On the Line...with Jason Fisher

Balancing Summer Relaxation with Phonathon Preparation

For phonathon managers, summertime is a natural period of relaxation.  In fact, as the vast majority of programs have been winding down, I’ve actually slowed down my blogging a bit to coincide with the reduction of e-mails and questions I’ve been receiving.  But it’s important to remember that summer is not a time to be completely dormant for managers.  Relax?  Absolutely.  Take a breather?  Do it.  Hibernate?  Not a chance.  There is too much that needs to be done to completely forget your phonathon responsibilities for three months.  Let’s take a look at a few things you should be doing over the summer to get ahead of the game for next year.

Reconnecting With an Old Friend in Phonathon

Every once in a while you are fortunate to reconnect with old friends in this industry while also making new ones.  I had the chance to work with Sean Pitzer six years ago when he was at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.  Sean was an enthusiastic, young manager with great potential...who just needed some experience and support to be successful.  

I had the chance to work with Sean again week, now at the University of Memphis, as well as meet Marianne Minton who is their Director of Annual Giving.  Sean and Marianne were terrific and both are doing great things with their program.  We had substantive, forward-thinking discussions about phonathon and annual giving, and I'm thankful I had the chance to see the call center and talk shop with a couple of great people.

Call me a little nostalgic, but after being in the industry 20 years and seeing people come and go, it's nice to catch up with an old friend, trade stories, and talk business.  Hats off to Sean and Marianne for being strong assets to the higher education fundraising industry, and for making development both productive and fun!

 

Why Record Counts Matter So Much in Phonathon Planning

As we wrap up another year of phonathon and begin thinking about next year, I thought I’d take a minute to talk about one of least appreciated factors in creating a realistic and solid phonathon plan- record counts.  Before a manager even begins to think about the calling calendar or scheduled hours for the calling shift, they should first have an understanding of how many prospects they will have to call that fiscal year.  This is Step 1 in the planning process for the new fiscal year- establish a segmentation strategy and find out how many people you will be calling.  Here are a couple of additional thoughts on why I believe this to be so important.

Update on Cell Phone Data- CDC Says Wireless-Only Households Showing Big Increases

A few months ago I wrote a blog on the expected increase in bad data due to a migration of people from landlines to wireless-only households during this recession.  I also conducted a web seminar on the subject of cell phones and wrote a 20 page white paper for the industry.  In those articles and presentations, I stated my opinion that we were likely to see a strong movement toward cell-phone only households because of the recession.  I found the following article on MSNBC.com today that confirmed my suspicions.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30601416/

All phonathon programs should be concerned about this accelerating trend.  Poor data integrity and the changing culture of how we communicate will greatly impact our results in the future, both in phonathon and annual giving as a whole.  Here's the link to the original blog posting for your review.

http://phonathonblogger.typepad.com/ontheline/2009/03/my-first-prediction-for-next-fiscal-year-bad-data-will-increase-in-phonathon.html

If you're interested in receiving a free-copy of my 20 page research analysis and recommendations on this subject, e-mail me at jason.fisher @ruffalocody.com.  I'm happy to provide this.

Keep acquiring those cell phones!

Reflections on a Turbulent Year in Phonathon

Thinking back to August and the beginning of phonathon season, it’s difficult to imagine just what fundraising (and the world) was about ready to experience.  When Lehman Brothers collapsed and the financial industry was paralyzed, fear and anxiety reigned in the fundraising world.  For about 30-45 days, the world held its breath as bailouts, a major stimulus, and bankruptcies headlined the news every minute of every day.  Sprinkled throughout this turmoil were obvious hints of just how long of a winter it was going to be.

 

I’ve worked hands on with dozens of programs this year, and have heard from dozens more through this blog and speaking at conferences.  Some programs are up on the year and some are down.  Most are not having their best year, and many are struggling to finish the year on a strong note.  I can’t speak to what every program has experienced, but if my interactions with these phonathons are any indication, most have found this fiscal year to be one of the most difficult they have ever dealt with.