Phone-A-Thons
Why Have A Phone-A-Thon
About one third of the population is classified
as "auditory". That means they like to hear
and talk. (the other two thirds are visual and
kinestetic).
So, you've got a huge market of people that will appreciate talking with someone and that might be more receptive to buying or making donations over the phone.
Telemarketing Laws
Yes, I know that there are plenty of disgruntled people that are tired of receiving telephone solicitations. In fact, the United States Congress and many U. S. states have passed several consumer rights laws to prevent pesky telemarketers from calling.
In their wisdom, most of these telemarketer consumer rights laws don't apply to nonprofit organizations. Still, if someone asks to be taken off of your list, then you should be obliged to take them off from future phone calls or it will come back to bite you.
So, this means that you and other callers are not classified as telemarketers. For more on this subject see the Better Business Bureau.
Your Calling Plan
There are several ways to conduct a Phone-a-thon that we will discuss:
1. The Pledge Loss Phone Bank
2. The Phone-a-buddy Plan
3. Utilizing Calling Services
4. Offering A Promotional Product
Select the calling plan that is based upon you objectives and goals. Each has a different achievable goal to help you raise more money.
The Pledge Loss Phone Bank
You've already had your fundraiser earlier in the year. You barely raised your goal, but now toward the end of the year some pledges have not been paid.
It simply may have been an oversight on the part of the donor and they haven't thought to send in their donation. Sometimes this happens even with repeated reminder notes.
Recruit enough volunteer phone callers to call ten individuals each. This can be done easily in one afternoon or evening. Your phone team will take these unpaid pledge cards and give the supporters a call. Make sure that you all meet at one location an work as a team.
Here's a sample call: You call Mr. John Doe and say,
"Hello, Mr. Doe? Yes, this is Mr. Abel Caller with the Much Needy Organization. How has your day gone so far?
Great, I'm calling you tonight from our headquarters where I've volunteered to help call some of our faithful supporters. Mr. Doe, we are trying to wind our year down and are calling everyone to secure our final year end gifts and update all of our records.
(repeat the donors personal information on their pledge card and ask if it is still correct. Make any corrections if needed). We show that you pledged $X and have paid $X. Is this correct?
Can we send you a returnable envelope for your convenience in sending in your final support payment? Thank you Mr. Doe. We appreciate all that you have done for us this year and look forward to your help next year. Have a good night Mr. Doe.
Another scenario may in contacting some donors from previous years that you did not reach during your main fundraiser. This is sort of a "clean-up" job.
Phone-A-Buddy Plan
Calling a friend and asking for help is
always a great way to add supporters
to your ranks. Basically, you recruit
as many supporters that agree to call
a friend or buddy and discuss the need for thier financial assistance.
Recruit 20 (or as many as you can get) of your most ardent supporters and ask them to contact 5 friends (no more and no less). Create a simple script for them to use that describes your organization. Call this campaign Operation Reach Out.
Allow each volunteer recruit to choose a goal they are comfortable with that fits within the goal you want to achieve. For instance, you want to raise $20,000 for a special project that you must complete this year. You will ask each recruit to take a goal of $1,000 or close to it. Renegotiate your goals as you get toward the end of the goal setting if you haven't secured enough individual goals to reach the overall goal.
Calling Services Consulting Firms
Calling Services are an excellent way to find new donors. Don't expect to make big bucks from this phone-a-thon. Do expect to find new supporters that you wouldn't have had.
These services will work hard to find donors in your area if you are a local nonprofit or if you are a national organization, then they will find those that have a probable interest in supporting a similiar cause like yours. Look for those that belong to the DMA (Direct Marketers Association).
Some of these firms will help find lost alumni if you are a school or association. They can also help you clean up your donor list as they call past alumni and donors.
Here are a few firms to consider:
Offering A Promotional Product
You are selling candy products or tickets to your annual concert or fair. You will probably contact supporters that have bought items from you in the past and may not have hooked up with you yet this year. They may be anxiously awaiting someone to contact them again and offer that special product.
It's much easier to contact these supporters by calling them and asking if they want to order some of your products this year too. Hopefully you've been smart enough to keep their addresses and phone numbers from previous years.
Finally, after securing their order, ask them for one other reference name of someone that might want to hear about your fundraising product too. It is very important to get another referral contact if possible from those who already appreciate your group.
Here's what you say,
"Ms. Smith, I appreciate your willingness to reorder from us again this year. We are always trying to expand our supporter base. Confidentially, do you know of someone else that might benefit from our fundraising products? We keep all names of the referral parties strictly confidential unless you don't mind us mentioning your name. We would certainly appreciate any help you can give us." You then wait for her response.
Service Providers
If you plan to do any large-scale direct telephone solicitations, it may be wise to secure the help of a reputable professional firm.
For personal telemarketing services you might try a company similiar to those listed on our Telemarketing Resources page and for automated software telemarketing try Dialer-Online.
Professional firms and services bring you experience and more stable results oriented operations. Be careful to pay no more than what is fair and avoid scam operations that take in 60% or more of the funds. See the Better Business Bureau for more information on this subject.
Preparations
Secure a bank of 10 to 20 telephones at a bank, loan service, subscription service or other business with multiple lines for your calling needs.
Here are a few areas that you'll want to consider.
* Set a goal. Have each team member accept a goal of their own.
* Have someone in charge of recording gifts made. They will then chart all gifts obtained and update the team on a bulletin board continuously.
* The Chair of the Phone-a-thon will offer inspiration and keep everyone on course to achieve the goal. The Chair should reassign more names to those that finish early and still have time to call.
* Limit your calls between 5pm and 9pm.
* Have plenty of telephone books available.
* Have a computer link to the internet if possible and link to phone look up sites. See Prospect Research Resources. Look under Alumni Locators, People Research, Location Finder and Telephone Numbers for several services that can be of help. Some of these companies have reverse look ups, white pages, yellow pages, find-a-person, find-a-business name, maps and directions.
* Prepare a script and ask the volunteers to make a couple of practice round phone calls -- make it funny to relax everyone before getting down to work.
* Bring snacks, donuts, coffee and cold drinks for your volunteer workers.
This should give you some ideas on using the telephone to your advantage. Each of the phone-a-thon scenarios should bring you extra funds that you had not counted on before conducting your own Phone-A-Thon.
