Learn why telephone outreach gets a bad rap, how to best use telephone outreach in your fundraising program, and how to choose a great telephone outreach vendor.

1. Don’t be afraid of telephone outreach
A necessity in the successful fundraiser’s toolbox

2. During this session we’ll discuss…
• Why telephone outreach gets a bad rap
• The best use of telephone outreach
• What to look for in a potential telephone outreach vendor
• Tomé’s top telephone tips
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3. The best telephone call I ever received…
• 6 PM / weekday
• The caller was positive, passionate, and genuine
• The script was succinct
• The ask was compelling
• They needed my help to fix X, Y, and Z
• Time was of the essence, could I help now?
• The caller tried to up-sell me
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4. The best telephone call I ever received…
• Within the hour, I received a follow-up email from the charity
thanking me for my gift and providing opportunities for me to learn
more about the campaign (or donate again)
• I received a tax receipt for my gift in one week
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5. Why is telephone outreach hated?
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6. Contributing factors
Fear
Lack of
Bad timing
preparation
Poor
audience
selection
Terrible
caller
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7. Secret to success

8. The secret formula to telefundraising success is…
30% 30%
Caller Offer
+ +
30% 10%
Audience Script
+ (Creative)
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9. Measuring success

10. Success metrics
• Contact rate
• Completed calls (regardless of outcome) answered by a
human or machine divided by the total number of calls
• Response rate
• Number of gifts (paid and pledged) divided by the number of
completed calls
• Average gift
• Gross revenue (paid and pledged) divided by the number of
gifts
• Return on investment
• Net revenue divided by total cost
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11. The case for telephone outreach

12. The best use of telephone outreach
• Stewardship
• Welcome to our family!
• Thank you for donating, volunteering, signing up for our
newsletter, et cetera
• Tell us how we can improve
• Sharing information (good or bad)
• Soliciting donations in an emergency situation or for urgent
needs
• Lapsed donor reactivation
• “We haven’t heard from you in a while… Can we share
with you…”
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13. The best use of telephone outreach
• Monthly gift conversion
• Contact donors who demonstrate frequent giving
behaviour. Sell your monthly giving program
• Upgrading
• Contact existing monthly donors and ask if they would
consider an additional $X/month to help with the rising
costs of program delivery
• Multi-channel support
• The true “pre-call,” consider calling your top 100 donors
prior to them receiving your direct mail. Tell them to be on
the look out for an important letter from the Executive
Director of the Mission
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14. For your consideration… Telephone outreach
It’s an effective way to engage donors
Stewardship calls make
Donors can relate to a voice donors feel valued
Real time interactions can
uncover valuable information
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15. For your consideration… Telephone outreach
It’s a great way to convert single gift donors to your monthly giving
program…
• If done properly, telephone outreach can be your
organization’s most effective tool to inspire support for
and commitment to your monthly giving program
It’s a versatile channel
• When we mail or email donors, it’s impossible to change
our ask, but a skilled caller can hear various cues during
conversations with donors and adapt accordingly
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16. Outsourcing advice

18. When looking for a telephone outreach vendor
• Ask other local charities or charities in your vertical who they’ve
used in the past
• Ask the vendor to provide audio file examples of calls made on
behalf of charities. Evaluate the quality of the calls
• Ask for an experienced agent to lead your campaign. The agent
should have a minimum two years of fundraising experience
• Better agent = better results
• Ask the vendor about agent turnover. If the average agent
tenure is less than 9 months, politely end the conversation
and keep looking…
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19. When looking for a telephone outreach vendor
• Ask the vendor if you can assist with the training of agents
• Offer a tour of office or bring stories to the agents. If the
vendor or its agents aren’t interested, look elsewhere. Your
organization needs a vendor who:
• Will value the life-changing and life-saving work you do
every day
• Will hold your donors in the highest regard – treating them
with respect and care
• Ensure the vendor executes an internal testing phase. Strong
vendors work out the kinks of a script before the first donor is
called
• Compatible data format
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20. Tips to improve your in-house
telephone outreach
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21. Tomé’s top telephone tips
1. Invest the time, effort, and resources necessary to find the
best caller(s)
• If it’s a volunteer, great!
• If it’s paid staff – don’t worry, they could raise 10x their
salary!
2. The delivery of a script is more important than the script itself
• Enthusiasm, passion, integrity, emotion, belief
• The caller has less than three seconds to make a positive
impression
3. Have donors’ information on screen. Be prepared!
4. Think of telephone outreach as an invitation to join your
organization – not to beg for money
5. Don’t be afraid
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22. Thank you!
Philip Tomé, Account Director
Russ Reid
ptome@russreid.com | 416-970-5975