Five tweets about fundraising history
Howard Lake | 13 March 2019 | News
Fundraising has a long history. Channels might have changed, understanding of what motivates giving might have grown, but we can still learn from past examples. And Twitter is full of these lessons and examples from the past.
Here are five tweets about fundraising in the past.
1. WWF’s early fundraising ideas
A biography of naturalist Peter Scott includes some fascinating background to the fundraising tactics used in the early days of the WWF.
https://twitter.com/gethynwilliams/status/1103203414778040320
2. Really old school fundraising
Mark Phillips blogs about how fundraising was taught in one school in 1350:
Advertisement
Back in 1350 there was a school that taught fundraising. Take a look at why they thought people gave, how they constructed an appeal and a sample letter. #notmuchhaschanged. https://t.co/ZnwSTOavKI pic.twitter.com/j0uEczm6fo
— Mark Phillips (@Markyphillips) February 27, 2019
3. Right royal fundraising
The fundraising school resulted in David Burgess sharing details how emergency appeals were launched in the 1600s. He highlighted an example of a ‘brief’, a document of 1666 from the Essex Record Office’s archive which was a fundraising appeal on behalf of the citizens of Weymouth in Dorset who had suffered a major fire.
These briefs were copies of royal letters patent, which called for the gathering of contributions from ‘all well-disposed persons’. These would then employ collectors to travel around the country seeking donations.
Thanks Mark – really enjoyed this. With your interest in historical fundraising you might find this of interest from @essexarchive – https://t.co/IwHOOnQ0v6
— David Burgess (@DavidBurgessFR) February 27, 2019
4. Victorian collecting dogs
Years ahead of the contactless giving dogs of Blue Cross, here are the collecting dogs of Victorian times.
https://twitter.com/fuyerescaper/status/1093913989673873409
It’s worth reading the whole thread, but here’s the final instalment:
https://twitter.com/fuyerescaper/status/1093915867610529792
5. Know what happened
If you’re still unconvinced about the value (and enjoyment) of looking backwards to look forwards, here’s Lisa Sargent’s advice:
#fundraisers, what’s gone before. It matters. 👇 https://t.co/lmh6xKuOPJ
— Lisa Sargent (@lisasargent2) March 12, 2019
As a historian and a fundraiser, it’s only right that we add a bonus tweet.
6. Donor plaque
How many donors are mentioned on blue plaques? Or how many blue plaques refer to the named individual’s philanthropy?
Here’s one that does. And note Mark Phillips’ comment underneath it, estimating the current value of such a donation:
That would be like a gift of £217,000 today. pic.twitter.com/KufLTkQQKn
— Mark Phillips (@Markyphillips) March 13, 2019
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.