In yesterday’s post, The Great Fundraising Comeback, I opined that in order to meet the future “we will need to start over”.  I don’t mean begin from scratch—much of our knowledge and experience will prove durable and improvable– but I do mean we’ll be forced to look at first principles which means challenging virtually every assumption we’ve taken for granted.”

I’m not a fan of the toss- the baby-out-with-the-bathwater philosophy that says you only effect real change by wiping the slate entirely clean.  So, as I worked on that post I kept a running tally of techniques and channels that have worked well in the past, but in a new and tougher environment can benefit from a substantial improvement–the challenging and testing against business-as-usual best practices.

For several years we’ve been highlighting important concepts like donor identity…the application of behavioral science research… the importance of the donor experience…segmentation tied both to donor identity and to the psychology of giving…and, of course the importance of gathering zero-party data on which truly donor-centric fundraising depends.

Few fundraising channels are as maligned and under-utilized as telemarketing.  This old but proven workhorse is little understood by most fundraisers and even fewer boards and CEOs.  This barrier of prejudice and ignorance stands in the way of employing telemarketing at the very moment when its value is at an all-time high.

So, I intruded on Kevin’s Labor Day break to press him on how the folks at DVCalling, the telemarketing arm of the F2F, DVCanvass firm, apply the concepts and principles we’ve been reporting on and those researched by DonorVoice.

Here’s a brief summary of how DVCalling is doing telemarketing differently in their successful quest to avoid the one-size-fits-all approach to fundraising.

• Lists.  Now is the time to go beyond selections based only on previous gifts.  DVCalling has expanded the range of contacts to those folks who gave time, but not money, in the past but can’t during the pandemic –volunteers at animal shelters, adopters, folks who may have donated in-kind goods in the past, but don’t want to do so during Covid-19.  There are reams of psychological principles and positive nudges to make sure people feel good about their past giving of time and making sure they don’t feel guilted into the money ask.  Nothing creates churn more than guilt induced giving.
• Leads.  If a client lacks enough names DonorVoice works with DVCalling to provide highly qualified digital leads.       The leads are segmented by who the prospects are as people. For example, for an animal welfare client, a dog lead list is drawn up separately from a cat lead list.  Or a lead list of those high in a Globalist Identity for international relief groups or lead lists of Conservationists focused on domestic issues.
• Behavioral Science. A telemarketing script review is performed by the behavioral science team at DonorVoice.  They will make sure the opening script is “purposeful conversation” that gets the donor sharing about their connection to the cause (Identity) and tailoring accordingly.  Further, the script will be evaluated to deliver on the psychological needs of the donor to make sure they feel a sense of autonomy, relatedness and purpose. This training is done repeatedly with the callers as well.
• Revamping the Verification Call. If ever there was a time to be out with the old and in with the new, it’s the canvassing ‘welcome’ call – often done by the canvassing agency themselves.  This ‘welcome’ is typically heavy on quality control and detail verification and light on anything that feels of benefit to the donor.  This seems to be a non-solution to a retention problem that places a burden on the donor to affirm they know what the heck they just committed to.   None of the growing list of companies that I voluntarily and of my own volition sign up for with monthly fees as the payment model feel obliged to call me immediately after to make sure I haven’t lost my damn mind.   Why in the world is nonprofit canvassing any different?

I do, however, get lots of requests for feedback about the interactions I have with brands.  The DVCalling  Welcome Call asks the donor about the signup experience.  The experience matters.  Specifically, what is measured is relatedness, autonomy and competence and tailoring the conversation tied to their response to address any shortcomings or amplify the positives – this is but one example of not treating everyone the same.

• At-risk Calling – These are  pre-emptive save calls using DonorVoice modeling to identify newly acquired sustainers at risk of cancelling in the crucial, first three months. One client cut 90-day attrition in half.  Importantly, the only reason the model works so well is by adding zero-party data to the predictive mix.
• Collecting More than Money.  DV Calling  collects zero party data during the ‘sales’ call.  This includes Identity and Commitment and not just for those who say ‘yes’ to the ask but everyone.  This way they know something material and important about the person for the next time the organization solicits them (regardless of channel because the firm passes this data to the client to add to the individual record on their CRM).

This is an example, using the important channel of telemarketing, to illustrate ways successful fundraisers can be better prepared to meet the uncertain climate that lies ahead.

In future posts we’ll deal with how research breakthroughs and pilot project test findings can be put to work in the direct mail and digital realms to help you prevent throwing the fundraising baby out with the bathwater.

Roger