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It can be challenging to navigate the rocky waters of telefundraising. With so many vendors to choose from, an ever-increasing tidal wave of legislation and budgets that shrink in the blink of an eye, it’s easy for a nonprofit to feel lost at sea.

Fortunately, we’ve learned a lot about telefundraising in the last 25 years, and your organization can benefit greatly from the lessons others have had to learn the hard way. These are just a few of the common mistakes nonprofits make when it comes to telefundraising — and how you can avoid them.

Picking the wrong teleservices partner.
All too often a nonprofit organ-ization’s lack of experience with telefundraising leads it down a wayward path when choosing a vendor. Due to time and budget constraints, many organizations end up with a cheap, low-quality call-center company.

To avoid this common pitfall, consider the fact that the company you choose will be representing your organization over the phone to your most valuable assets — your donors. In fact, the donors will assume that the agent is one of your employees. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that you choose a reputable, high-quality company with proven strategies and documented ROI.

Here are a few points that can help you identify a high-quality teleservices partner:

• Experience. Be sure that the company you’re working with has a history of success. Ask for whitepapers and case studies that prove its results.

• Professionalism. This goes hand in hand with experience. The company you choose should have mature agents who have extensive training on your program and an affinity for your organization.

• Compliance. In to-day’s hyper-regulated teleservices environment, it’s essential that your call-center partner have the necessary systems in place to stay up-to-date with state and federal do-not-call lists, oral and written
disclosures, caller ID requirements, and a multitude of other regulations.