11 Facts About Harold Sumption

Harold Sumption was an English advertising executive and fundraiser.

Harold Sumption was associated with charities including Oxfam, Help the Aged and ActionAid, as well as co-founding the International Fundraising Workshop.

Harold Sumption became a Quaker after accidentally finding himself at the Yearly Meeting at Friends House, thinking that he was attending a talk by Jomo Kenyatta.

Harold Sumption proposed to the fledgling NHS that they pay towards this treatment whatever it would cost to treat him in London, as this would both free up a bed and in all likelihood lead to an earlier recovery.

Harold Sumption advised Oxfam for the next 35 years, serving as advertiser, council member, and board member, although he was never on the organisation's payroll.

Alongside his unpaid role as adviser to numerous charities, Harold Sumption had a successful career in advertising.

Harold Sumption formed the first British direct marketing division, at NW Ayer and worked at fashionable 1970s start-up MWK.

Harold Sumption was a fellow and council-member of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, and helped set up the Montreux International Direct Marketing Symposium.

Harold Sumption was one of the first two honorary fellows of the UK's Institute of Charity Fundraising Managers.

Harold Sumption's fundraising was informed by the belief that every person has a Good Samaritan within them, but that they need to be shown with clarity, honesty and urgency how and why to exercise that Samaritan instinct.

Harold Sumption condensed his advice to those who followed him into fundraising into a number of aphorisms:.