The main areas of fundraising

Hannah’s innovative direct mail appeal

by SOFII

Is real talent something you are born with, or can create, if you work at it really hard and smart? At best, we feel, it's a bit of both.

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The Harry Secombe soft sell legacy approach

by Ken Burnett

This campaign dates back to the late 1980s and was created by Burnett Associates Limited with Dennis Kingshot at the NSPCC.

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The gold standard in fundraising, part 2: exceeding expectations.

by Ken Burnett

Final part of a conversation about transformational fundraising that Giles Pegram and Redmond Mullin had recently with SOFII’s Ken Burnett.

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The gold standard in fundraising, part 1: laying the foundations.

by Ken Burnett

Giles Pegram of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) and Redmond Mullin of Redmond Mullin Limited describe how a seminal five-year fundraising campaign irrevocably transformed the fortunes of one of Britain’s top charities.

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Royal National Lifeboat Institution: ‘boots’ advertisement

A great ad from RNLI.

by SOFII

The shopping list is a classic fundraiser's device and this ad exploits the instrument to its full, offering the donor, in effect, the chance to kit out his or her hero.

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African National Congress: the emergency pre-election fundraising, from 1992

by SOFII

The ANC campaign that pioneered professional political fundraising in the UK and offered the British public the chance to play an active role in getting rid of apartheid forever.The campaign raised £2 million in six months with no budget and just one paid member of staff.

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ActionAid: the welcome to child sponsorship package

Sponsorship brochure.

by SOFII

ActionAid’s child sponsorship programme has been running in the UK for over 35 years. In 2008, they revisited the enquirer and welcome packs with the intention of making the materials the best that could be found anywhere.

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Youthreach: ‘if I were rain’ publishing for a good cause

Book

by SOFII

This book poignantly captures how children retain their intelligence and innocence despite the most trying circumstances. This book transforms lives. And raises money too.

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Greenpeace UK welcome materials, from 1992

by SOFII

This is an important record of an approach to thanking and welcoming donors from back in the days when the idea of sayinging ‘thank you’ and ‘welcome’ was quite new to most organisations and barely understood in the emerging field of donor relationship development.

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Greenpeace Australia Pacific: the welcome process

by SOFII

Think objectively about the experience a new donor has within the first few months of joining your organisation. Greenpeace Australia Pacific has developed a new and simplified process to ensure that new donors receive clear communications that both thank and further engage them. The result is that they’re reducing the number of donors who leave within the first three months.

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Mith Samlanh Cambodia: the ‘buy a brick’ land campaign

Brightly coloured bricks

by SOFII

Ah, that great fundraising stalwart, the brick! How a standard product and colourful involvement device saved a splendid children’s home from having to close its doors. This capital campaign encourages individual supporters to ‘buy a brick’ and help Friends International to buy its Mith Samlanh Centre, Phnom Penh.

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Steel Yard: ‘fund a day’ appeal

by SOFII

Every now and then we see great fundraising ideas that can be easily adapted and adopted by other nonprofit organisations, particularly smaller ones. This example is particularly useful as it shows a small organisation raising money imaginatively to cover its general running costs.

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