A few weeks ago I wrote about the importance of “the big idea” in fundraising.My post generated a response from, in my opinion, one the most creative individuals working in the sector today; Ken Burnett. Ken wanted to provide a little more background on his thinking and inspiration for his new site, SOFII.org. (Which you can join for free by the way!)
“Dear John, Well done on your blog and the concept of ‘The naked idea’. Maxine at SOFII.org has passed your email to me and I’ve had a look at your sites. I hope you won’t mind my responding to the comments posted there about SOFII.
SOFII wouldn’t have got started without the active support of generous ‘sharers’ of information like David Love and Steve Thomas, who both provided early examples for the site. For me, great fundraisers are almost invariably marked by their openness and willingness to share their successes – and even failures – with others. I’m attaching a SOFII exhibitors’ form in the hope that you’ll find something among your archives that you think deserves to be shown on SOFII – looks to me like you might have a few.
But I do want to correct the impression given by Derek Humphries’ comment. He was MD of Burnett Associates, the agency I started in 1982, for many years, so we know each other well. Dean Hughes worked with us for several years in the 1990s, so please say hi from me to him. You are lucky to be working with him.
(SOFII exists)…not just to encourage original thinking. In fundraising, original thinking is a means to an end (the effective raising of money), not an end in itself. Though it’s always nice, original thinking is just one of several means to this end, and may often not be the most appropriate for every organisation in all situations. Original thinking is rare (much too rare) and often risky, so will often not be what fundraisers need most. But your chances of coming up with what is needed will be mightily reduced if you don’t have a good understanding of what has gone before, what worked and what didn’t, why those who are famed for their effective fundraising deserved that reputation. Or didn’t.
That’s why we created SOFII – to fill a gap because until now there was no such archive of fundraising excellence and most of today’s fundraisers are, not surprisingly,unaware of the great fundraising history that has gone before, so they’re constantly condemned to re-invent the wheel or to latch on to current fundraising fads and fashions. SOFII is an archive, a historical record, a repository of wisdom, tips and insights and also hopefully a stimulus to new innovation too. It’s much more than just a stimulus to new ideas though, important though that function is. I hope we’ll see SOFII stimulating the recycling of rather a lot of tried, tested and far from overused old ideas too. After all, we all need to be concerned about saving energy…
Best wishes, Ken”
He added a final thought and quote from David Ogilvy who said:
“If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative”.
Big ideas often look great and seem brilliant but are all fizz and sparkle with little lasting impact. Great fundraising is only really great if it raises new money, at least enough to justify its cost. If it can make donors feel good and bond them to the cause along the way, that’s an added bonus but I’d worry about any new fundraising ‘big idea’ that didn’t bring a tangible, bankable return.
I don’t accept it’s a bitter pill to be a means to an end. If the end is sufficiently worthwhile then I see it as an honourable calling.
Thanks a lot Ken for your thoughts and for building such an important archive of fundraising.