Major donors showcase

Major donors: all you need to become a truly successful major donor fundraiser

This showcase is produced in partnership with I.G. Advisors.

Major donor fundraising is one of the most important but delicate areas of the fundraiser's profession. This showcase will equip you with all the tools you need to become a truly successful major donor fundraiser. 

Click here for the full contents and index for SOFII’s major donors showcase. 

NSPCC: Legacy-themed Garden of Magical Childhood

by Claire Routley

This garden was designed to demonstrate how gifts in supporters’ wills supported the NSPCC’s work. It is a beautiful and unique way to  take visitors on a special journey through history.

Read more

The Foundling Hospital appeal, 1728-1745

by Tobin Aldrich

Another opportunity to be inspired by fundraisers of the past. Raffles, art gallery events and benefit concerts are common ways to raise money today. But when Thomas Coram was fundraising for the Foundling Hospital in Georgian London he employed all these methods. In fact, some might say he invented them…

Read more

William Quarrier – the most determined fundraiser of all time?

by Simon Burne

Be inspired by the most determined fundraiser of all time. Using an approach not designed for the faint-hearted, William Quarrier went into a room full of wealthy people and walked out with enough money to fund a village for homeless children in Glasgow. But how did he do it? And what can we learn from this fundraising superstar?

Read more

The Darüşşafaka Society: a unique offer for special donors

by Gunes Yildirim

Darüşşafaka – meaning house of kindness – has provided full scholarships to orphans as well as clothing, accommodation, healthcare and food. But there’s also a lot we can learn about donor care, legacy and high value fundraising from the oldest NGO in Turkey.

Read more

Battersea Dogs & Cats Home: ‘secret suppers’

by SOFII

Battersea Dogs & Cats Home struck gold with a marvellous and original idea to show their urgent need to wealthy donors.

Read more

SOS Children’s Villages Belgium: a corporate partnership aimed at six people

by SOFII

An ingenious idea from SOS Children’s Villages that went for the ‘one per cent’ with this newspaper ad. It has superb and courageous targeting – just six people – is, challenging, innovative and was very successful.

Read more

Confessions of an unethical nine-year-old fundraiser

by Norma Cameron

One of the golden rules of successful fundraising is that before asking others to give, you should first donate yourself. Norma Cameron shows how the memory of one major gift you gave will give you comfort and confidence to be a better fundraiser. Here she tells the rather scary tale of her fundraising epiphany, inspired by something as simple as a collecting box.

Read more

The Städel Museum, Frankfurt: inspiring a city to fundraise

The Städel Boot, sponsored by the shoe store chain Deichmann.

by SOFII

The donors who gave millions to the Städel Museum said it was not ‘just a museum’, but rather that they felt like part of a big family.

Read more

Harvard University: how Harvard got its name. Major gift fundraising in the seventeenth century.

by SOFII

The examples in this exhibit are almost 400 years old, yet it would seem that we are still making the same mistakes today when it comes to major gift fundraising.

Read more

Grassroots International: their distinctive annual report

Montage

by SOFII

Grassroots Interenational’s staff diligently take photos during field visits and now they have a wide choice of images to use in their annual report. They also use donor profiles to support their message, so GRI donors are interested and highly involved.

Read more

Is Asian charity different from Western charity?

by SOFII

Looking for some insight into fundraising in Asia? Mitchell Hinz has some advice.

Read more

Deerfield Academy: the Bruce Barton classic long copy letter from 1925 that pulled a 100 per cent response

Left: Barton addresses an audience, perhaps at Deerfield Academy (we have no idea). And at home with a friend, right.

by Carolina Herrera

He sounds like the racy detective hero from a 1930s crime thriller. But Bruce Barton is something else, for sure – a great copywriter and communicator.

Read more