What charities do The Phone Room’s

staff support?

As well as fundraising for our clients, most of our staff also support charities close to their own hearts - here is a small selection

A few quotes from our clients

about the hard work we do on their behalf

“We really appreciate the way The Phone Room call centre staff represent us when

calling Dogs Trust supporters. Their friendliness and willingness to engage reflects well on our organisation and gives us confidence that our

donors feel valued whenever they receive a call.” Julian Harte-Barry, Dogs Trust

“We are really pleased with how the fundraisers are getting on. They’re particularly strong in

terms of their knowledge of Coram, which is great to hear and the ask is well phrased without being pushy. We haven’t received any complaints at all, which is testament to how the fundraisers have

been approaching the calls so thank you.” Lianne Dillsworth , Coram

“We were delighted with the results of our first telemarketing campaign which enabled us to

increase our regular gifts by 25%, gain single gift donations at double the predicted amount and

gain very valuable insights about our supporters. A huge thank you to Luis and the team at

The Phone Room!” Susan Barlow, CORD

Let our people talk to your people

You can read more about Luis one of our Account Managers

on page 3.

WelcomeAs always it’s been busy here at The Phone Room, but even more so since September when we started our year of activity to celebrate our 15th anniversary! In this edition we wanted to share with you some thoughts on new ways to raise money whether that is using new technologies, or revisiting old ideas in a new way. We are always looking for people to contribute to our newsletter, so feel free to let us know if you have any fundraising stories or activities you would like to share.

Refugee Action receives telephone fundraising

training from The Phone Room

in a bespoke training day

Refugee Action worked with The Phone Room’s Satellite Manager Geoff Savage to design a training day specifically tailored to address their training needs. Staff were keen to discover how they could use the telephone to talk directly to their supporters themselves, as well as using specialist agencies such as The Phone Room to talk to supporters on their behalf.

Alison Gregory from Refugee Action gave the following evaluation of the day:

“8 apprehensive supporter development workers (none of whom have done fundraising before), 3 slightly scared fundraising staff who haven’t spoken directly to supporters for months and 1 trainer: Geoff ‘get inspired right now’ Savage. The plethora of light hearted fundraising anecdotes, the way he mixed structured tried and tested fundraising techniques with how to be creative during calls, and then without warning threw in that emotionally wrenching line about how we’re doing this for our clients was the perfect formula. And it was all executed with professionalism and enthusiasm. Meeting the group the day after, we were all different. We’d come together, we knew what we wanted and we’re now going out and getting it.

To summarise: If you don’t come out of this training feeling like you’re

about to change the world you’re either unconscious

or in the wrong job.”

To find out how Geoff could help you and your

team please contact us on 01865 713600

Changing Trends in the Telephone

Fundraising Sector

The continuing global economic slowdown and rising inflation have been widely reported as having negative repercussions for the charity market. As the governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King warns of the biggest income squeeze on families since the 1920s, reports of charity Direct Debit cancellations at record highs have circulated and there has been widespread concern about falling income levels for Third Sector organisations.

However, research from the leading specialist telephone fundraising agency The Phone Room paints a much more positive picture. After reviewing activity for the past 12 months the research actually highlighted that the value of the average annual donation has actually increased by a staggering 31% year on year. Other surprisingly positive statistics included the average amount raised per contact made which has also increased by 59% year on year and the number of Personal Direct Debits secured which has increased by 39%.

Vanessa Blake, Director at The Phone Room said:

“These figures are a highlight amongst what is otherwise difficult times in the Third Sector. They demonstrate that well targeted and well executed telephone fundraising campaigns can deliver strong results, even in a challenging economic environment and are a key part of any organisation’s fundraising strategy.”

How your major donors can boost your individual giving programme

With large grants from trusts, foundations and organisations such as the Arts Council becoming fewer and further between, along with government funding cuts, a lot of the organisations we speak to are relying more on their legacy and major donors for large gifts, with their individual supporters providing the ongoing support.

Have you ever thought howyou can use one to boost the other?

The Phone Room has recently carried out two campaigns where the organisation has used a large gift from a major donor as a matching fund for their individual supporters. To your main database the thought that their gift could be worth twice as much as they are able to give is a big draw to commit there and then on the telephone, but also to give a little bit more than they might do otherwise.

So how do you convince your major donors to do this? Understandably, they will want to make sure that their money is being put to the best use possible, but if you can show them that a portion of their gift could be used to generate further income how can they say no?

The Phone Room have been running matched funding campaigns in the Education Sector for many years with great success and are now piloting it with mainstream charities.

Our PeopleLuis McGillycuddy

Job: Account Manager

Previous Experience

My first job after graduating

was teaching English in

Spain. I spent over 3 years

working in a school in the

business area of Barcelona.

Best thing about working

for TPR

Getting to know the workings of a variety of charities.

Also it’s very nice to come to work in the morning (my

boss is reading this, right?) no but really, the team

consists of people I’ve known for a long time and the

team has come from different parts of the business

so our skills are quite varied which means lots of

experience in different areas.

Merry Christmas from The Phone Room

All the staff at The Phone Room would like to take this opportunity

to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a

prosperous 2012.

15th Anniversary Celebrationsbegin at The Phone Room The Phone Room celebrates our 15th

anniversary in 2012 and are kicking off the celebrations with a programme of charitable and fundraising events to give something back to the industry and our loyal clients that have worked with us over the last 15 years.

Vanessa Blake, Director at The Phone Room said “We are immensely proud of

everything we have achieved and all the funds we have raised on behalf of our clients over the last 15

years and our anniversary seemed like the perfect opportunity to get all of the team involved. We are looking forward to having some fun, as well as raising some extra funds for our most loyal clients.”

The first fundraising event took place in September and we raised £280 for Maggie’s Cancer Centres. In October we raised £170 for CBM. November saw us raise money for a local charity Guideposts Trust with our very own pop up charity shop and in December we will be supporting Dogs Trust.

Fundraising Services

Unit 1, Watlington House, Watlington Road, Oxford OX4 6NF

Tel +44 (0) 1865 713600info@phoneroom.co.ukwww.phoneroom.co.uk

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Where arethey now?Many of you will remember Mel who until earlier this year was an Account Manager here.

Mel is now running a successful hamper company Paterson & Paterson Hampers. She has also adopted a beautiful cat named Millie. Visit patersonandpaterson.co.uk for a unique Christmas gift.

Let our people talk to your people

Could you help raise money for Maggie’s Cancer Centres by taking on their Monster Bike & Hike in

May 2012? A 24 hour team challenge event – a fantastic

73 mile bike and hike challenge along the Great Glen Way.

If you have an unwanted car why not let GiveaCar tow it away, dispose of it and donate the profits to CBM at no cost to you? Your scrap car could raise enough to save the sight of 2 adults – or much, much more.

Let our people talk to your people