As a fundraiser, I have never felt like there was enough time to get everything done. I’d often start the day with the best of intentions, focused on raising money and cultivating donor relationships—the "main thing" in our work. But then, other tasks would creep in: emails, scheduling, reports, and urgent but less critical projects. Over time, I learned to shift my approach, adopting strategies that helped me stay focused on what truly matters while keeping everything else under control. Here’s what I discovered that transformed my productivity and mindset.

One of the biggest lessons from recent years is how much technology can simplify donor engagement while saving time. Here are my go-to virtual tools and strategies:

Zoom for Donor Meetings

• Use Zoom (or a similar videoconferencing software) for efficient 1:1 major donor conversations. A video call can create a personal connection without the time and cost of travel. Many donors appreciate this since it is saving the organization money.
• Coordinate small group meetings with donors and organizational leaders, like the president or executive director. These virtual roundtables help build relationships while respecting everyone's schedules.

​
Blast Emails That Feel Personal

• Take advantage of bulk email that looks more like a simple Outlook or Gmail email to set up discovery visits or follow-ups. Crafting messages that feel personalized (even in bulk) increases your response rates and saves you hours compared to calling donors individually.

In order to have a productive phonathon program, it is necessary to begin by answering the question: “Why is phonathon an important vehicle for fundraising?” Answering this question will provide clearly articulated goals that will help guide and drive fundraising philosophy.  
 
Phonathon is an important vehicle for annual fundraising because it uniquely provides: 

1. Lead Generation: To feed the major gift pipeline, generating leads and cultivating donors year to year;
2. Dollars and Donors: To generate dollars for philanthropic needs of your institution and provide the personal touch that goes beyond other vehicles that retains donors from year to year;
3. Acquisition: To acquire new donors and expand the donor base, increasing participation in the life of your institution;
4. Data Enrichment: To regularly update demographic information both through research and direct from the prospects over the phone; and
5. Public Relations: To foster good feelings among your alumni and educate them regularly about philanthropy.

I submit that these five pillars should drive the strategy of any phonathon. However, underlying all of this must be a focus on efficiency and budgetary constraint. Phonathon should be treated as business endeavor. Therefore, it must be profitable. This means utilizing effective and proven strategies to grow fundraising results while still cutting costs.

The five pillars listed above provide a framework for decision-making about all annual giving vehicles and thinking about how your phonathon accomplishing each of these goals will help phonathon managers and annual giving directors to lobby for the phone program, advocating for its many strategic uses throughout the year.

When you are talking with decision makers around campus, make sure you don't just focus on the dollars that you phonathon raises. Make sure you show how many new major gifts that year began as annual fund gifts. Make sure you note how many addresses you updated and emails you acquired. Make you tell how many new donors and alumni you got to make their first gift. And make sure you cite how many conversations happened (whether or not they resulted in a gift). It is almost always true that phonathon talks directly to more constituents of a university than any other single entity on campus. Make you also mention how many student jobs your call center provides. Give a holistic picture of all that a phonathon program adds to the life of your institution.