Campaigning for social change

Why are we here? To make the world a better place, of course. And we do this by campaigning in all the right ways for social change. Social change organisations don’t succeed by being reasonable, by doing things the way they’ve always been done. The first aspiration of all nonprofit organisations should be to do themselves out of business. All campaigners and fundraisers should be restless challengers of the status quo, never ever satisfied that we are doing quite enough. Why? Because we only exist to change the world.

F*CK CANCER: raising money for cancer research

by SOFII

‘Fundraisers – your job isn’t to keep complaints down, it’s to connect with people who do care in the strongest possible way.’ So says Rob Woods in this powerful case study from this year’s IWITOT.

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WaterAid: The Big Dig

by Reuben Turner

A very fine example of how storytelling, done right, can change the world. Isn’t the infographic just great? (SOFII loves the crossed legs). This campaign is fun, innovative, engaging, emotional (imagine how you’d feel with no toilet…) and highly effective as, inevitably, real storytelling in real time was bound to be. Altogether brilliant.

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SOFII: the BIG questions

by SOFII

How do we make donors feel really special? And how do they want to see us?

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Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA): John’s journey

poster

by SOFII

This story is powerful, inspiring, direct, humbling and honest.

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Giving Scotland: crisis campaign

by SOFII

The Giving Scotland campaign was launched in the face of intense scrutiny of charities in Scotland but this courageous campaign changed everything.

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Breakthrough: the ‘is this justice’ campaign

Powerful hard-hitting images and messages characterise the Breakthrough campaign.

by SOFII

This is a brave campaign that fearlessly speaks out against social injustice in societies where such issues are rarely discussed, far less confronted.

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APOPO: HeroRAT rat adoption programme

The HeroRAT campaign launches

by SOFII

Another highly successful sponsorship programme. The Belgian charity APOPO have encouraged very many people to part with their euros to adopt a rat – and save a life.

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Mo-tivations. Why (oh why) am I doing it? And why would you support me?

by Matthew Sherrington

‘You’ll be cool. A dad of teenage daughters will do anything to hear himself described like that. Anything,’ says Matthew Sherrington who listened, faced his fears and grew a ‘mo’ for prostate cancer. But what were the other six motivations that he thinks make people do something for a charity that they know little about? Find out here.

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Akshaya Patra, India: winners of an international competition to change the world

by SOFII

A prize-winning initiative from India. Akshaya Patra has, quite simply, set up the world's largest school feeding programme, providing more than one million school dinners every school day. This vast undertaking clearly has appeal to corporate donors, for it attracted the attention of American Express when they were running a competition to find projects that have real impact.

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Parkinson’s UK: the Dave the Worm campaign

Dave the Worm pack.

by SOFII

Dave the Worm (DTW) is a fun and witty character that is enabling Parkinson’s UK to compete in a crowded marketplace by presenting research to donors in an engaging way and giving them a unique opportunity to regularly support new and innovative research.

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Arrels Fundació: cardboard hearts for the homeless

cardboard hearts website

by SOFII

Arrels Fundació have come up with an excellent way to wear your heart on your sleeve to raise money and awareness of the growing number of homeless people in Barcelona. It is also easily copied.

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Amnesty International: the letter in the pen pack

Women’s letter page one

by Ken Burnett

Now on SOFII, one of the letters that was sent with the legendary Amnesty pen pack. This moving example of fine writing was written specifically for women and sent to women only.

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