George Smith
A letter that parades fine thoughts with fine language
by George Smith
You’ll see a letter here that George Smith thought one of the best he’d ever read. No, he didn’t write it. But he wished he had.
Read moreA strange, old-fashioned plea for respect
by George Smith
In this latest article George Smith doesn’t mean that all fundraising is nice and all advertising nasty. He does mean that advertising is generally pretty silly and that fundraising is pretty damned important. And we fundraisers would do well to dwell on the difference.
Read moreA tribute to Terry A Murray
by George Smith
Terry Murray was a founder, former chairman and chief executive officer of Downes Murray International, the largest fundraising consultancy in South Africa. Terry started out in direct mail fundraising in 1962, building a company that went on to win international awards in the USA, Britain and Europe. The direct mail programmes run by DMI raise millions of rands each year not only from within South Africa but also from overseas donors.
Read moreAt Charing Cross station, I stood up and blubbed a little
by George Smith
This simple, heart-warming Christmas story from George Smith will reaffirm for you that fundraising is, and always will be, about emotion.
Read moreDislocation, dislocation...
by George Smith
No one is spared e-mails these days. Be you ever eminent or senior, most of your business messages will now come in this form. I recently winced when I saw an e-missive being sent by a young fundraiser to a prominent sponsor. And how did the missive start?
Read moreDoing good with Dundee cakes
by George Smith
If fundraising was left to village fetes, the voluntary sector would be a nicer, if poorer, place.
Read moreGeorge Smith: the art of creative fundraising - ‘Give us your money – or the panda gets it!’
by George Smith
In 1992, George Smith predicted a sea change in the development of the fundraising profession, with deference and royal reverence to be a thing of the past. Was he right? Read his reasoning and decide for yourself.
Read moreGeorge Smith: Working with suppliers, part one
by George Smith
A more serious article than ‘So you seriously want to be a client?, George says that if we really want to be creative in fundraising we have to know how to get help from suppliers.
Read moreGeorge Smith: working with suppliers, part two
by George Smith
Are more people working during their journey to and from the office? George Smith thinks so and says it’s because we spend too much time in meetings.. In the second part of his article on working with suppliers, he shows how to manage those meetings, how to handle the approval process and how charities can achieve a mutually beneficial relationship with suppliers.
Read moreHarold Sumption, Guy Stringer, CBE and Sir Leslie Kirkley, CBE
by George Smith
A profile of Britain’s founding fathers of modern fundraising
Read moreIn search of baubles
by George Smith
Now, as part of SOFII’s continued commitment to fine writing we further celebrate the brilliance, wit and wisdom of George Smith with a series of articles taken from his last book, Up Smith Creek. We start with a seasonal article that first appeared in Professional Fundraising magazine in February, 1997 – and it’s just as relevant today.
Read moreInfantile musings: on the relationship between children and their grandparents
by George Smith
You’ll see a softer side of ace-curmudgeon George Smith when he announces he is about to become a grandfather. Though that doesn’t stop him from wondering why charities don’t make more of such joyous events. He says you should look at the greeting-cards industry, which rarely feels the cold wind of recession.
Read moreJob-speak: a user’s guide
by George Smith
And now from the incomparable George Smith: an expose of all that is nonsense in recruitment ads from charities. Are you guilty of the ‘booming vocative’?
Read moreSo you seriously want to be a client?
by George Smith
This playful piece from George Smith flips the traditional view of the client/agency relationship on its head and explores how things might look if charities had to do the pitching to become an agency’s client.
Read moreSynecdoche, synecdoche…we all fall down
by George Smith
George again takes up the baton for fine writing. Or does he when he encourages you, the fundraiser, to grab the word ‘synecdoche’.? What in the name of sanity is that?
Read moreThe customers always write
by George Smith
In 1983 George Smith was a revered columnist for the UK’s highly regarded Direct Response magazine. The first of the two articles featured here appeared way back then, shortly after the movie Chariots of Fire had come out, and was written as a direct result of one dreadful client meeting.
Read moreThe wit and wisdom of George Smith - Do you seriously want to be serious?
by George Smith
Can being too serious undermine a good working environment? George Smith certainly thought so, as this hilarious column confirms.
Read moreThe wit and wisdom of George Smith - Good: the case for a re-launch
by George Smith
In a prescient excerpt from Up Smith Creek, George Smith muses on the concept of doing good and we should triumph over evil in increasingly cynical times.
Read moreThe wit and wisdom of George Smith - Infantile musings
by George Smith
In a piece from 1997, George Smith reflects on how the joy of becoming a grandparent made him more altruistic, and why charities should tap into that well of happiness.
Read moreThe wit and wisdom of George Smith - Instead of Help the Aged, let the aged help
by George Smith
‘A good proportion of one fifth of the population is loaded and leisured, financially secure and has quality time on its hands’ said George Smith. How can fundraisers tap into that potential?
Read moreThe wit and wisdom of George Smith - Let’s be conventional
by George Smith
How should one go about navigating the perilous world of conventions, symposia and workshops? Here's the answer, brought to you by fundraising legend George Smith.
Read moreThe wit and wisdom of George Smith - Never sneer at an Oscar
by George Smith
Back in 1993, George Smith extolled the virtues of the now ubiquitous fundraising awards.
Read moreThe wit and wisdom of George Smith - Où est le chat?
by George Smith
Are you a chatty bleeder? The great George Smith certainly was and in this funny article he tells the truth about what the chattiest direct marketers have on the brain.
Read moreThe wit and wisdom of George Smith - Seriously, let’s be silly
by George Smith
When writing his regular article back in 1993, George Smith mused on how we use language, the dangers of taking opinions as gospel, and why it’s good to be silly.
Read moreThe wit and wisdom of George Smith - The Mary Hinge letter
by George Smith
Here’s a great letter to enjoy, but it comes with a twist: it’s another example of George Smith’s cheeky sense of humour and superb writing skills.
Read moreThe wit and wisdom of George Smith - Why shame the punters when you can threaten them?
by George Smith
In this new entry to our series by the great writer, George Smith tackles the 'aggressive' tactics used by direct marketers.
Read moreTwelve suggestions – and a bit more – to help you write effectively
by George Smith
No one ever felt more keenly about the English language than George Orwell. He was an enemy of cant in any form and particularly waspish about the abuse of English by politicians, bureaucrats and those in power generally. No one has ever rivalled the glittering common sense George Orwell offers us in Politics and the English Language, an essay written as long ago as 1946. I am happy to quote from it extensively because its succinctness has never been bettered.
Read moreAbout the author
The late George Smith (he/him) wrote his first fundraising ad for Oxfam in 1962. In his twenties he was appointed European coordinator for a major-league American advertising agency and, in contrast, was elected as a local councillor in an inner-London borough. He formed the Smith Bundy direct marketing agency in 1973 and served as chief executive for 20 years. During those two decades his copywriting skills were applied to many diverse commercial direct marketing clients, yet fundraising was always a specialism. In 1990 he was awarded the UK’s DMA Gold Award for work on Greenpeace.
Between 1987 and 1993 George was chief executive of the International Fund Raising Group, responsible for the celebrated Noordwijkerhout conference and a growing number of events around the world. He was also a director of Burnett Associates Limited. His monthly articles in Britain’s Direct Response magazine were published in 1987 as a collection called By George. He became chairman of the UK’s Institute of Direct Marketing (IDM) in 1997 and is an honorary fellow both of the IDM and the Chartered Institute of Fundraising.
George Smith also wrote Asking Properly, Tiny Essentials of Writing for Fundraising and Up Smith Creek.
A note from SOFII: These articles were first published in a different era. They may contain words or themes that today we find inappropriate. SOFII has preserved the copy in our archive, without editing, in order to offer a true representation of the author’s contributions at the time.
