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Dialing Democrats for Dollars

by: Admin on Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 Time: 2:53 PM

Telephone fundraising has become increasingly challenging in recent years with the proliferation of do-not-call lists and sophisticated call-screening methods. Still, when the appropriate call lists are used, telephone campaigns can reel in hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

Telephone fundraisers can clearly enhance their efforts by using strategically selected lists and by working with a data consultant that has established exceptional working relationships with compilers. Such has been the case for Dollars for Democrats®, a division of Minnesota-based Meyer Teleservices that raises funds over the phone for the Democratic Parties in 35 states. 

Since its establishment in 1976, Dollars for Democrats® has relied primarily on clients’ house files and party voter files to reach new donors. However, the group does supplement client records with new lists of prospect data. 

One new database it used recently generated such a phenomenal closing rate that it is one of the most successful single lists ever for Dollars for Democrats®. The top-performing list was a Democratic donor file that generated a closing rate 10 percent higher than other list sources with an average pledge of over $50. 

The winning list had a distinguishing feature that made it stand-out: the names of loyal, die-hard supporters of specific, nationally known Democratic candidates. But novelty, rather than loyalty, may be the key reason behind the list’s success. 

"We know that this particular file had been used for mailing purposes several times, but we had the phone numbers appended, making it a fresh list for telephone calling purposes," said Mike Peterman, national account executive for AccuData. 

Appending phone numbers results in fresh call lists 

"Some database owners don’t have telephone numbers on their files, so they’re often overlooked by telephone marketers -- and by their data consultant," Peterman said. "Direct marketers often don’t realize that you can request permission to append phone numbers to some of these lists." And because such permission is granted only about 10 percent of the time, Peterman said some data consultants don’t even bother making the request. 

But if you don’t ask, you are no better off than if you had not asked the database owner in the first place. 

"When database owners agree to append phone numbers, it is always on an order-specific basis," Peterman added. "You can’t sell the same list to other clients for telephone sales purposes without the owner’s express permission each time."

It’s worth the effort, however, when newly appended numbers result in fresh lists. In the case of Dollars for Democrats®, "fresh" means people who haven’t been called repeatedly by Democratic fundraisers. 

Nick Gerten, Director of the Dollars for Democrats® program, agrees that in telephone fundraising, fresher is better. "If people have traditionally only been donors by mail and we’re able to solicit them by phone, they have a high propensity to give," he said. But freshness isn’t the only quality Gerten looks for in a prospecting database. 

"AccuData provides a unique product," said Gerten. "Often, they’ll be able to get us information that my clients don’t have readily available or that I can’t get from another source. For example, accurate gender, income or voting history. " Gerten concedes, that while contributors don’t always vote, people who are interested enough to vote often are willing to support a political party or candidate at a greater level. 

Currently, Dollars for Democrats® is testing several new lists of about 5,000 leads each. Last year, the organization rented a total of approximately 350,000 leads from AccuData, typically in increments of 50,000. 

"Given the outcome of last year’s Presidential election, the enthusiasm of Democratic donors is high right now", said Gerten. "The time to strike is now so we can build our donor files and be ready for the busy campaign cycle in 2002."

About the Author

by Elizabeth W. Pearce

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