The direct mail, door drops and household deliveries showcase
Congratulations! You’ve just found the world’s best and biggest collection of fundraising direct mail, right here on sofii.org. There are more than 160 detailed case histories and articles here for you to learn from, crib from, adapt or copy. And lots more besides. Enjoy!
Click here for the full contents and index for SOFII’s direct mail showcase.
The summary report of the Commission on the Donor Experience into direct mail fundraising can be found here.
How I wrote it: the NSPCC’s Simple pack
by Robbie Rae
When Robbie Rae started working as a fundraising copywriter at the turn of the millennium, he felt that true masters of direct mail had perfected the art in all its form. Despite that, he thought that it was time to change the orthodoxy. Click here to discover how he wrote a hugely successful pack that did just that.
Read moreLet’s keep in touch
by Rachel Hunnybun
Does your organisation miss simple opportunities to talk to your donors? Click here to see what happened when Rachel Hunnybun contacted her favourite charities to tell them she had moved home.
Read moreHumber River Hospital Foundation: Direct mail appeal featuring Humbert
by John Lepp
It's amazing how many capital campaigns bewilder donors with architect’s drawings, graphs and complicated giving levels. But Humber River Hospital Foundation turned their backs on stuffy institutional instincts and introduced Humbert – their storyteller supreme. Meet him here and see the fabulous appeals that achieved 33 per cent growth in giving in less than a year.
Read moreSave the Children: Buy a brick capital appeal
by Reuben Turner
This warm appeal from Save the Children beat its target by over £150,000 and acquisition approached break-even. Clinics were built and children’s lives were saved.
Read moreThe Children’s Center, Detroit: ‘children should be seen and not hurt’ winter appeal
by Marie Burnett
How the Children's Center in Detroit turned dwindling finances and donations into a huge success through a seamless, integrated, multi-channel campaign.
Read moreReader knowledge, real voices, great stories and big points of view
by Elizabeth Loudon
Writer Liz Loudon shares the difference between really writing to move donors, or just typing.
Read moreCPAR: ‘plant a tree in Ethiopia’ mailing
by SOFII
Ethiopia has to be one of the most difficult fundraising markets in the world. Yet this pack produced results that most more sophisticated fundraisers can only dream of.
Read moreRyton Gardens: recyclable mailing
by SOFII
Ryton Garden’s famous recyclable mailing is one of the best ever examples of the benefits fundraisers can realise when they show that they really understand their donors.
Read moreRSPB: Letter to the future
by SOFII
How do you engage people in your cause, grab their attention and encourage them to stand alongside you on an issue of national importance? Not easy, we think. But here’s a brilliant example of a national conservation charity doing just that, very successfully.
Read moreGreenpeace’s optimistic tick-box suggestion: the ‘Stop Thorp’ campaign court case mailing
by Carolina Herrera
This exhibit works on many levels. At first glance the reply form opposite looks innocuous enough but really it’s a brilliant illustration of how, in times of need, donors will respond warmly to help a cause when it is clearly in trouble.
Read moreFriends of the Earth: the Bee Cause
by SOFII
This extremely important campaign from Friends of the Earth perfectly integrates fundraising and genuine participation, through beautifully produced and interesting involvement devices, both online and offline.
Read moreUnited Negro College Fund: David Ogilvy’s letter
by SOFII
Go back in time to meet one of the commuters who, in 1968, found this superb letter from David Ogilvy on the seat of the train taking him home to his comfortable New York suburb.
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