Some nonprofits hire companies to manage their ongoing, year-long phonathons, which seem to run like well-oiled machines.  But if you can’t afford that, do you have to abandon this event altogether? No – not by a long shot.

Although it can be a boon to your campaign to have year-around calling, many nonprofits benefit from periodic volunteer phonathon events, both for the fundraising, but also as an opportunity to bring supporters together and teach them to be ambassadors for their organizations.

Make no mistake:  All events are avenues for volunteers to shine and show their potential!  As you train your callers, reviewing the script, goals, prizes, etc. for the evening, make a point to circulate and listen.  In the beginning, all callers should start out with small donors’ names, as they practice.

While you’re listening, however, you’ll be able to discern between volunteers who can’t get beyond reading a script and those who are truly conversing with – and charming – your donors.  These people need to be upgraded immediately to calling your larger donors, since they know how to ask for larger gifts.

After your phonathon is over, these same outstanding volunteers can be recruited for other committees, or perhaps your board.

It’s essential to make your event – wherever it’s held – feel welcoming and festive to your volunteers.  This means including plenty of food, drinks and snacks.  If your organization can afford it, you may want to have a decorative theme.

Remember that social media can be useful before, during and after your phonathon:  Promoting the event and recruiting volunteers online prior to the phonathon will gain you additional workers.  Posting highlights of your progress throughout the event helps keep your momentum going – and remember to take plenty of pictures!  When the event is over, share the celebration and gratitude with everyone on all social media channels – as well as more photos.  (Remember to get permission to tag people.  Better yet, invite them to tag themselves in the pictures.)

Prizes for various levels of performance are important – although it’s a good idea to keep your goals in mind, too.  For example, if reaching a high percentage of credit card gifts is vital to your organization, don’t give prizes for pledges – only credit card payments . . . but vary the prizes based upon this theme, such as the first credit card gift each hour, the largest credit card gift of the evening, etc.

With caller ID, where you’re calling from is a careful consideration to make.  If your nonprofit opts to be identified – and has enough phones – it might make sense to have your volunteers work from your offices during the evening, using employees’ desks after hours.

On the other hand, depending upon your call list and volunteers, you might choose to have your callers each use their own cell phones.  Particularly if your call location is less likely to be identified with your organization (on caller ID), this might be a better alternative.

Although some would argue that each volunteer can simply make such calls in their own home – on their own time – with a list and their cell phone, this doesn’t lead to the camaraderie that is felt when people come together and share an evening of helping an organization they care about.

It also doesn’t allow staff to handpick their new talent from eyewitness experience.  Additionally, when supporters are called, they may have specific questions for volunteers that only a staff member can respond to.  It’s best to have such a person on standby.

Because people’s schedules are so full, it will take a lot of work to arrange a phonathon – and a lot of work to convince people that it was worth it . . . so that they will do it again in the future.

However – done well – a phonathon can still pay off as a worthwhile investment: in funds, goodwill ambassadors, and future officers for your organization.

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Keep the base of the pyramid strong

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Many Annual Giving professionals dread the words Capital Campaign more than any other two that get uttered around the office. They’re considered more obscene than stretch goal, performance review or even database conversion!

Why do so many feel this way?  Because all too often, when a capital campaign is engaged, the Annual Giving staff is ignored at best and sacrificed at worst.  As the board and CEO pursues this bigger, better money, the nitty-gritty plans to obtain it are rarely shared with the everyday staff.  When all is said and done, however, much of the heavy lifting, clean up  –  and accountability  –  is left to whom?  You guessed it:  the Annual Giving staff.

It’s not that any development staff member in their right mind wouldn’t want a few hundred thousand – or million – extra dollars in the coffers, not to mention the added engagement of dozens of willing constituents, but at what cost?  Often, capital campaigns aren’t very well planned from the beginning . . . or thought out to completion.

Ike* recalls one campaign his small nonprofit began, where his Executive Director decided to hire a consultant from a big shot firm to lead their campaign.  The consultant was a well known person with a fine reputation, but also from a small shop, and he expected their organization to “type this up,” and make all of his follow up phone calls, etc.  He also informed them that, “I don’t really do email.  Leave me a message, and I’ll get back to you.”

Ike’s small staff was not in a position to take on the added burden of being this consultant’s personal assistant as well.  They had expected him to assist them, not the other way around.  Big reputation or not, Ike’s nonprofit had to let the well-known consultant go and hire a larger firm that could give them a staff member temporarily in the office during most of the capital campaign, to provide backup assistance, rather than expect them to work double and triple time.  This mistake in hiring delayed the capital campaign launch by almost a year for their organization.

Jean* was in charge of the Annual Giving campaign at her organization when it started working on a capital campaign.  She wasn’t pleased to be left out of the meetings, but believed that her Director of Development would keep her apprised of all aspects relevant to her campaign.

She was shocked when she learned that the board and Executive Director had decided that when the capital campaign was to launch the following year, they would be folding all aspects of the annual campaign funds into the capital campaign, which would last for three years.

Jean tried to explain, in vain, that not only did very few of the major gift donors (and therefore capital campaign donors) overlap with their annual campaign donors – as defined at their organization – but that if they essentially looted the annual campaign for three years, there would be nothing left of it at the end of the capital campaign.  Everything she had built would be gone, and she’d basically have to start over.

“The response I got from my argument,” Jean said, “Was, ‘Well, this is the way it’s going to be.’  So, the next day, I updated my resume, and I was gone before the capital campaign began!”

Kyle* recounts that his organization took care to continue feeding and nurturing the annual fund in a thoughtful and active way.  The capital campaign deliberately designated a small percentage of each individual’s capital pledge for the annual campaign, most of which were over a three year period.

“I’ll be honest,” Kyle said, “These were difficult to keep track of every year.  The donors didn’t always remember that they’d ‘already given,’ but we had to, so as not to ask them for an annual gift ‘again.’  We also had to make certain to acknowledge the gifts, and keep in touch with them in other ways.  Otherwise, when we resolicited them in the fourth year, it would appear as being from out of nowhere.”

Lamont’s* nonprofit had tried to save on expenses a few years before, and switched to a cheaper database system.  He was already feeling various pains from the conversion, and upon hearing the organization’s plans for the upcoming capital campaign, he saw a disaster approaching.

Lamont was in charge of sending out acknowledgments and pledge reminders.  Just in the past year, his nonprofit had offered recurring monthly donations with their online giving forms, and the new database system was constantly having problems getting this correct.  Lamont was spending nearly a week every month, manually fixing the few dozen recurring donors in the system.

Upon hearing plans for the capital campaign – which would allow monthly, quarterly and annual recurring pledges – and projections for hundreds more pledges coming into the system, Lamont inquired as to whether the organization planned on investing in better software prior to launching the campaign.

The executive director’s response was no, but told him that depending upon the success of the campaign, they might be able to afford better software afterward.

Lamont, like Jean, decided to start looking for another job with this news.  He felt that executing all of the pledge statements with such limited software would be impossible, and if he didn’t leave now, it would only be a matter of time before he was blamed for the problems that were sure to come.

For many in annual giving, hearing the words, “We’re going to be starting a Capital Campaign” is enough to send a chill up the spine . . . or a resume out the door.  Has it been a good or bad experience for you?  Does it affect how and where you interview?

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Keep the base of the pyramid strong

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An important aspect in volunteer management – board, committee or basic volunteer – is getting other evangelists to act on your behalf . . . and this should include fund raising.  The greater one’s commitment to the cause, the greater their devotion should be not only to donate, but also to solicit.

It’s a common story I hear all too often:

•     My board/committee members expect me to do all the fund raising for the campaign/event
•     The Finance Committee Chair asks me what should go into her/his report each month
•     At every meeting, when the subject of our goal comes up, all eyes turn to me – nobody else has anything to say or contribute – even when asked.
•     It’s taken years just to get us close to 100% giving . . . I don’t see how I could move it up another notch to 100% soliciting . . .

Of course, ideally, this begins with board, committee and volunteer recruitment, but most of us inherit these and make the best with what we have.  There are a variety of options that can improve even the most difficult situations:

•     Job Descriptions  –  If your officers, board members, committee chairs and committee members don’t all have job descriptions, sit down NOW and write them!  These will no doubt be subject to editing and approval by several sets of eyes, but not only will the various individuals be accountable for something, you may find that they are quite relieved to have them outlined.  It will also help during future recruiting, having a one-sheet available, when the prospect asks, “What do I need to do?”  Fund raising will obviously be part of this description, along with donating at a level that is appropriate to their circumstances.  (Many grant applications specifically ask “What is the percentage of your board that donates?”)

•     Term Limits – Term limits is a good idea, so that people’s various talents can be rotated.  While this is a good tactic for moving dead weight off of a board or committee, that’s not its only purpose.  Even if all of your people are very talented, you constantly need to cultivate and groom new talent.  A fresh perspective is vital to keeping your organization or event innovative.

•     Orientation – ALL board/committee members should attend your orientation – new and old – so that they can meet one another and become acquainted.  While the new members are learning more about the history and mission of your organization or event in greater detail, everyone can bond over deciding upon your future goals.

•     Fund Raising Training – Specific training session(s) for soliciting should be scheduled separately from the orientation, for several reasons.  First of all, some people won’t feel the need, while others view asking people for money as the most despicable act that can be perpetrated.  Mostly what is behind this attitude is a combination of lack of skill and fear of solicitors themselves.  Give them greater skills, and the overall fear will diminish.  As people realize that there are many ways to ask for support – and that they are promoting something that they believe in – the last fear to be conquered isn’t really soliciting . . . it’s typically public speaking, which can be helped with practice, such as role playing.

•     Provide a Tangible Goal – Just as with donors, offer a reason or incentive to your volunteers for why they should do this.  If you’re telling a donor that “$100 will feed a child for ___ days” or “$250 will provide ___ hours of tutoring,” then translate this to your volunteers the same way:  “Reaching our goal of $___ raised per person, for a total of $___ will allow us to build the new _____ Burn Unit, where we can treat 1,200 patients a day.”

Keep in mind that if you don’t demand more from your current volunteers, not only are you preventing yourself from moving forward with the current individuals who refuse to act, but you are also warding off the potentially talented evangelists who support you but refuse to sit in do-nothing meetings.

Previously, I worked for an organization that cooperated with a soup kitchen, but they wouldn’t let me bring my pre-teen daughter, because there had been a problem in the past with a homeless child being identified by a schoolmate volunteer.  It embarrassed the child to be seen in the soup kitchen by a peer.  I understood, and although I wanted my daughter to see the end-users firsthand, instead we worked in one of the food pantries that prepared and delivered the food.

When we arrived, we learned that the volunteer who was bringing the main ingredient – the meat – was running late.  He ended up being over an hour late, while a dozen people waited, and in the meantime, it was discovered that we didn’t have enough of the tomato sauce base that would be required for the recipe as well.  I volunteered to go get it, and bought more than I was told, just in case.

We finally got started at our various stations, cooking, cutting, measuring, stirring, and so forth.  As some of us finished our first stations and moved to do other jobs or take a small break, I overheard one person tell a very off-color joke to another . . . in front of my 12 year-old, and was relieved when I saw the confused look on her face.  She didn’t understand the profanity just uttered in front of her.

Later, during clean up, one gentleman in charge was instructing people to cut the bottoms off of the very large (now empty) cans of sauce I’d purchased, along with all the other cans, to prepare them for recycling.  This puzzled me – and others – and I asked him why this was necessary.  He replied (totally seriously), “That’s how we did it in World War II.”  Uh huh.

Needless to say, that was my first – and last – time volunteering at that organization.  I was, however, a Girl Scout cookie manager for seven years.  There’s a saying: If you want something done, ask a busy person.  But be prepared to give them specific instructions and make the most of their time, or you won’t see them again.

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Keep the base of the pyramid strong