I recently went to a calling center and asked a question of the students. “How many of you have checking accounts?” Two out of about 15 raise their hands. Of those two, one only pays rent with their checkbook; the other lost their checkbook and couldn’t find it. Hmmm… something tells me we need to readjust our thinking on young alumni pledge fulfillment to an even greater degree than before.
Our reliance on pledge cards through the mail has been decreasing in the past several years. But has it decreased enough? Perhaps we should be targeting certain populations with e-mail reminders and leaving the pledge cards to the groups that are much more likely to send them back. The question I keep asking myself is this. Do we really think young alumni between the ages of 21-27 use checks on a regular basis? I would venture to say that the majority of this age demographic pays their bills online. So this begs the question, are we wasting our time and money sending them pledge cards?
The short answer is probably yes. The longer answer requires a bit more digging from program to program. One phone program that I reviewed showed that senior class gift and young alumni nondonors fulfilled at rates less than 30%! The common denominator in both of those groups was that the phonathon relied heavily on pledge cards through the mail as their primary fulfillment strategy. You might say to yourself, “Why didn’t they push credit cards?” Well, they did. But they didn’t have great luck with them. With the credit crunch recently, many credit card companies are lowering the limits or shutting down accounts altogether. Plus, younger alumni usually don’t have the financial means to hold a higher limit anyway. They’re much more likely to be maxed out on their limits than their older counterparts. Therefore, credit cards weren’t much of payment option to these people.
This brings us to debit cards and the potential value to these groups. Students generally use debit cards in the place of credit cards and checks. My guess in the youngest alumni groups probably do the same- at least until they start a family and need more financial payment options. Debit cards can be taken by any phone program that accepts credit cards, yet they operate out of a checking or savings account- without the burden of a credit limit. Generally, these prospects only make pledges they know they can fulfill with their cash on hand- cash that resides in their checking account. But if we’re sending out pledge cards as the only option of getting to those funds, we’re at a dead end. Even if the back of your pledge card has a place where the prospect can write in their debit card info, it’s a lost cause. Many people are not comfortable writing in their credit card/debit card info and sending it through the mail…assuming of course they even look at the back of the pledge card. That’s just not a viable option.
The best option today for younger alumni and seniors is to really push debit cards as a safe and effective alternative to giving through the mail or giving by credit card. The closing of the pledge should really emphasize this option- not even mentioning receiving anything through the mail. Of course, this means that callers cannot “sell” the pledge card in the negotiation process. They shouldn’t do so anyway, but like water through hard ground, they always find a way to sneak that into their presentations.
When drafting your scripting and close information for future young populations, be sure to emphasize debit cards and deemphasize checks. I would still offer credit cards, but make sure the callers know that debit cards are preferred in these segments. Pay close attention to fulfillment and make adjustments as necessary. You might even consider not sending a pledge card at all to seniors for their class gift- electronic transactions only. Yes, that might prevent a couple of gifts from trickling in. But the damage of unfulfilled pledges and all that this problem brings probably outweighs that small benefit.
As always, your comments are welcome.
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