I’m really quite honored that I have been selected by the SOFII team to be the first ever “SOFII Star of the month”. I joked with Kimberley Mackenzie that with my luck, the month (and my Star) will be gone before we even launch. So close, yet so far once more.

Our first SOFII Star of the month is… John Lepp, Agents of Good

The SOFII team were unanimous – the first SOFII star of the month had to be awarded to John Lepp. Over the past year, John has shown such dedication, patience and expertise in building the new SOFII site. All of us from SOFII are very grateful to all of his hard work and we are really pleased with our new website!

John has long been an admirer of SOFII. He loved the idea that there was an online, ever-evolving museum of fundraising which he could access, at anytime. However, John freely admits that he found SOFII difficult to use because of the overload of links and images. Instead of merely complaining about the problem, John decided to do something about it. Realising he and his business partner Mark Haak had the skills to completely redesign SOFII and improve its functionality; he got in touch with SOFII’s founder Ken Burnett and offered his services.

Ever since, John and the team at Agents of Good have undertaken a massive project (bigger than any of us realised) involving sweat, blood and tears and undoubtedly a good few curses along the way. Despite this, John has approached the project with superhero-like patience, commitment and determination. His light hearted approach and acceptance of our technical limitations made him a joy to work with.
So, thank you John for believing in SOFII and for playing such an important role in shaping the future of fundraising. We really needed your talents and are very lucky that you decided to share them with us.
And special thanks to….

Dean Reeds for all of his hard work and patience with the new website – we couldn’t have done it without you.

Truth be known, there are many others who deserve to be acknowledged who have done more than their fair share of work to get to this point.

Dean Reeds, programmer and great guy, has had the patience of 1000 saints as we have changed our minds over and over on every little detail you can think of. And totally hasn’t freaked out. Not publically anyhow.

Kimberley Mackenzie, SOFII’s unofficial cheerleader, supporter, fundraiser… every time I needed a brain to pick, she was there. Every time I needed some insight or support, she was there. Every time I wondered if we would ever get through this, she reminded me we would.

Mark Haak, partner and designer. Helped greatly to create the look and feel as it is/and will be when we launch next week. He had no idea what I was talking him into well over a year ago. And he never complained when he found out.

Carolina Herrera, SOFII octopus. She has had her hands on everything, since the beginning. She has helped, supported and keep us all moving along regardless of what else was going on around her.

Ken Burnett. Ah, Ken Burnett. Ken and I need to share a pint or two, (you buy mine Ken and I’ll buy yours). Without Ken’s vision of a online showcase of fundraising that people from all over the world can learn and steal from, we wouldn’t be here. His leadership, patience, guidance, persistence and humour has made this journey worth it. I thank you Ken.

And finally, you. Thank you “YOU”. You are what we do this for. YOU are not only the star of the month, but the stars of SOFII. It exists for YOU because regardless of what we have done, you are the ones who have created it with your thoughts, successes, failures and knowledge. We are creating a legacy that (hopefully) generations of fundraisers will find insightful, useful, inspiring and world changing for many, many years to come.

We are soft launching this week for a last sneak peak for a few folks with a full on launch the week following (baring some major mishap) and we look forward to your thoughts.

Extra thanks and love to whoever photoshopped the poster.

A QUICK UPDATE: The New Sofii is now live… Head on over and let us know what you think.