lausanne Congress — invitation/wide-gathering leadership events for evangelical leaders worldwide, plus year-round issue networks. It is the closest global analogue to ELF's annual invitation-only forum model focused on equipping evangelical leaders.
• Langham Partnership: Langham Partnership runs leadership development programs, theological education and preaching training for pastors globally, with a heavy focus on Majority World and post-Soviet contexts — a near-comparable ministry in equipping Christian leaders with theological resources and mentoring.
• The Gospel Coalition: TGC is an evangelical coalition that runs regional and national conferences, produces theology/ministry content, and supports pastors and church leaders — directly comparable to ELF's role as a coalition equipping evangelical leaders with theological resources and conferences.
• Urbana (InterVarsity Christian Fellowship): Urbana is InterVarsity's triennial missions-focused conference that brings together thousands of students and leaders for intensive equipping and strategy formation — comparable to ELF as a multi-day intensive evangelical leadership gathering with downstream mission mobilization.

Others

• Christianity Today: Christianity Today is a leading evangelical media organization producing magazines, news and leadership content aimed at pastors and ministry leaders — comparable to Forum Global / FOCLonline as a content-distribution channel for evangelical leadership, but media-focused rather than event/convening-focused.

Broad incumbents

• World Evangelical Alliance: WEA is the global umbrella for evangelical alliances in over 130 countries, organizing the General Assembly and global leadership convenings. It is a broader-scale incumbent that overlaps with ELF in equipping and representing evangelical leaders but at a global rather than Europe-specific level.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/foclonline
• Xx.com/FOCLOnline

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about European Leadership Forum