5 Things to Never Do on Your Telefundraising Calls

In Stephen’s book, “Effective Telephone Fundraising,” he suggests plenty of “do’s” — things you can do to make effective telephone fundraising calls. But the “don’ts” are often just as important — if not more so. Here are five situations to avoid:

1. Don’t neglect to ask permission to speak
In the cyber fundraising world, they call this “opt in” or “opt out.” In telephone fundraising, it’s simply asking the prospect to speak with you. A range of nuance is available to the fundraiser — from the interrogative, “Is now a good time?” to the declarative, “I’d like to speak with you a few moments about XYZ Charity, if that’s OK” — to give the prospect the opportunity to opt out. It’s simple courtesy.