How to find success with telephone fundraising
In a world where face-to-face fundraising is continuing to prove challenging and our economy is under pressure, it is now more vital than ever that charities find alternative ways to fundraise. With REAL’s collective fundraising experience topping over 100 years, we thought we would share with you a short list of the best strategies to ensure your fundraising doesn’t suffer during the lockdown.
Source quality data: With the myriad of opportunities presented by f2f fundraising currently closed to all, sourcing quality data is of vital importance. To widen the scope outside of your reactivation, upgrade or cash/event/one-off to regular campaigns, there are two main options available to you:
- Digital/Social lead generation: Leads via social channels through a sound digital lead generation strategy will ensure you can build a list of quality, opt-in candidates. Potential donors can be pre-qualified through custom questions in a custom landing page, Facebook Lead Ad, Instagram or LinkedIn, interest can be ignited by a value-exchange (a timely, very relevant piece of content or product in return for a call) or, better still, longer term planning of a nurture campaign will lead to higher conversions, higher value donors that you can turn into advocates. Look out for further posts in the coming weeks that will delve further into the best way to attract supporters online in the coming weeks.
- Purchased lead lists: If purchasing lead lists from a 3rd-party, you must ensure that it is a) reputable (look for registration with the ICO and membership of the DMA as a start) b) opt-in only and c) from opt-ins who have expressed a specific interest in charity or your particular field or local community area.
Pick the right callers: At the core of every caller employed by REAL are the values that sit at the heart of all our teams — Respect, Ethics, Activism and Love. Each REAL caller is passionate and knowledgeable about each charity partner we work with and this is an essential ingredient in fundraising success. It shows in the way they interact and converse with each potential donor they connect with. Make sure that calling takes place within a supportive, warm environment with great work culture. Culture is what will ensure that when no one is listening the fundraisers always make the right call.
Ban the pitch: You are not pitching (this is not sales). You are engaging a potential member of your community, an activist that can help you deliver the services and solve the problems that make up the goals of your organisation.
Make them feel valued: If your goal is to avoid hard no’s, to turn a one-off gift into a regular giver and, eventually, an advocate, making prospective donors feel valued is essential. At REAL Calling(especially while calling during a pandemic), our script will guide callers with information, compliance musts and prompts, but it’s the conversational approach, warm rapport building and treating them as a valued and respected person that achieves long lasting charity/donor relationionships.
Data Management: An obvious but often overlooked facet to calling that is essential to ensure success. Ensuring the ability for granular tracking of each call, response and action is paramount to ensuring you manage your call cycles in the most efficient and successful way.
Following this guide will help you to achieve the results you need to sustain you through this difficult period and open the scope of fundraising channels to you in the future.
REAL Calling can help you with your telephone fundraising, using the values of REAL fundraising from the lasts 11.5 years that ensure REAL peace of mind for all our clients and puts them into every conversation we have. If you would like to discuss how we could help you with your telephone fundraising, please get in touch here.
And with our new Head of Digital recently becoming a part of the REAL family, we would be happy to discuss how we can help transform your digital fundraising too. Please get in touch here to discuss with us further.
Please look out for in-depth digital fundraising guides in the coming weeks.
