Timeless fundraising campaigns from around the world

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

About SOFII

Founded in 2007 by global fundraising consultant Ken Burnett, the Showcase of Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration (sofii.org) is a collection of fundraising efforts that has been called “the fundraiser’s secret weapon for ideas.“

“SOFII’s mission,” according to Director of Development Nathalie Robinson, “is to provide a free, permanent and easily accessible archive of fundraising best practices and creativity from around the world.

“We believe that everyone who wants to fundraise to help a cause should have every chance to learn how to do it without having to pay for that knowledge,” she explains. “We currently have over 9,000 fundraisers from over 150 countries using SOFII, and this number grows every month.”

Exploring the SOFII site is easy and easily worth the hours you no doubt will spend browsing its “exhibit halls” and “showcases.”

Says Burnett: “[SOFII’s] potential value to you and your organization, you have to find for yourself. Just be warned: Correctly used, it could make a very big difference indeed.”

"Plagiarism, we all know, is the most sincere form of flattery. Why trouble to think of your own big idea, if you can steal — or, perhaps better, borrow — someone else's? Of course you should always properly acknowledge the original; and seek in adapting it to improve, and certainly not debase, its original concept."