Preparation

To prepare for a phone-a-thon, the organizers take the following eight steps.

1. Prepare the List. Make a list of people who will be called. These potential donors are people who have either expressed an interest in your organization, benefited by something you have done for them, or are past or current supporters of your organization. The main criterion is that they would probably recognize the name of your organization and have positive feelings about your work. People attending community meetings you have organized, alumnae, and members of and donors to similar organizations are all prospects. A volunteer can create a master list of names and phone numbers. (If you can’t find someone’s phone number on the Internet, chances are this person does not want to be phoned. Do not spend a lot of time tracking down phone numbers. Just phone the people whose numbers are easy to find.) The list of prospects includes the names, phone number, codes indicating the person’s relationship to the organization (L = lapsed donor, FB = former board member, E = attended an event), and any information it would be helpful for the telephone volunteer to have, as in the following illustration. The list will also have a column for recording whether the prospect made a donation and of what amount, which will be filled in after the calling is completed.

2. Create a Way to Record Results of Calls. Volunteers should have a printout of their prospect names, with columns to record the results of the calls. After the calls have been made, you can use these printouts to check off the names and results on the master list and then enter into the database the names of people who made gifts or pledges.

   The columns the phoners will fill in include:

   • Donation made
   • Credit card information (Train your volunteers to collect the data you need for the system you are using. Process these gifts within twenty-four hours, and preferably during or after the phone-a-thon.)

   When you have a choice of calling a home or cell phone, use the home phone. Increasingly, however, people don’t have land lines, which means you could reach them anywhere, and which makes it imperative to ask whether this is a good time to talk and, if not, be willing to call back or be called back.

   • Address verified
   • E-mail
   • Thank you sent
   • Want more info (note whether sent)
   • Not home. Message left ___Yes ___No
   • Other data: (for example, “Lives in Florida all winter: use that address from Nov.–April,” or “Wants to help with gala again: please call.”

3. Set a Date for the Phone-a-Thon. When looking for a date, pay attention to other events in your community. Don’t call, for example, on an evening when everyone will be at a gala anniversary party or benefit auction for another organization similar to yours. Most people find that calling on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday night between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. at the beginning of the month (near payday) works best.

   Some organizations call on weekends with success, but calling on a sunny weekend afternoon may bring people racing in from their yards or interrupt them while entertaining and may irritate more people than necessary. No one is sitting in the sun on a Wednesday evening at 8:00. Pay attention as well to what’s on television: don’t call during the Super Bowl, or the World Cup Finals, or on an election night, or during the Academy Awards.

4. Write a Script. Generally, volunteers can ad lib after the second or third call, but initially a script of what to say gives them a feeling of security. The script should be brief and to the point, as in the following sample.

   In addition to the script, write up a list of questions that volunteers may be asked, with suggested answers. Include questions and statements such as, “Why haven’t I heard of you before?” or “I sent you guys money and never got anything” or “There are so many nonprofits in this town—do you work with any of them?”

5. Prepare Three Letters and Appropriate Enclosures. Here are samples of each letter to be prepared.

   Enclose with both the second and third types of letter a reply card or form that the donor will fill out (as discussed in Chapter Fourteen, “Direct Mail”), a fact sheet about your organization, and a return envelope. It is not necessary to put a postage stamp on any of these envelopes. With a small list and a fast printer, you could personalize each letter, or with a high-quality copier just copy the number you need.

6. Determine the Number of Phones and Volunteers You Will Need. To figure out the number of phones you will need, estimate that one person can make thirty to forty phone calls in an hour (although she will talk to no more than fifteen people), and that people will call for no more than three hours. Therefore, one person can make about 100 calls in an evening (including calls to people who aren’t home) and fill out the appropriate follow-up letters and mailing envelopes.
   • Since most people will not call for three hours straight, you will need one or two extra volunteers to make maximum use of the phones available.
   • Suppose you have six hundred names to call. If one person made all the calls it would take fifteen hours plus breaks (six hundred calls at forty calls per hour). If each person has his or her own phone, five volunteers using four or five phones, along with one or two extra volunteers to spell people, will be able to get through the calls in one evening. In addition to the calling, allow two to three hours (or one or two extra volunteers) getting everything ready that goes in the mail, processing credit card donations, recording information, and cleaning up.
   • You may wish to conduct the phone-a-thon over two nights. This has two advantages: you can call more people or use fewer volunteers, and you can call people on the second night who weren’t home on the first night.

7. Find a Place. You will need one room or a suite of connected rooms with one or more telephones in each one. Depending on the number of telephones in your organization’s office and the number of volunteers you have, you may have enough lines there. Real estate offices, travel agencies, law firms, large social service organizations, and the like are good candidates to let you borrow their telephones for the evening. You will be trusted not to disrupt or take anything, to clean up before you leave, and in most cases to pay for any long-distance calls. Some volunteers are willing to use their cell phones, but others will be reluctant to have their personal numbers show up on a stranger’s phone, and some may not want to use their minutes that way.

   Sometimes small organizations decide to conduct a phone-a-thon with volunteers working from their homes. Although there is nothing wrong with this method and just as many calls can be made, it is more fun and generates more momentum to have everyone in the same office. In addition, you will not be able to keep tabs on the volunteers and make sure that they are being assertive enough in their asking. In a group setting, successful calls or rude responses can elicit immediate praise or sympathy as appropriate. A group effort is also helpful in keeping track during the evening of how much is being pledged, and the people being called can hear a lot of action in the background, lending legitimacy and excitement to your effort. (If you have to use individual homes, have at least two people at each home.)

8. Recruit Volunteers. Use the phone-a-thon as an opportunity to bring in some new volunteers. People who have limited time or who cannot volunteer during the day can often be recruited to work one evening on a phone-a-thon. It is a straightforward commitment for a short time period and does not require preparation outside of a training session during the hour before phoning begins.

Use a Public Figure

One way groups have interested the press is by having one or two famous people participating in the phone-a-thon. “Famous people” include not only national celebrities but also people well known only in your community, such as the mayor, city council members, a well-respected community activist, the president of the community college, or a major corporate executive. The novelty that someone famous would help your organization lends credibility to your work. Also, almost everyone is flattered to be called by someone famous. If you decide to ask public figures to participate, be sure that they are well liked by your constituency.

Public figures can simply come for the first half-hour of your phone-a-thon and make a few calls without making an enormous time commitment to the event. It is an easy way for both you and them to gain goodwill while they show their support of nonprofit organizations and of the work of your organization in particular.

Phoning for Prospects

This takeoff on a sales technique means phoning a large number of people, giving basic information about your organization, and asking if the person would like to know more. If the person says yes, he or she turns into a prospect. There is no attempt to solicit a gift at the time of the phone call. The purpose of the call is to create a hot list for later fundraising appeals.

During the telephone conversation, the caller determines the degree of interest by asking the prospect some open-ended questions about what he knows of the organization and whether he supports its work. When interest is present, the prospect will be sent more information about the organization and a list of ways that he can help, including giving money. Some organizations use this opportunity to seek new volunteers, gain support for or against a piece of legislation, or ask for items that the program needs (for example, a shelter might ask for food or clothing). You can use these kinds of calls to get either an e-mail or snail mail address.

This strategy does not raise money per se. Instead, it acquires donors. The costs of phoning and of any mail and follow-up may well be only slightly less than the total amount received as gifts. Nevertheless, the organization now has a group of new donors, many of whom will renew the following year and may give in response to appeals during the current year.

This strategy is best for new organizations that do not have an established constituency or for nonprofits that have little name recognition, even if they have existed for some time. It also works well for political organizations seeking to familiarize people with their candidate or their election issue.

The script and the training of volunteers for calling are different for this method than with an ordinary phone-a-thon. The purpose of the call is only to determine interest and to get permission to send more information. Therefore, the script would be something like the example shown here.

Training volunteers for this type of phone work is more detailed than for a straight fundraising phone-a-thon, although some volunteers like doing this type of call better because it doesn’t involve asking for money. Volunteers must be able to listen, deal with difficult questions, and know when to give up. Each call will take longer than calls in a fundraising phone-a-thon. Callers must be clear that they are calling only to determine interest, not to convert people.

Callers should practice handling difficult questions and responding to them in some depth, and they should familiarize themselves with many facts about the organization and the issues.

No list is needed for this phone-a-thon. You can call a random sample of any list of people to determine their interest. You can also use this strategy to determine the interest of people who give to an organization doing work in an entirely different arena from yours, but where there could be a connection. For example, an AIDS-related service organization traded its list for a list of donors from several arts organizations and called them to determine their interest in the service organization. Because the arts community has been hard hit by the AIDS epidemic, there was a high level of interest and the arts group gained many new donors.

You may want to consider using professional telemarketers for this type of phoning. Although you will pay them, they are used to dealing with objections and can be counted on not to take people’s comments personally. There are many reputable telemarketing firms, some of which specialize in phoning for nonprofits. Your organization may be too small for them to consider taking you on as a client, but they may have freelance people you could hire. You may also want to consider asking someone from such a firm to provide training to your volunteers.

Phoning After a Mail Appeal

This method is quite straightforward. A mail appeal is sent to a list of prospects. After two weeks, all the prospects who have not sent money are called. The purpose of this method is to increase the return from the mail appeal.

The script is the only part that is slightly different from a regular fundraising phone-a-thon, in that a sentence is added such as, “I am Terry Baca from the Greenbelt Project. We recently sent you a letter about our work. Did you have a chance to read it?” Depending on the answer, the rest of the script is the same as that described in the first section of this chapter. If the person has read the letter and seems in favor of your goals, skip right to the question: “Will you be able to help us with a gift of $____ ?”

You will not indicate in the original letter that the prospects will be called. You want as many people as possible to send in their gifts without being called. Some organizations have successfully tried a variation on this method by telling prospects in a letter that they will be called unless the organization hears from them by a certain date prior to the phone-a-thon.

Phoning for Renewals

As discussed earlier, most organizations will lose about one-third of their members or donors every year. As a result, organizations spend most of their renewal budget trying to woo these recalcitrant members back into the fold. Usually, an organization will send the member two or three renewal letters one month apart, each notice firmer or more pleading than the one before.

A phone-a-thon can be used in place of either the second or third renewal notice. In addition to saving the cost of printing and postage, it provides a way to have much more personal contact with donors than is generally possible. Over time you will notice a cross-section of your donors who respond more to being phoned than to mail. For those people, you may not send any renewal letter, but instead call them each year. (See also Chapter Eleven, about creating categories of donors.)

Many organizations have renewal phone-a-thons twice a year. They find that, although the response to a second or third renewal letter is 2 to 5 percent and sometimes less, the response to phoning is often at 10 percent and can be as high as 20 percent. These organizations are cutting their member losses by 5 percent or more. This guarantees that the organization will have at least a 66 percent renewal rate, and it may be able to add another 5 percent onto that.

A renewal phone-a-thon is almost exactly like a regular fundraising phone-a-thon. First, identify from your mailing list all the people who have not donated in the last fourteen to sixteen months, not including those who have had less than a month to renew. (Unless your organization is in a terrible financial bind and you really need the money, wait to call, as a person will feel harassed if you call too soon after your first renewal notice is sent.)

Next, prepare the letters to thank people for renewing and to contact people who weren’t home when you called, as discussed in the first section of this chapter. Both of these letters are brief. The point is to remind the member of his or her commitment to give; there is no need to convince the person of the worthiness of your organization. Each letter is accompanied by a return envelope and a return form (pledge card).

When volunteers call the lapsed donors, they will generally hear the following reasons for not renewing: out of work, forgot about it, thought she or he had renewed, didn’t receive the renewal letter, or was just about to renew and is glad you called.

It is important to believe whatever the donor might say. A person who claims to have renewed although you have no record of receiving her renewal could be asked to produce a canceled check, but it is easier and more productive simply to take her word for it and reinstate her on the mailing list. Follow the adage “The customer is always right.”

When someone says that he no longer agrees with the course you are taking or that he has a disagreement about a particular issue, ask him to explain. It may shed light on how the public perceives something you have done or you may be able to clear up a misunderstanding.

At the end of the phone-a-thon, make sure you have carefully sorted all the names into those who have renewed, those who requested to be taken off the mailing list, and those who were not home. Deal with complaints that same evening with a letter such as the one shown here.

As you can see, grassroots organizations can take advantage of fundraising by telephone. In addition to raising money, finding prospects, increasing renewal rates, and allowing an organization to have more personal contact with its donors, fundraising by telephone has an added advantage of teaching volunteers how to ask for money. The skills volunteers learn through phone-a-thons can then be put to use in major donor campaigns.