Real Deal Fundraising
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Subscribe
  • Products
  • About
    • Services
    • Consulting
    • Connect
    • Testimonials

In-Depth: The 5 pillars of annual giving that should drive your phonathon strategy

6/29/2016

 
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.
Picture
Brand analysis link
8/5/2017 01:50:25 pm

Typical brand models in the marketplace have been formulated to generate the framework required to build an impressive label that will be in a position to withstand market trends and competition through the test of time. The start of any marketing business entails the preliminary steps of brand strategy development.

Brand review link
12/12/2017 08:11:16 am

This blog is so nice to me. I will keep on coming here again and again. Visit my link as well..

USA Flooring link
3/7/2024 12:49:58 pm

This article was super helpful! I've been looking for tips like these, and your writing style made it a breeze to read. Can't wait to implement these ideas.

American Floor Tiles link
3/7/2024 01:40:00 pm

This article really opened my eyes to a new perspective! Thanks for sharing such valuable insights.


Comments are closed.
    Picture

    Jessica Cloud, CFRE

    I've been called the Tasmanian Devil of fundraising and I'm here to talk shop with you. 

    Subscribe

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    September 2017
    August 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016

    Categories

    All
    Advancement Services
    Alumni Relations
    Annual Giving
    Apps
    Asking
    Board Relations
    Books
    Branding
    Budget
    Caller Training
    Career
    Case Building
    CFRE
    Communications
    Contact Rates Series
    Covid19
    Crisis Response
    Dance
    Data Integrity
    Data Research
    Development
    Digital Fundraising
    Direct Mail
    Donor Events
    Donor Relations
    E Books
    E-books
    Email
    Fiscal Year End
    Flash Mob
    Free Resources
    Fundraising
    FUNdraising Friday
    Geekery
    Giving Days
    Giving Societies
    Giving Tuesday
    Graphic Design
    Impact
    In Depth
    In-depth
    Interview
    Irarollovers
    Lobby
    Love Your Career
    Major Gifts
    Management
    Motivation Mondays
    Nonprofit Leadership
    Online
    Phonathon
    Planned Giving
    Productivity
    Public Speaking
    Quizzes
    Recurring Gifts
    Self Care
    Social Media
    Stewardship
    Strategic Planning
    Student Debt
    Team Building
    TED Talks
    Telefund
    Thoughts For Thursday
    Thoughts-for-thursday
    Travel Hacks
    Travel-hacks
    Trip Planning
    Tuesdays Tip
    Tuesdays-tip
    Video
    Work From Home
    Young Alumni

    RSS Feed

What Folks Are Saying

 Jessica has been a wonderful colleague and mentor over the years.  In the beginning of my annual giving career, I found her expertise, experience and willingness to help, invaluable.  Her advice and custom phonathon spreadsheets had a direct impact on our phonathon’s success and my ultimate promotion.  As I progress in my career, I continue to value her insight and professionalism." 

​- Ross Imbler, Director of Annual Giving, Lewis and Clark Law School
 Ross Imbler

Contact Us

Photos from ZERGE_VIOLATOR, FindYourSearch, Teddy Mafia, slightly everything, COD Newsroom, Howdy, I'm H. Michael Karshis, smoorenburg, derrickbrutel, Matthew Paul Argall, TP studio, craiglea123, wuestenigel, davidmulder61, baranco1, Editor B
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Subscribe
  • Products
  • About
    • Services
    • Consulting
    • Connect
    • Testimonials