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.
The ALS (USA) ‘ice bucket’ challenge
by SOFII
You may be sick of hearing about the ice bucket challenge. You may even think it has no relevance to your own organisation. But find out the special characteristics that made it the biggest fundraising idea of 2014.
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.
Read moreWaterAid: 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.
Read moreSOFII: the BIG questions
by SOFII
How do we make donors feel really special? And how do they want to see us?
Read moreMotor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA): John’s journey
by SOFII
This story is powerful, inspiring, direct, humbling and honest.
Read moreGiving 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.
Read moreBreakthrough: the ‘is this justice’ 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.
Read moreAPOPO: HeroRAT rat adoption programme
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.
Read moreMo-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.
Read moreAkshaya 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.
Read moreParkinson’s UK: the Dave the Worm campaign
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.
Read moreArrels Fundació: cardboard hearts for the homeless
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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