SOFII’s best of 101fundraising

Wow! An honour, and a treat.

SOFII has been granted a rare honour and, well, several treats. In fact, a cornucopia of treats, if we’re honest.

To preserve the best of that great fundraising resource the 101fundraising crowdblog SOFII is creating for all posterity its own dedicated archive, SOFII’s best of 101fundraising. Into this secluded, hallowed space SOFII will be setting out and storing for posterity the very best blogs from 101fundraising, year by year. And we’ll promote these treats to SOFII users around the world to access whenever they want, from wherever they are.

Starting with 2011 (101fundraising’s first full year of operation) we’ll be putting on SOFII the top twelve blogs from each year as voted for by 101fundraising’s readers, using that most consistent and reliable of metrics, the number of times each blog has been clicked on and visited in its first year on the site. We’ll also add in our own special favourites of 101fundraising blogs, articles chosen by us because they are unusual, quirky, illuminating or specially well written.

Getting great content out there to all fundraisers is SOFII’s mission of course, and not surprisingly it’s 101fundraising’s mission too. So, from now we’re working together.

Why so many organisations fail at Facebook

by Beate Sørum

Beate Sorum thinks that if Facebook isn’t working for your organisation, she is willing to bet that it is not Facebook’s fault – it’s yours.

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Five big reasons your fundraising results could be better

by Rachel Beer

Rachel Beer asks what are the big things that make the really big differences to your fundraising results?

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A tale of two donors – or the ENORMOUS difference in value between ‘what’ and ‘why’

by Charlie Hulme

Charlotte and Emily are almost identical donors with very different donation histories.

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How to nurture happy fundraisers

by Sarah Clifton

 How do we ensure that, as experienced fundraisers, we are helping to nurture happy colleagues?

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Why I am not a fan of welcome packs

by Margaux Smith

 ‘They spent my entire first month’s gift on this stupid pack and I don’t really feel thanked at all’.

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How effective is your welcome programme?

by Erik Van Dorp

Many charities have a welcome programme in place to keep more donors giving, to make them feel welcome, or to ask for more money. For whatever the reason you have your welcome flow, there is always room for improvement. So, here’s a simple 10-point checklist that will help you estimate how much room for improvement there actually is.

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You just gotta love older people

by Sean Triner

If you are a fundraiser, you just gotta love older people. Fundraisers, on average are pretty young. Donors, on average are pretty old. So we have an interesting gap to overcome in connecting these fundraisers and donors.

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Are you answering the right questions if you don’t want to bore people?

by Matthew Sherrington

Where do most nonprofits tend to start when it comes to telling their story? They start with themselves: ‘Who We Are’, or on their website ‘About Us’. And then they move on to ‘What We Do’, a description of the activities or themes they work on. More about ‘me’. But people generally aren’t interested in you. They are interested in the cause or issue they are passionate about. They are interested in the difference they can make. So it’s not about you.

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Are communication departments the enemy of fundraisers?

by Richard Radcliffe

Richard Radcliffe thinks some charity communication teams are stupid and shares some stories to show why. What do you think?

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Ask-phobia: how to overcome ask aversion

by Rory Green

If the thought of asking someone for money, in person, over the phone, or in a letter, makes you break out in a sweat here are five simple tips from Rory Green to help you out.

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If it were easy to do we wouldn’t need you

by Karen Osborne

Karen Osborne explains why you should avoid the easy route if you want transformational major gifts for your organisation.

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Seven things that will make you a better fundraiser

by Margaux Smith

Margaux Smith may be relatively new on the fundraising scene, but she has some pretty good ideas on how you could become an even better fundraiser.

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