Does telephone fundraising from alumni really work?
It certainly does! For many institutions in the UK and US, a consistent year-on-year programme of alumni fundraising is a core element of their fundraising strategies.
The first UK University began telephone fundraising in 1985 and by now over 50 use the telephone in this way. By investing in such a programme, you can create a long-term, guaranteed source of income that can be directed wherever the need is greatest.
Not only that, but if you plan and execute your telephone campaigns properly, you will find that they reinforce your other areas of work, such as major donors and trusts, as well.
But don’t people hate telephone calls? I do!
You and many others, including me! But what we hate is ‘junk telemarketing’ – computerised dialling and callers who are reading robotically from a script, selling a product in which we have no interest.
Contrast that with a call from a student at your old university or college, who will listen to you, give you information that you’re actually interested in, and who is passionate about the institution they’re fundraising for. That’s the difference, and that’s why alumni telephone campaigns are so successful.
Is telephone fundraising hard to organise?
Being completely honest – no, it isn’t, at its most basic level. In fact you could start tomorrow with a ‘phone, a list of people and a script. But it probably wouldn’t work very well!
You would raise some money – telephone fundraising is so effective it would be hard not to – but only a fraction of what you might have raised with professional advice on data selection, creative, caller selection, training and management, fulfilment, upgrade cycles and so on.
Effective telephone fundraising campaigns are not easy and they are intricate. They need careful planning and attention to detail every step of the way to ensure they run properly. With our experience of what works and what doesn’t, you won’t have to reinvent the wheel.
What are the key ingredients of a good telephone campaign?
There are 4 key ingredients:
- A good list
- A strong case
- Excellent, well-trained callers
- Effective follow-up and administration
Without a good list – in this case your alumni database – you won’t contact enough of the right kind of people. You must have compelling reasons why alumni should give to you, otherwise your callers will have nothing to work with.
And without well-trained and supported callers, you won’t be able to strike the fine balance of raising the most money possible, while also building strong relationships with your alumni.
Most importantly, if you can’t follow up swiftly and effectively, you won’t have your donors’ confidence in future...
What about software and laptops?
It depends where you are in the process. If you’ve already run campaigns, have some experienced students, and want to increase your productivity, then software and laptops will certainly help and we can offer them to you as part of our package.
If you’re just beginning the process with inexperienced students, we’d say that software and laptops can get in the way. Our focus would be on training your students and supporting them in having fluent, natural and effective conversations with your alumni. They should be concentrating on the person on the ‘phone, not stuff on a screen.
How long does a call need to be?
There’s no one answer to this – some calls to your alumni will be short (and sweet, we hope!) while others will be much longer. The important thing is to strike the right balance between building relationships and asking for money. This is the key skill we will help every one of your student callers to develop.
Some of your students will be natural askers and will need coaching in what we call ‘soft skills’. Others will be natural relaters, and will need support to find the right place in the call to ‘make the ask’. Both kinds of caller will be equally valuable in your campaigns.
How long does it take to set up a campaign?
We can get from your go-ahead to beginning training your students in about 6-8 weeks, but really the earlier we can get to work, the better.
There will be important discussions to have about data and administrative routines that we’ll need to work out carefully with you. You may want our advice about Paperless Direct Debit (there’s an FAQ on that, in case you’re wondering) and fulfilment. We’ll certainly want to spend time getting to know you and making sure we help you build the best case for supporting your institution.
So if you’re thinking about running a telephone campaign, do get in touch with us right at the outset.
What is Paperless Direct Debit (PDD)?
Paperless Direct Debit is one of the single best things to have happened in fundraising in the last 10 years.
Through PDD, you can take regular gift instructions from donors immediately over the phone or the web, without them having to fill in any forms. With PDD you know that a gift pledged over the ‘phone is really going to come in.
PDD is worth considering once you have run a pilot telephone fundraising campaign and are sure you would like to embark on a longer-term programme of calling. It can be tedious to set up if you are implementing it in-house, but the benefits far outweigh any short-term disadvantages.
There are agencies around who will take most of the work off your hands and manage the process for you. We have lots of experience with PDD (we use it all the time in our call centre) and will happily help you decide what route is best for you.
