Nonprofit Fundraising: Telephone Solicitations

Many nonprofit organizations forgo telephone solicitation as a fundraising mechanism because of the bad press associated with telemarketing. It is true that most people do not like to be solicited over the telephone, but fundraising for a nonprofit organization is much different from soliciting a product or service.

First of all, telephone solicitation is an inexpensive and relatively easy way to solicit donations from a large number of people. They have the personal qualities of an in-person, door-to-door canvassing approach, but they take less time and can cover more ground. Further, they lack the impersonal approach of direct marketing, and allow the person on the other end of the line to ask questions or voice concerns with automatic feedback from the person doing the calling.

Telephone solicitation is most effective when organized into a one-day or one-week event. Gather volunteers from your organization and set up a time and place for the calls. Beforehand, make sure to put together a list of potential donors to call, and separate the list so that each volunteer has a group of people to call.

If you are a small nonprofit, you might not have a space with enough phone lines to handle several volunteers. One option is to ask the volunteers to use their cell phones, which may or may not work. For one, you’ll have to reimburse them for minutes used, and for another, poor reception might get in the way.

The second – and more effective – approach is to ask a local business or charity to use their phone room for a specified period of time. If you schedule the telephone solicitations for after business hours – such as from 6pm – 9pm – you won’t get in their way. Many businesses are willing to donate space to a nonprofit if it’s for a good cause. Just don’t ask your local energy company if your nonprofit is for funding research into alternative energy sources, or another contradiction of purpose.