Setting out and summarising the every-day business of excellence

by ​Henry A. (Hank) Rosso

If you have not read Rosso and his associates’ work, I thoroughly recommend this compendium of 500-plus pages. In it we find the analytical models of the ‘donor pyramid’, the ‘campaign planning cycle’, the ‘concentric circles... and a coherent expression of a philosophy.

Reviewed for SOFII by Roewen Wishart.

Secrets of a great funding proposal

by Cheryl A Clarke

The foreword to this short and readable book summarises its value well, ‘For reluctant writers who need warm-up exercises and structured lessons…and for seasoned grant writers who get caught up in the jargon of our fields’…

Reviewed for SOFII by Roewen Wishart.

The essence of fundraising practice from the world’s most famous fundraising academic

by Adrian Sargeant

‘A comprehensive selection of knowledge that is both readable and well structured’. Be sure to let us know if you agree.

Reviewed for SOFII by Roewen Wishart. 

All you need to be a complete fundraiser

by Steve Harrison

Howard Luck Gossage reinvented advertising to change the world. He created a revolutionary approach to combining press and PR, kick-started the Green movement, coined the term ‘interactive’, influenced and continues to influence advertisers and communicators the world over. In so doing he became ‘the complete fundraiser’. If you know less about HLG than maybe you should, start reading here.

Reviewed for SOFII by Ken Burnett.

Asking Properly: the art of creative fundraising

by Charlie Hulme

Charlie Hulme asks you to use the quotes in his review of George Smith’s seminal work Asking Properly: the Art of Creative Writing as a mirror. If you despair at times, don’t worry; if you see where you’re going wrong Asking Properly will put it right.

Something to Tweet About: creating great content for social media

by Carlos Miranda & Alissa Steinner

Finally the report that changed someone who was, at best, lukewarm about social media to an almost fan: Something to Tweet About. You will learn how to gather those yearned-for ‘likes’ and maybe turn them into gold.

Reviewed for SOFII by Marie Burnett.

Does your fundraising have enough tension?

by James Read

Why do perfectly sensible people give away their hard-earned money? Tension, claims James Read, it’s the gnawing agitation we feel because of the problem that blocks our vision for a better world. Find out how you can use tension to advance your cause.

Direct mail + spam = win for Montblanc

by Darryl Ohrt

Daryl Ohrt, director of Humingo agency in the USA, shares with SOFII readers a letter he recently received. What he first mistook for just another piece of junk mail, albeit with expensive postage, turned out to be the most imaginative direct mail he’d received for a very long time.

Just the facts on legacy giving

by Mal Warwick

Rumour has it that legacy gifts account for as much as one-third of the philanthropic income of charities in the UK, or at least of the largest ones. Whether or not that’s an accurate estimate, it’s clear to all observers that legacies account for a far larger share of charitable revenue in the British Isles than they do elsewhere.

The inconvenient truth about corporate fundraising

by Sean Triner

Have you ever questioned the corporate/community ‘love-in’ line that we are often fed by a variety of media, fundraising commentators and corporate enterprises themselves? Corporate philanthropy, triple bottom line, corporate social responsibility – call it what you will, I know I do – is not what many crank it up to be.

How to increase your appeal results by up to 40 per cent

by Sean Triner

This multiple bullet point plan is for all fundraisers who want to boost earnings from their next appeal mailing or emailing. Follow these simple steps and you’ll find you can increase your net income substantially, for relatively small effort.

How Twitter can transform your fundraising

by Marc Pitman

Twitter is a great free tool that can transform your fundraising. And in a time of economic uncertainty, a free tool is a welcome help.