Combining campaigning and fundraising showcase

Australian Conservation Foundation: end of year appeal

By changing the way that donors were asked for support, ACF was able to triple income and response with this mailing. It is a brilliant example of a credible, compelling and engaging direct mail piece to a warm audience.

RSPCA’s ‘sow tethering’ telephone campaign

Any marketing campaign that can have such an impact on members of parliament on the eve of taking their country to war has to be worth recording. This campaign is notable as one of the early UK examples of fundraisers using the telephone.

Amnesty International Australia: David Hicks press insert 2007

Amnesty International Australia’s campaigning on multiple fronts helped to bring home David Hicks. The clever presentation of a compelling message and the chance for involvement in a campaign that could make a real, tangible difference presented AIA with an appropriate opportunity to retest the use of loose inserts to recruit regular givers.

The National Asthma Campaign: straws mailing

This revolutionary pack features an irresistible involvement device, an easily detachable plastic drinking straw that readers are invited to detach, open and breathe through for less than a minute. It is an imaginative way of involving recipients and enabling them to feel for themselves what it’s like to live with asthma.

The Foundation for Childbirth with Dignity: 'you have a right to ask’ campaign

This brave, important campaign broke new ground in public education in Poland and raised money too.

Amnesty International UK: press ads that shook a nation

These ads changed the political shape of Britain, raised social consciousness generally as well as concerns for human rights in particular.We do not have all the details about this campaign but SOFII decided to showcase it because we believe that every fundraiser wherever he or she works should be familiar with these ads and what they achieved.

UNHCR’s goodwill ambassador

Goodwill ambassadors have become the accepted public face of many INGOs, particularly those in the UN system. But UNHCR’s selection, recruitment and deployment of their public celebrity is a textbook example of how to do it. UNHCR has managed to engage a major celebrity with very simple means at virtually no cost.

Croatian Dogs appeal for new building

This campaign to build a rehabilitation centre in Zagreb raised a large amount of money at an impressively low cost to income ratio.

ActionAid ‘Bollocks to Poverty’ campaign

This is a very brave campaign. It talks directly to young people in the language they use everyday, with no punches pulled.

Crisis Christmas card challenge

'Send a singer’ is one example from a charity for homeless people in the UK – it’s fun, it’s engaging, it’s compatible with the charity’s values. In essence this campaign addresses corporate social responsibility agendas, offers a practical solution to the traditional Christmas card chore and offers participating companies a unique and high impact marketing opportunity.

RSPCA’s pile of dead dogs advertisement

This high impact poster from Britain’s leading animal welfare charity stopped a nation of dog lovers in their tracks. It changed the way many British people felt about one of their most respected, most ‘establishment’ charities.

Greenpeace: the virtual march for whales

If only whales everywhere could realise the great things that are being done all around the world by ordinary people to protect them and make this planet a safe place for them.

The Amnesty International shame Shell campaign.

This exciting exhibit from Amnesty International UK reveals new and innovative ways to keep your donors at the heart of your next campaign.

The history of Live Aid

It’s more than 25 years since this remarkable event, so we thought it was about time we put it on SOFII. In this exhibit we look back at how the idea was conceived and what made it one of the most significant fundraising campaigns of our time.

Save the Children: Gaza ceasefire SMS campaign

When Save the Children took the thousands of messages they received to 10 Downing Street, the prime minister, then Gordon Brown, spoke out to demand a ceasefire in Gaza. They also converted 9,000 respondents to regular giving. 

Amnesty International: the letter in the pen pack

Now on SOFII, one of the letters that was sent with the legendary Amnesty pen pack. This moving example of fine writing was written specifically for women and sent to women only.

Motor Neurone Disease Association – John’s journey

This story is powerful, inspiring, direct, humbling and honest.

Medicos Sin Fronteras: medicine for someone else’s pain

 ‘Pills for another person’s pain is a project of awareness and also a new symbol of hope.’

Parkinson’s UK: the Dave the Worm campaign

Dave the Worm (DTW) is a fun and witty character that is enabling Parkinson’s UK to compete in a crowded marketplace by presenting research to donors in an engaging way and giving them a unique opportunity to regularly support new and innovative research.

Oxfam’s press ads from the 1950s and 60s

These press advertisements really did change the course of fundraising in Britain. They helped Oxfam to grow into a substantial international charity. Though they might seem crude and simplistic now, these ads very effectively alerted the post-war British public to considerable humanitarian needs abroad.