The SOFII History Project
Welcome to the SOFII history project. An illustrated journey through fundraising's history with commentary by Mark Phillips especially for SOFII users.
Lessons for fundraisers from yesterday’s cigarette advertising: instructive campaign images from the 1930s, 40s and 50s
by Ken Burnett
This article has been on SOFII for some time, but I have a feeling we didn’t actually tell anyone. We hang our heads in shame and urge you to check out some astonishing cigarette adverts – and what campaigners and fundraisers can learn from them.
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Heart and soul: Charles Dickens on the passion and power of fundraising
by Aline Reed.
Recounting a mildly bizarre but uplifting encounter that was to involve not one, but two, popular fast-food snacks, Derek Humphries reminds us of the simple but firm foundations every truly compelling fundraising should be built on.
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Moses Maimonides: the 90-degree shift, 800 years ago
by Reinier Spruit
Moses Maimonides, Jewish philosopher and scholar, and his famous Eight Levels of Giving.
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Philanthropy in ancient times: some early examples from the Mediterranean
by Sarah Bond
In this new addition to the SOFII history project we look at the early beginnings of charity. We uncover the origin of the word ‘philanthropy’ and how the philosophy of philanthropy permeated the lives of ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans on every level of their daily lives.
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The SOFII history project: The Salvation Army’s innovative fundraising from a century ago – and a lesson in how to say thank you properly
by Sarah Bond
With close to 150 years of fundraising history, The Salvation Army’s archive is a gift that keeps on giving. In this new piece we track one campaign across two centuries and see that whilst each new generation likes to think they’ve reinvented the fundraising wheel, there’s not much that fundraisers in the 1860’s hadn’t thought of first.
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The SOFII history project: David Ogilvy’s letter for the United Negro College Fund, from 1968
by Mark Phillips
In his first post Mark examines a letter written by legendary copywriter and the ‘father of advertising’, David Ogilvy. In this letter he impressively demonstrates how to build an effective relationship between the reader and the cause and uses an unusual delivery mechanism…a train.
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Announcing the SOFII history project, coming soon to SOFII.
by Mark Phillips
An illustrated journey through time, with commentary by Mark Phillips, especially for SOFII users.
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