Small really is beautiful: SOFII sets out to celebrate the small shop
SOFII is extremely excited about the imminent launch of a new showcase that will celebrate the small charity. Click here to learn about this new partnership with the UK’s FSI, the Foundation for Social Improvement, and how you could win £50.
Change can take us by surprise
Understanding the changes that could influence how your donors view your legacy marketing is extremely important says Andrew Papworth.
Tutorial 48 – seven golden rules for the reply form
Seven golden rules to follow that will really make your reply form work.
‘No sale’ video from Oxfam
This week we have a bad ad nominated by a new contributor, Tom Belford from the celebrated Agitator.
Don’t like this ad!
Though we love this ad its writer, UNICEF Sweden, really doesn’t want you to like it at all. See why, here.
Could this be the sea change that fundraising really needs?
Donor–Centred Leadership: what it takes to build a high-performance fundraising team
by Penelope Burk.
Reviewed for SOFII by Ken Burnett.
Game-changing books don’t come along often, so this could be the most important book about fundraising that you’ll buy in what, as Penelope Burk comprehensively illustrates, is likely to be your all-too-short and under-fulfilled career.
Rethinking the way we think
A review of Dan Pallotta’s TED talk, The way we think about charity is dead wrong.
Telephone fundraising, part 3: designing and delivering a campaign
The third – and last for the time being – article on telephone fundraising from Bethan Holloway explains how to design and deliver a campaign.
Do you seriously want to be serious?
In this latest jewel from George Smith’s collection of articles in Up Smith Creek, he is not impressed by the way we conduct our agency pitches and staff interviews. He says, ‘The replacement of human conversation by earnest verbal ceremony can make for mediocre choice’ and might mean we miss the candidate who is ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know’ and with the vigor to really make our fundraising great.
Telephone fundraising, part 2: how to use the phone across different programmes
In the second part of her articles on telephone fundraising, Bethan Holloway gives an overview of fundraising campaigns that the telephone could massively improve.
Tutorial 47 – answering questions I wish someone would ask
Jerry Huntsinger asks a string of questions that should be asked, then says you shouldn’t allow your keyboard to filter your personality or your voice. And you can find out how his gardener, crazy Eddie, invented a new take on the Johnson box.
Asking the biggest questions of all
Do you agree when Andrew Papworth says that the British Humanist Association ad here shows muddled thinking and poor execution?
The dangers of requests for proposal.
This week legendary Agitator Roger Craver joins in with his opinion on the ‘request for proposal’. And he’s not pulling any punches about what he believes is ‘…among the Great idiocies of our nonprofit world’. Click here to see more and to find out what he does admire and praise.
How to find your inner writer
One of the best tips to find your inner writer is to steal one. So says Elizabeth Loudon here. You’ll also find other ideas and advice to help you force your inner writer into the open and write great letters that your donors will keep responding to for years.
Working with suppliers: building partnerships based on value for money.
Click here to find out why Britain’s No 1 fundraiser thinks the relationship between client and supplier is so important. And why a few training sessions on how to be a good client (and supplier) would be a welcome addition to any fundraising conference.
Telephone fundraising, part 1: why the phone is a great fundraising tool
In this first of three articles Bethan Holloway gives five reasons why the telephone is such a great fundraising tool whether your organisation is small or large.
Tutorial 46 - premiums: how to use them and abuse them
Jerry Huntsinger has a pet theory about premiums – otherwise known as incentive devices – based on the principle of tactile response. A human being listens, sees, reads, smells, feels the wind and often receives sensory information through handling an object with his fingertips. So if a donor is reading a letter and nothing else it is easy for his concentration to waiver. Click here to find out what you can do instead of blowing wind in your donor’s face.
World’s shortest stupid nonprofit ad
Sorry if this series offends. It’s meant to provoke, challenge the blinkered and encourage improvement. And its author Jeff Brooks could have said, the world’s stupidest short nonprofit ad. It’s difficult to see how anyone imagined this ad would be a good idea. Well, actually, it’s difficult to see, period. As Jeff says, ‘Get real…’
Even for a charity there’s no such thing as a free lunch
If Ken loves pro bono, how is it that so many charities get up his nose when they ask for it?
An opportunity grabbed and one wasted
It seems that when one opportunity is grasped another slips passed. The ‘IF’ campaign has a powerful message, but do you agree with Andrew Papworth when he says that they haven’t managed to get it across?
The great donor exodus, and what to do about it. A three-part series from Jay Love
Jay Love’s revealing infographics have been setting American fundraisers alight recently, with good reason. Why do donors head for the exit? How does our sector’s attrition compare with customers of for-profit businesses? Do larger donors leave sooner? How many donors could you keep, if you just did some things differently?
Now on SOFII, widely respected data specialist and entrepreneur Jay Love explores these seemingly permanent hot topics with two generous helpings of practical advice all fundraisers could follow.
We can boost donor retention. But only if we get smart.
Chuck Longfield created a SOFII classic with his last interview Data is Gold, providing SOFII readers with free access to real fundraising gems hidden within their donor files. Today SOFII enthusiastically adds part two, an in-depth conversation with Chuck that draws out five more golden nuggets of smartness.
Tutorial 45 - why I still hate the reply device
In his latest tutorial, Jerry Huntsinger says that he really dislikes reply forms, then explains why. You will also learn how to improve this very important device so that it becomes an integral and powerful part of your appeals.
How I wrote it - the Amnesty pen letter
In this, the ninth in a series of interviews with leading fundraising writers, Karin Weatherup talks to Fergal Byrne about the legendary Amnesty pen letter she wrote for Amnesty International – the pack was Amnesty UK’s banker for 10 years or more and was copied or adapted by many Amnesty International sections around the world.



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