A Ringing Endorsement

Nonprofits groups, like for-profit direct marketers, are running to the phone -but they’re doing it selectively. Telemarketing for donations can be expensive, but many charities are finding that, when used for special circumstances, it can be a remunerative route.

According to new figures compiled by the WEFA Group for the Direct Marketing Association, the telephone accounted for 42% (¤38.6 billion) of the ¤91.3 billion nonprofits raised in “revenue” in 1998. Mail was next with 32% (¤29.1 billion), followed by newspapers, magazines, television, other and radio.

The phone is best used, experts say, not for prospecting or for getting faithful donors to make their regular contributions, but for such things as thanking givers, notifying people about special events or forthcoming direct mail, trying to coax donors to give a little something extra and attempting to bring lapsed contributors back into the fold.

Several large charities also do what is called “targeted residential campaigns” in which calls are made to recruit volunteers to send fundraising letters to their neighbors.

Nonprofits face the same problem as commercial callers: phone clutter. It’s no secret that as marketers of all stripes use the phone more, consumers become increasingly upset at having their dinner hour interrupted. Paul Moede, marketing director of the International Bible Society, Colorado Springs, CO, admits that part of the reason the group does no outbound telemarketing is that it doesn’t “want the stigma attached to us as a ministry.”

And yet. Many donors view a call from a favorite charity as a call from a friend-which makes the phone a good relationship tool. As direct marketing companies have learned that it’s more important (and cheaper) to hang onto current customers than to go fishing for new ones, charities have learned the same about donors.

The March of Dimes, White Plains, NY, doesn’t include telemarketing in its regular fundraising, but local chapters will sometimes use volunteers to call lapsed donors.

In short, the use of the telephone in fundraising has become more specific and more sophisticated. Part of that sophistication is in integrating it with other media, especially mail. Charlie Cadigan, vice president of fundraising and membership services for Epsilon, Burlington, MA, says that clients who make calls often see a 10% to 15% lift in response rates to subsequent mail pieces.

“It’s all based on consumer preference, making sure you are speaking with your customers through the media they prefer,” says Lindy Litrides, group vice president of marketing for the Arthritis Foundation, Atlanta. When members say during a telemarketing call from the foundation that they prefer not to be contacted by phone, that is noted in the file and those people are not called in the future. “There’s more of a service focus and the renewals are higher because you are responding to a consumer request,” says Litrides.

David Preston, director of membership and viewer services at Twin Cities Public Television in St. Paul, MN, says that the timing of renewal calls from his in-house, 32-seat call center to recently acquired members depends on the medium used for the original acquisition. Those acquired by phone will receive two mail pieces before getting a phone call. Those acquired by mail will receive a third mail piece before getting a call.

Obviously, Twin Cities does prospect by phone. It has a donor list of about 200,000, one of the largest public-TV files in the country. About a quarter of the stations’ (cq) ¤7 million in member revenue comes from outbound calls.