The ‘best of the best’ showcase

British Red Cross: the £7.7 billion appeal that changed British fundraising forever

The Duke of Gloucester’s Red Cross and St John Appeal Fund is the largest charitable fund in the history of British fundraising, raising the equivalent of £7.7 billion. This monumental exhibit should be read by all.

Greenpeace’s optimistic tick-box suggestion: the ‘Stop Thorp’ campaign court case mailing

This exhibit works on many levels. At first glance the reply form opposite looks innocuous enough but really it’s a brilliant illustration of how, in times of need, donors will respond warmly to help a cause when it is clearly in trouble.

THE PLAN: the launch of child sponsorship, Spain 1937

This exhibit focuses on a documentary film made by Plan International, which shows how the idea of child sponsorship emerged and grew as a response to the dangers faced by children in the Spanish civil war, more than 70 years ago.

Greenpeace International: the reinvention of face-to-face fundraising

Across the world the approach Greenpeace developed for direct dialogue changed the way fundraising organisations recruit new monthly direct debit donors. Raising millions, perhaps billions of pounds in the process.

UNICEF: the card that launched UNICEF’s fundraising

UNICEF’s very first ever Christmas card would lead to the multi-million dollar international business that is UNICEF’s cards today.

Feed the Children’s ‘baby box’

The baby box was devised specifically to respond to the need to maintain giving at a time when donor interest was flagging and the idea for it came from the best possible place – the charity workers on the front line.

The ActionAid inserts with built-in reply mechanism

This promotion raised £millions and won almost every direct marketing award going. It also helped propel a new and little known organisation called ActionAid into the list of Britain's top 20 charities. Action Aid created a new format, which was then copied by dozens, perhaps hundreds of other organisations.

Help The Aged ‘make a blind man see’ press advertisement

This ad is a classic. Created by the legendary Harold Sumption in the late 1970s, it embodies one of the most direct and hard-to-resist fundraising propositions, ‘Make a blind man see’. It is a brilliant example of fundraising communication at its best.

Station WDCN, Nashville, USA: special ‘thank you’ to a donor

A fundraiser really listening to her donor, thinking on her feet and responding in an entirely appropriate and personal manner with a communication that any donor would be delighted to receive.

WWF integrated legacy marketing campaign

This is truly ground-breaking communication for fundraising. Not only did these press advertisements and posters herald a new approach to the promotion of legacies (bequests) but they were also the first ads to use jargon-free language and to talk about legacies in plain, everyday terms that any one could understand.

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.

Dr Barnardo’s Homes: four fundraising greats from the distant past

Dr Thomas Barnardo was one of the Victorian era’s great philanthropists. These archive examples of his personal fundraising style and efforts are a unique treasure for the body of fundraising knowledge and best practice.

The RNLI legacy letter

This letter raised £millions. It is a classic example of a direct appeal to supporters for information to help plan for future income. An example of a candid, plain-speaking, respectful letter to remind supporters that RNLI relies heavily on legacy income to fund their work.

The Greenpeace legacy beer mat

Smile at the audacity behind this amusing approach, but did it work? Would we all be a bit more successful at raising money from legacies if we took a leaf or two out of Greenpeace’s book?

Multiple Sclerosis Society, Holland: television commercial

This remarkable television commercial is so powerful it stops the viewer in his/her tracks. Yet not a word is spoken, the message is entirely conveyed in movements, gestures and looks. This a brilliant use of television, a courageous creative presentation of the personal impact of a devastating disease. It will be instructive for anyone working in a similar field and many others too.

Botton Village: giving donors choices

Until Botton Village started offering its donors choices with the simple form shown opposite, donors everywhere were almost invariably not given any say in how they might be communicated with.

Help the Aged ‘you have this gift’ direct mail pack

Both the text on the envelope and the incentive in this classic direct mail pack from the 1980s have been copied frequently.

Dogs Trust (sponsor a dog)

 One of the most imaginative, instructive adaptations of the concept fundraisers have dubbed ‘the best fundraising proposition of all time’.

RSPB brand stretch work

Ten brilliant images designed to inspire and introduce new audiences to the work of one of Britain’s premier conservation organisations.

UNICEF’s Change for Good® campaign

For more than 15 years UNICEF has raised many, many millions for the world’s poorest children from the simple but brilliant idea of collecting travellers’ unwanted foreign coins.

Ryton Gardens: recyclable mailing

Ryton Garden’s famous recyclable mailing is one of the best ever examples of the benefits fundraisers can realise when they show that they really understand their donors.

CPAR: ‘plant a tree in Ethiopia’ mailing

Ethiopia has to be one of the most difficult fundraising markets in the world. Yet this pack produced results that most more sophisticated fundraisers can only dream of.

Amnesty International: the pen pack

Amnesty needed a powerful and effective means of recruiting new donors to their great cause. This was it. This was, as far as we know, the first ever occasion when a free pen was included in an acquisition mailing, in the UK at least. This mailing was both brilliantly successful and started a trend that led to a flood of imitators