How I use SOFII: Ryna Sherazi, Nepal’s lone fundraiser
One of the reasons we started SOFII was to help fundraisers working in countries without a tradition of raising money for charities. Ryna Sherazi is a seasoned fundraiser who moved to Nepal from the UK and in her words is now ‘…possibly Nepal’s lone fundraiser’. Here she tells us how the way she uses SOFII has changed since her move.
- Written by
- Ryna Sherazi
- Added
- December 05, 2011
In the UK I generally looked at the SOFII email updates and would click through to the site maybe to see one article about a large charity appeal – at the moment there is the example of the Oxfam £ million. I also follow Lucy Gower’s articles on SOFII and her little tit-bits on LinkedIn.
In Nepal, I have found myself in the reading room much more. I look at examples of letters (I didn’t need to look at WaterAid, I had good examples around me anyway). I am finding the opinion pieces much more useful too. As possibly Nepal’s lone professional fundraiser it is like having a conversation with someone at the IFC or something, which is difficult to do here in Nepal.
I loved the highlight of the grandmothers’ campaign from Canada. I partly loved it because it showcased high value community fundraising, something that is hard to do in this area of fundraising as it is so dominated (in the UK at least) by low ROI activity and large teams of people who are a jack of all trades.
As a seasoned head of community fundraising who bangs on about the importance of small and effective community fundraising units, it is refreshing to see this high-value campaign highlighted and I would certainly welcome more of it to show our fellow fundraisers that community can equal big bucks. (I know – I should contribute myself of course.)’
