The hot news at Rutgers is a telefundraising program that has seen steady growth for the past eight years.

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

Next up is to increase the goal from one contact a year to two. And that’s no small task, especially when you consider that the Rutgers program isn’t automated. It relies on telephones, paper call cards with preprinted donor information, handwritten thank-you notes, and lots of busy fingers.

“Would we raise more money if we were automated? Maybe. But the only real advantage is in the processing and reporting,” Brennan says. “Aside from that, in some ways it can be a detriment … computer crashes, loss of data, and computer equipment and software costs. I’m not convinced that it is worth the startup, maintenance and ongoing computer-replacement costs.”