Charities can increase the amounts they raise from telephone fundraising by 25 per cent through the use of match-funding, according to Richard Fox, the chief executive of American fundraising consultancy Rich Fox & Associates.
Speaking to Third Sector after a session on telephone fundraising at the International Fundraising Congress in the Netherlands last week, Fox said that telling donors a donation they made at once would be matched with additional funding from a source such as a corporate partner would "move them beautifully".
He said that in his experience the response rate, as well as the amount of money raised, would "rarely not be lifted by 25 per cent" when this technique was used.
"It makes their gift more valuable," said Fox. "And it gives them the urgency to give right away. You have to give donors a reason why they should give right now."
The best strategy was to target those people who had given before or to use the method for reacquisition of donors, he said.
Corporate organisations in particular were likely to be willing to act as match-donors because of the positive publicity it would give them every time you asked someone on the phone for a donation, said Fox.
He said the best companies to approach for match-funding would be those that charities already had a relationship with. There were also some individual major donors who would be happy to act as match-funders, he added.
Fox also warned charities they should move quickly because once everyone started to use the method it would become less effective.
- Read more news from the International Fundraising Congress 2010
