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Telefunding

Megan Hall
$organization

Hi all,

My telefunding campaign has realized some precipitous drops in revenue over the last two years and I'm reaching out to ask what others are experiencing. At the outset it seemed like it was related to the election in fall 2016, which was the moment of highest decline, but since that time we haven't only not bounced back, but overall telefunding revenue continued to decline. A notable change is that it's taking quite a few more calling attempts to catch people on the phone. Once we do talk to them, metrics are actually pretty good, but the time spent dialing is notable.

I'd really appreciate any info you can share about how your calling campaigns are performing. Have you also seen decline, and what level of it? Have you changed the format of your campaign as a result (fewer weeks of calling, etc)?  Does anyone have a campaign that's not in decline, and can you share strategies that have kept calling viable?

I am curious what others' business practices are around do not call requests. Once a patron requests to not be called, does that restriction remain on their account for good, or do you have a designated duration when you would try to call them once again? What is the waiting period to resume calling?

Thanks in advance for any info you can share.

Best,
Megan

  • $organization

    Megan,

    We also have noticed more difficulty in getting people on the phone. Not sure what Washington's calendar is, but during primary season here in March it was particularly bad (a big chunk of our patrons live in one of the hotly contested swing districts), and it feels a little like we're in permanent political campaigning, at least until the fall, which I'm sure has an effect.

    -Zach

  • $organization

    Hi Megan,

    We have noticed a drop in telefunding contacts as well. It's taking more attempts to reach people and we suspect people are screening and/or blocking the calls. Our telefunding staff often speculates that the lack of contact around here is related to sporting events, elections, even the weather sometimes. At the end of the day, whatever the reason, contacts are down and staying down.overall. Also, once someone is flagged as No Telefunding they stay there forever.

    Because we've seen fewer number of gifts (although average gifts are a little higher), as well as a decrease in the total amount raised while expenses increase, we are analyzing and rethinking how many and which leads we send to telefunding. We still have pretty good results for calendar year end and fiscal year end campaigns but in between really lags so we're likely going to shorten our total calling weeks from 32 to 16-20 and investing more in digital strategies.

    I'd be interested in what types of leads others are sending to telefunding and are there specific types of leads that are performing better than others. For us, renewals make up the largest portion but we're paying so much to telefunding that it really eats into our bottom line and we think we can renew those people through less expensive channels. Has anyone cut telefunding leads to just reinstates/acquisitions, using telefunding as a last  chance?

    Laurel

    SF Ballet

  • $organization

    Hi Megan,

    The telefunding landscape has changed quite dramatically over the last several years--this is an industry-wide issue for sure.

    More and more people use cell phones and do not answer calls from numbers they don't recognize. I'd be surprised to learn of ANY organization whose total telefunding revenue matches what it was a few years ago. Teleservices vendors need to be willing to experiment a bit more, whether that means sending emails in advance of calling (to tout a special incentive or offer that will be made to the patron via phone), leaving voicemails when a patron doesn't answer, incorporating text messaging, or something else.

    We have reduced the length of our campaigns (just by a couple weeks), and overall it's still worth it for us to carry out a telefunding campaign, but if the industry doesn't act fast to change with the times, I'm not sure how long that will last...

    Re: DNC requests, we make that change permanently (unless the patron asks for it to be reversed at a later date).

    Best,
    Jennifer