A quick introduction to SOFII for first time users

SOFII is a gift to you and to charitable fundraisers everywhere. It’s an easily accessible free archive of the best fundraising creativity and innovation from around the world –designed to make you more effective, productive, successful and happy.

Find out how and why SOFII was started by clicking here.

Logging into SOFII:

You do not currently need a username or password to use SOFII – the site is free and open for anyone to use. If you would like to receive regular SOFII email updates informing you of the latest exhibits and articles, then please email SOFII’s project manager, Carolina Herrera, to be added to the SOFII database.

Using SOFII:

SOFII has several different types of content divided into specialist sections that will make it easy for you to browse through all the material on the site:

SOFII’s halls:

Consider the halls of SOFII akin to the themed halls of a museum or art gallery. Each hall focuses on a specific segment of the world of fundraising. As SOFII grows, so will the museum.

Our halls are made up of several showcases dedicated to specific areas of fundraising, and each showcase has several exhibits; which are well documented examples of different types of fundraising from all over the world. 

SOFII’s reading rooms:

This section is specially for the well-read fundraiser, or for anyone who wants to be one. Because any fundraiser who is not well up on the sector’s required reading is going to be quickly left behind.

So think of the SOFII reading rooms as a library, a quiet place that you can visit whenever you want to get specialist and expert information on a range of interests, issues and activities that will help you in your job. The reading rooms include:

Top tips.

Opinion pieces.

A monthly column on the latest fundraising techniques. 

Book reviews.

Tributes to fundraising’s greatest figures.

and tutorials on the art and science of fundraising. 

Find what you’re looking for:

You can also find exactly what you are looking for by using our search function. You can filter our collection to list only ‘direct mail legacy campaigns from Canada’, for example. Or ‘Broadcast campaigns benefiting older people’. Or you can search by keyword - our whole collection is full-text indexed - So if you want to see every piece of content that mentions ‘David Ogilvy, that’s no problem. 

The search function is located at the top of the right hand column in our homepage and in the halls and showcases section.

Sharing your work with SOFII:

Brilliance is for sharing, so please share your brilliance too. All the information on this site has been compiled to inform, guide and help fundraisers when preparing their own fundraising strategies, campaigns and promotions. In this way SOFII aims to improve fundraising practice everywhere for the benefit of fundraisers, donors and the organisations and causes they all serve. But we need YOU. Your work is a welcome addition to SOFII. Share your brilliance with over 15,000 fundraisers around the world, by sending in your examples of instructive fundraising, today. Please contact Carolina Herrera, SOFII’s project manager, with your inspirational and informative stories today.

Helping SOFII to grow:

Please tell your friends and colleagues about SOFII. They can register for SOFII for free by emailing Carolina@sofii.org, with ‘please register me’ in the subject line. The more registered users we have, the more we can reassure donors and volunteers who make SOFII possible that their continued support is worthwhile.

Check out SOFII favourites

23 campaigns that shook world fundraising

• SOFII's ‘Best of the Best’ starts here.

Short videos worth watching

• The five assumptions of fundraising.
• Three reasons to share your fundraising.

• UNICEF’s Per Stenbeck, on passion.
• Story-telling by Richard Turner.

• Story one: Gabriella’s new feet
• Story two: The worst tourist in the world

• How fundraising’s ‘best proposition ever’ got started.
• How ActionAid’s insert revolutionised donor acquisition in the 1980s.

Most-read articles

• all articles
   

Top tips for insights on fundraising’s big issues.

• How I wrote it: The ActionAid iguana letter.

• Eleven tips to run a really good creative ideas session.

• The Obama effect.

Find out more top tips here.

Places to see

• The Jerry Huntsinger tutorials on direct mail fundraising.

• Links to top sites of outstanding interest.

• SOFII’s legacies showcase.

• The Great and the Good. SOFII’s tribute to fundraising’s high achievers.

• Lisa Sargent’s thank-you letter clinic.

• SOFII’s site map.

• Meet SOFII’s ambassadors.

• Ways you can help SOFII now.

• Are you being left behind?