New collection of George Smith's columns on direct marketing published
Howard Lake | 11 September 2011 | News
White Lion Press has published a collection of columns and articles by direct marketing and fundraising expert George Smith. ‘Up Smith Creek’ features content that first made their mark in trade journals such as Direct Response and Professional Fundraising, and in national publications like The Financial Times and New Society.
Smith enjoyed a reputation for writing with sharp insight based on extensive experience, elegant turns of phrase, and an irreverent humour that wasn’t afraid to deflate industry notions and campaigns.
He wrote his first fundraising advert for Oxfam in 1962. Subsequently he served as chief executive of the International Fund Raising Group (now Resource Alliance) between 1987 and 1993 and was appointed chairman of the UK’s Institute of Direct Marketing in 1997. He is an honorary fellow both of the IDM and the Institute of Fundraising, the only person to date to have been given both honours.
His monthly articles in Direct Response magazine were published in 1987 as a collection called ‘By George’, but the new book covers a much wider range of his writings over three decades.
Drayton Bird, author of ‘Commonsense Direct Marketing’, says of Smith’s new book: “What George has written made sense when he wrote it, makes sense now, and will make sense 50 years from now to those who have the good fortune to come across this collection.”
George Smith is also author of Asking Properly and Tiny Essentials of Writing for Fundraising, both published by White Lion Publishing.
Ken Burnett, owner of White Lion Publishing, said: “Many of these pieces are as relevant, or irrelevant, as they were at the time of writing. Others have been included for sheer curiosity value, or just because we like them. We think there are some real gems here…”
Up Smith Creek costs £12.95 +postage and packing from White Lion Press.
www.whitelionpress.com/UpSmithCreek.html
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.