Discussion across the user groups regarding telephone fundraising and the different methods used by each institute. Information and segmentation is driven from Raisers Edge and then managed in several different ways which included paper call sheets, custom built systems and external agencies; then all information is recorded back into Raisers Edge.

• University of Bristol use an inhouse solution and secure update forms through NetCommunity
• University of Birmingham use an inhouse solution and import data to Raisers Edge
• Some Universities are currently assessing various solutions on the market to find something which might suit all needs
• University of Salford are assessing the use of professional fundraisers to take calls
• Lianne to gather feedback on requirements and present possible option

At present we export the data from RE, "massage" it in an Access database, import it into a database to run telephone campaigns and then import it back into RE.... But perhaps more laborious....

1. We print out a "caller sheet" (from an offshoot of that first access database) and the caller uses this as the basis for their call.
2. The caller makes the call - if there is a gift as a result of the call then the caller writes out a gift sheet.
3. Gift sheet is then passed to the caller administrator who enters the results of the call onto the telephone campaign database (that night)
4. The Gift sheet is then passed to the Gift processing team the following morning who put the gift onto RE. (next morning)

My ambition would be to get something in RE so the callers could work directly from RE pages (rather than caller sheets) and then enter the results in directly as the call is taking place.... is anyone else looking at this at the moment/ already doing it?

Richard
Information Manager
Development & Alumni Relations Office
Loughborough University

Richard, I'm not sure if it's helpful to you or not, but here is what we do.

1. We use RE to identify our people to call, export the data on them to generate the letters and call sheets and import an action and add them to the campaign in RE once the letter is sent.
2. The callers are given paper call sheets which they write on on the night.
3. The next day the call results are put into RE and the response letters are generated from there. Either from the gift or the pledge.

We are using the Prospect Proposal tab at the moment so that we can get the data that we want out of RE but are still having to do some fiddling in Excel for our daily reporting.

I'm not sure whether we are doing it in a particularly logical way and I'd love to know what others are doing.

Charlotte Burford
Annual Fund Manager
University of East Anglia

Hi Charlotte,

thanks for that... I hadn't thought about using the prospect tab - it's fallen into disrepute in our office and the Major Gifts team have asked me to mothball it....but it could come back to life under the auspices of the telephone campaign.

Richard

Hi Richard,

As I say, I'm not really sure whether what we are doing is the most logical way or not, but it has some advantages. Some of the response letters seem to be a  little complicated to generate. I'd be happy to discuss further if you would like some more detail and maybe some other universities will join in the discussion.

Charlotte