Individual donors
What would fundraising be without donors? And what would SOFII be without a special area devoted to nurturing and developing donor relationships? Within this special space SOFII has selected and assembled a glittering array of specialist showcases in which we display a treasure trove of examples of the art and science of donor relationship development.
StreetDoctors: helping victims of crime
by SOFII
When two young medical students were talking to a group of 11 to 16 year olds they were shocked to learn that either the youngsters, or someone they knew, had been shot or stabbed. That shock led to Streetdoctors, a charity that has fundraising embedded across the entire organisation.
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 moreLessons from a charity shop
by Laura Croudace
Do you think that charity shops are not ‘pure’ fundraising, in fact, aren’t fundraising at all? During a stroll in the sunshine, Laura Croudace came across a charity shop that, in her words, ‘blew me away’. Click here to see how and why she thinks we could all learn from FARA’s approach to running shops.
Read moreForcing or forging a relationship? Part 5: what’s your real message? Or, how to be relevant
by Charlie Hulme
Do you really know your donors? Do you know why they give you money? Does it matter? Yes, says Charlie Hulme. If we want to keep our donors so expensively recruited we have to make sure our messages are relevant to what they want. We can’t do that if we don’t know what that is.
Read moreWhy I support 12 different charities
by Laura Croudace
How can you learn and improve if your training budget is titchy? Get out and donate says Laura Croudace, who wants a steady stream of fundraising pouring through her letterbox because she learns so much from it. And all those donations are still cheaper than most seminars and workshops.
Read moreForcing or forging a relationship? Part 4: how to manage a relationship
by Charlie Hulme
Everything you do has an influence on your donors' connections with you. This in turn helps or harms their commitment to you. Charlie Hulme has already shown how to measure this, now he shows you how to take it a step further and actually manage the relationship.
Read moreUnbound: the reinvention of an idea that flourished 200 years ago
by Aline Reed
This is a strange one. It the reinvention of an idea that was flourishing two hundred years ago, yet has left the notion of 'traditional' charities behind. Maybe even the sponsors don't see themselves as donors, but it's clear that this scheme contains all the ingredients of good fundraising – tangible need, a target, donor reward, donor recognition and the chance to support again.
Read moreForcing or forging a relationship? Part 3: how to measure a relationship
by Charlie Hulme
You are only nine questions away from unlocking enormous value from your current donor file. Nine questions that represent the beginning of the end of inevitable donor churn.
Read moreToilet Twinning
by SOFII
The radical concept of toilet twinning brought at least 300 smiles to the audience at IWITOT. John Bird of data experts Blackbaud says its success is because it directly explains the cause and, obviously, has strong links to aspects of the donor's life that make it relevant. The beauty is, some elements are easily transferable to other charities.
Read moreThe unconventional fundraising gallery
by SOFII
SOFII loves to celebrate all that is good about fundraising: what we can learn from and replicate. At the same time, we like something quirky, even controversial. So we were delighted to hear about the Good Agency's gallery of unconventional fundraising. Click here to see the first four nominations.
Read moreForcing or forging a relationship? Part 2: what makes a relationship?
by Charlie Hulme
If Pret A Manager, Pizza Express, or Starbucks were losing even half the amount of customers as we are they’d go out of business, says Charlie Hulme. And here he explains how we can be even better at customer, or rather, donor service than they are – and keep our donors from deserting us.
Read moreDoes thanking really work?
by Laura Croudace
Thanking should be fun, colourful, vibrant, exciting and, above all, personal, says new, enthusiastic fundraiser Laura Croudace.
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