Top tips & how tos
The focus in this section is on practical ‘how to’ lists. Here the world's leading fundraisers share the distilled wisdom of their experience in digestible bite-sized nuggets that you can use immediately.
Supporter insights: what are they, why bother with them and how to uncover them?
by Kevin Waudby
In this thought-provoking article, Kevin Waudby shows how great supporter insight can help differentiate your charity from your competitors and be the difference between a supporter giving to your cause instead of theirs.
Read moreThe donor pyramid is dead… Long live the donor pyramid!
by SOFII
Sarah Clifton shares her thoughts and asks: What exactly is the purpose of the donor pyramid if not to map the upgrade journey to a major gift?
Read moreFREE: ten years of fundraising experience!
by SOFII
Everything that Reinier Spruit has learnt in his his first ten years of fundraising and all in one handy read.
Read moreCopywriting and design strategies for better donor newsletters: a before and after success story
by Lisa Sargent
Fundraising copywriter Lisa Sargent and designer Sandie Collette, of S.Collette Design, discuss how copywriting and design go hand-in-hand to make a Dublin-based charity's newsletter overhaul a success. Discover the strategies that helped make it happen in this case study of a nonprofit newsletter.
Read moreMajor gifts: fundraising from the frontlines
by Rebecca Davies
Director of fundraising for Médecins sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders, Canada, Rebecca Davies shares with SOFII readers the qualities that have made her a stronger major gift fundraiser over her career.
Read moreTop ten techniques for fresh thinking
by Lucy Gower
In this article, Lucy explains how you can come up with fresh ideas and creative thinking. Whoever would have thought that putting yourself in the shoes of Homer Simpson could be so rewarding!
Read moreThe Bruce Barton letters: 22 classic direct mail appeals
by Ken Burnett
If you are new to SOFII, or an old hand, please have a look at some great fundraising letters you’ll love. Written by Bruce Barton over many years, they are priceless examples of the craft of writing fundraising letters.
Read moreThe power of benchmarking
by Jonathon Grapsas
How looking around at others can help you raise more money for your cause.
Read moreThe 11 pillars of fundraising wisdom – plus the five assumptions that underpin effective fundraising
by Ken Burnett
In this noisy, brash and insincere world, how can fundraisers and their organisations stand out and be understood when much of the ground we would occupy is not our exclusive preserve? Indeed, our traditional territory tends to be crowded with other occupants who also posture, to the same audiences we wish to inspire, as ‘socially concerned’ and ‘worthwhile’, so we nonprofits have to struggle to be distinctive and different.
Read more
