Pell & Bales
Part 1: Why the phone is a great fundraising tool
The phone is used extensively and very successfully by charities large and small - this
year Pell & Bales will hold 3 Million conversations with supporters across 250+
campaigns. The top 5 reasons the phone is such a great fundraising tool are as follows;
1) Higher Response Rates
As with any direct dialogue channel response rates are strong: around 10 times higher
than response rates to mail for example. The table below shows one clients response rates
to an upgrade campaign: The phone achieved an upgrade rate of 38% compared to 4%
and 0.05% in the mail and email respectively;
2) Decline in Traditional Channel Effectiveness
While response rates and ROIs on the phone have remained consistently strong over the
years, performance of other more traditional channels such as DRTV, door drop and
direct mail have declined. This is particularly evident in acquisition fundraising where for
many, these more passive channels simply don't stack up anymore (on their own at least).
3) Engagement and Retention
Well known principles of stewardship and drivers of engagement are listening to your
supporters, interacting with them, personalising your communications,
demonstrating 'shared values' building 'trust' and 'taking them on a journey'. What better
channel for this than the phone? What better vehicle than real life conversation with your
supporters?
As illustrated below, Pell & Bales see time and time again that where you do speak with
supporters on the phone they will go on to have lower attrition rates than those that don't
receive a call (yes, even when the phone call was a fundraising one, and where the donor
declines to give during the call!)
4) Positive Impact on Future Giving
Sticking with improved engagement, it's not only attrition rates that can be measured. The
example below shows the positive impact a phone conversation can have on response
rates to subsequent mail packs;
5) Flexibility
Last but not least, the phone is flexible. One thing that can give traditional channels and
almost any campaign a boost is channel integration, hence recent trends towards multichannel, multi-stage campaigns, particularly in 2 stage acquisition for example.
The phone is the one channel that can be applied universally and integrated seamlessly
alongside any other channel across all types of campaign, for example follow-up SMS
leads with a phone call or use the phone to announce an upcoming mailing.
Part 2: How to use the phone across different fundraising programs
The phone can be used to enhance any fundraising program. Major Donor and
corporate fundraisers have used the phone to build personal one-to-one relationships for
years, and agencies like Pell & Bales have been used to reach larger audiences, most
commonly within Individual Giving. The channel benefits from the ability to explain
and 'sell' more complicated giving products so has traditionally been used to explain and
drive Regular Giving, Covenants & Gift Aid as well as Legacy giving. In more recent
years the phone is also being used to build engagement, commitment and loyalty and we
are seeing rapid growth in the phone being used for Event Fundraising and Loyalty
Programs. Here is my overview of campaigns every charity should consider;
Upgrading Existing regular Giving Donors: Asking donors to increase the value of
their gift - An opportunity not just to raise money but to make contact with your regular
giving donors to update them on how their gift is helping, the impact it has.
Regular Giver Reactivation: Lapsed regular givers should be asked why they lapsed so
the fundraiser can deal with any dissatisfaction or concerns, often bringing the supporter
back on board at a lower amount than they were giving previously. Reactivation and
Upgrade activity will deliver some of the strongest response rates and ROIs of all
telemarketing [TM] activity.
Legacy : Moving donors to legators cannot be done in a single conversation – talk with
your legacy prospects regularly, over a period of time to guide them through the
decision-making process. Consider ‘Enquirer Generation’ activity in order to 'sow the
seed' and inspire the donor, or ‘Intender/Considerer Stewardship’ activity in order to
check in with your legacy prospects, answer their questions or concerns and provide any
additional information they may want.
Gift Aid: Quickly increase Gift Aid penetration of your file with a short phone call. The
phone is particularly good for targeting those who seem to ignore the Gift Aid ask on
donation forms (those that actively avoid thinking about ‘scary and complicated’ tax
affairs). I would also recommend calling ‘non-taxpayers’ on your database to see if their
situation has changed, and to clarify that they definitely don’t pay any form of income
tax.
Event Fundraising: Use the phone to 1. Approach donors and prospects with the
registration ask to increase event participant numbers 2. Steward those that have already
registered with ‘support calls’ to encourage and support their fundraising efforts and
increase average sponsorship values and 3. Deliver post event calls to ‘non-returners’ to
increase the number of donors returning a sponsorship donation.
Cold: Cold TM is tough, and an area in decline. For those with a strong brand and happy
to wait several years for activity to break even it is still a viable option, though
availability of quality data lists at volume is still a challenge.
Two stage recruitment: The limited availability of cold data (along with a decline in
performance of other acquisition channels over the years) has led charities to develop two
stage strategies, first building their own prospect pools of ‘hand-raisers’ and secondly
phoning them with the conversion ask. SMS micro giving, street prospecting and
campaigning are all proven tactics for growing prospect pools. More recently technology
allows charities to harvest their web visitors too.
Database Names: Before embarking on any cold activity I would urge you to first audit
your database and determine what prospects and supporters you already have sitting on
your file. This data is free, and pre-disposed to supporting your cuase, so perfect for
calling with a conversion ask. Most charities are sitting on a goldmine of data, whether its
traders, campaigners, info requesters, event participants, Just Giving sponsors…
Cash conversion: The phone is commonly used to approach new, active and lapsed cash
donors with a conversion to regular giving ask – use expert fundraisers to explain to your
supporters just why regular gifts are so valuable.
Loyalty & Stewardship: Structure a conversation around the known drivers of
commitment and loyalty and see significant improvement in retention rates, or use the
phone to deliver satisfaction surveys which will drive your communications and loyalty
programs going forward.
Regular Giving through Mobile Phones: A very exciting growth area and the next best
thing since the Direct Debit! At Pell & Bales we work with Cymba to
deliver Connected - a platform that allows supporters to take control of their monthly
SMS gift direct from their mobile phone and delivers engaging content to that very same
hand-set.
Cash Appeals: Mid-High value and Capital Appeals can work well on the phone. A
lower value cash ask can struggle to break even however, so at Pell & Bales tend to
combine the phone with mail when targeting lower value donors (allowing for a much
shorter phone call and therefore a lower call cost) – A great way to give your fundraising
a fast and significant cash injection (therfore popular at year-end and in emergencies).
Emergency Fundraising: The phone can't be beaten when a rapid response is needed. At
Pell & Bales we work with several disaster relief organisations and have several ‘on the
shelf’ campaigns that are ready to call within hours of disaster striking.
Part 3 -- Designing and Delivering a Campaign
If you've read parts one and two you'll already have a good understanding of why the
phone is a great fundraising tool and how the phone can be used to drive the performance
of almost any fundraising program. Tailoring the campaign to specific objectives,
audience, cause and opportunity is key to success and the following is a great starting
point for planning your agenda.
AUDIENCE
Before you plan any details take time out to think about your audience. Think
about the donor profile, how they have supported you to date, why they supported you,
and their connection to the cause. Think too about what you are going to ask of them and
how they might respond to that ask - what barriers might they have to giving? And what
else might come up during the conversation (topical news, complaints, info requests)?
Only then you can design an approach or write a script with your supporters in mind,
choose a subject matter that they will connect with, devise an ask that is appropriate to
the level and type of support they have given before and personalise the conversation.
APPROACH
Now plan your approach, from Hello to Goodbye.
How closely you ask the fundraiser to stick to a script should depend on their experience,
knowledge of the subject matter, and how particular you are and how careful you need to
be around wording and messaging. Regardless, having a script of some sort is crucial - it
provides your fundraiser a 'pathway' through the conversation. By the very nature of
conversation you can't script everything, nor would you want to, but a good script will
allow the fundraiser to weave seamlessly between supporter interaction & meeting the
call objective, dealing with any barriers to giving along the way.
The graph above shows how a script or structure can give your conversations direction.
Below I outline the purpose of each stage;
Intro - Build rapport (make it warm, friendly), reinforce any existing relationship
Ice-breaker - Open up the conversation and encourage interaction, gauge their levels of
interest and 'warmth' (the fundraiser should be trained to tailor and personalise the call
based on this intial interaction)
Inspiration - This is where your 'story' comes in, where you build your case for giving
and inspire supporters to want to give
1st Ask - Be confident and direct in what you are asking for and where possible
demonstrate impact through use of tangibles 'can you give £5 to vaccinate and save the
lives of 5 children'. Link the impact back to the beneficiary, not the organisational needs
The Fundraising - Not everyone will say yes at the first ask - the important thing is to
listen to why they say no, demonstrate you have listened, and then suggest something
more suitable to them. This is one of the amazing things about the phone - the ability to
deliver a truly tailored ask to every supporter!
Confirmation - Be clear on what the supporter has agreed to do and what will
happen next
Close - Ensure appropriate levels of thanks and warmth are used, especially to those that
have chosen not to give. Supporters should never be left feeling guilty - supporters should
feel more positive about the charity having received the call if they are to remain a
supporter
YOUR FUNDRAISERS
Some of the most important qualities we look for when recruiting fundraisers are:
maturity, empathy, shared values, conversational competence and listening skills.
Do not underestimate the importance of the fundraiser briefing. Focus on inspiring and
motivating the team and be wary of 'information overload'. Try to restrict yourself to
covering only the things that will help them make a good call and remember it is OK not
to know the answer to every supporter's question, but it is not OK to make dispassionate,
impersonal calls.
CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT
Use bench marking to ensure you are aiming to raise as much money as possible, but that
your targets are realistic - it is tempting to be overly optimistic and challenge your
fundraising teams to achieve more, but an unachievable target will impact on the team
morale, jeopardise the supporter experience and ensure your campaign manager is unable
to manage effectively. A true relationship fundraiser will also measure the impact and
phone conversation has on attrition, future giving, donor satisfaction and lifetime value.
When setting targets think about setting average call length targets, or how many calls
you expect each fundraiser to make in an hour or a shift. This will help you plan and
manage resource levels and budgets.
Be clear on your expectations and how you are going to measure call quality. Listen to
calls and feedback to fundraisers often.
DATA
As with all direct marketing, data is key. On a typical fundraising campaign 'Recency,
Frequency, Value' and 'Tenure' or 'time on file' is commonly used to drive selection and
segmentation hierarchies: Generally, the more recently and frequently a donor has
donated/petitioned/participated/text/enquired - the higher the response rate you can
expect. When looking at previous giving behaviour it is particularly useful to look at
response to any previous telephone asks - each historical refusal decreases the likelihood
of them saying yes this time.
Recruitment source or channel will often impact on results too - look at this particularly
if you use a diverse range of channels at recruitment or if you are calling recently
recruited supporters. In addition to this, those that have given you their credit card details
before are more likely to give their bank details over the phone and therefore achieve
higher response rates. Equally, Gift Aiders are more likely to have a stable income and
support with a regular gift.
OTHER THINGS TO THINK ABOUT
This is already a long blog post, at the end of a three-part series, so I will wrap up in the
acknowledgement that I have overlooked the processing of gifts, data returns, post call
fulfilment letters and emails, legal disclosures and opt ins, telephone number tracing or
post campaign analysis and review. All important things but details best saved for those
seriously thinking about running their first telephone campaign without the help of a
professional fundraising agency.