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SOFII's I Wish I'd Thought of That
January 2021
Who was the host?
SOFII (The Showcase of Fundraising Inspiration and Innovation) is the place for fundraising best-practice, inspiration and case studies – an online museum of good fundraising created by fundraisers, for fundraisers.
What was the event and why was it hosted?
IWITOT (I Wish I’d Thought of That) is a key feature in the fundraising conference world. Usually seen at large international conferences and its London flagship, IWITOT gives speakers just seven minutes each to talk about a brilliant fundraising idea they wish they’d thought of themselves.
In January 2021, SOFII took the event to the Americas region for the first time in partnership with Fundraising Everywhere.
What did they do?
Each of the 11 speakers pre-recorded their IWITOT in our virtual recording studio. After Everywhere+ edited and branded the videos, they were ready to be introduced one at a time by the two live hosts, Suhailah and Lisa. Speakers also joined us live on-screen after their pre-recorded session to answer questions from the hosts and audience.
With one host based in New Hampshire, the other in Texas, and guest speakers being located all over North and South America, it truly was an international event.
The climax of the event was a live vote to pick a favourite: once the last speaker finished presenting, voting was opened to the audience by simply clicking underneath the livestream on the name/photo of the speaker they wanted to see win. The results were delivered live to our hosts backstage for the live reveal.
What did they achieve?
The event featured all North and South American speakers, many of whom were new contacts for SOFII – but were able to be included in the event thanks to the online delivery.
The SOFII team organised and delivered the event in just three weeks which included curation, preparation, marketing and delivery.
270 tickets were sold, with 71% of ticket buyers saying they had never attended an IWITOT event before. The event resulted in £5,000 profit for the charity, which includes additional donations (50% of ticket buyers added a donation at checkout).
Why did we love it?
Without virtual events this conference would have cost a lot of money and had a big impact on the team’s time and resource.
The team used their extensive charity sector connections to curate an exciting and diverse line-up of new and experienced speakers and were able to get a strong start to IWITOT being a household name on the other side of the pond – all without leaving their desks!