By Aislinn Keely
Beneath O’Hare Hall, current students make thousands of calls and fundraise thousands of dollars for the university. The Fordham Phone-A-Thon, housed under University Development and Relations, employs students to call alumni and parents to better connect with the Fordham community and raise funds for university endeavors.
Kayla Slattery, FCRH ’16, is the program center manager for the Phone-A-Thon, overseeing about 50 student callers and the fundraising efforts of the call center. Students work three hour shifts in 20 person groups a few nights a week. A single day can see thousands of calls raising a few thousand, according to Slattery. “We reach a lot of alumni,” she said.
The call center raised over $1 million in the last fiscal year, and as celebrated its first Giving Tuesday. Giving Days are a growing trend among universities, according to Slattery. Fordham plans to hold another Giving Day in the spring.
Despite its student employment base, the call center is run by a third party, Ruffalo Noel Levitz. “It’s just a way to manage the call center, but it’s all current students,” said Slattery. All employees on site are members of the Fordham community.
Ruffalo Noel Levitz works with 1900 campuses and nonprofits each year, according to the company’s website. Its work mainly focuses on enrollment and fundraising with partners in North America and Australia. The practice of outsourcing fundraising calling centers is common practice at universities, according to Slattery.
The use of a third party does not affect donations, as Ruffalo Noel Levitz is paid from a university budget and does not take a cut of donations. One hundred percent of the donation goes to the fund the donor specifies, according to Slattery.
Donors contribute to various funds benefitting different areas of the university. “We can give to any literally, there are hundreds of funds you can support,” said Slattery. She said that the call center particularly looks for scholarship donations. “We really do push for scholarships, because obviously there is a lot of need that is important to the university,” she said.
Alumni are often asked to donate to the Fordham Fund, which benefits scholarship efforts, while parents of students are often asked to donate to the Parents Fund, which contributes to things on campus, according to Abby Ponticello, FCRH ’19, a student caller employed at the call center.
Parents who are currently paying tuition are called for fundraising efforts. Slattery said that parents like to support funds that benefit their child’s time at the university. “Fordham does reach out to parents because a lot of students do receive aid at Fordham, and do receive generous assistance, and so parents like to support that to enhance the Fordham experience,” she said.
The calls are intended to be personable, allowing alumni to connect with a current Fordham student and discuss the Fordham experience. Ponticello said that the best calls are those that provide an opportunity to get to know alumni. “We always say that it’s not just about fundraising, but it’s also about establishing good feeling with the alumni network,” she said.
The calls are ultimately geared towards giving. This can be difficult for new hires according to student supervisor Sarah Steirer, FCRH ’18. Steirer trains new hires, listens in on calls to check in with callers’ progress, assists on difficult calls and makes calls herself. “You really are asking for money, which is hard to do for a lot of people, but usually after a month people get really good at it,” she said.
Callers ask for an amount based on an Ask Letter, which details four brackets. Donors are placed into a bracket based on previous donations, determining the amount they will be asked to give going forward. “The university just likes to come up with a structure that would make sense based on their previous affinity to giving… if you’re calling a current senior, you may not ask for the same amount that you would from someone who has been giving very generously multiple times,” said Slattery.
The basic structure of the call remains the same no matter the donation level, according to Slattery. Callers have discretion to upgrade or downgrade the gift they ask for if they feel it is justified, according to Steirer.
Steirer said that asks are increased from previous donations. If donors have given less than $100 previously, their first ask is around $180, according to Steirer. “We’ll slowly decrease it from there until we get to the grad year ask… so we just like to make it feasible for all alumni to give at whatever levels they can manage,” she said.
Calls vary, according to Ponticello. “It’s an experience of talking to people of all different types and all different stages,” she said. Alumni may express political views, ask questions or make critiques of the university. “A lot of people complain about the Fordham football team and stuff like that…Usually that’s a token random person. Most of the alumni that we speak to are really happy to talk about Fordham and their experiences,” she said.
Steirer said that those called sometimes make comments about political affiliations or statements made by Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of the university. In this case, callers express that they stand with McShane and the university, and direct those called to where their questions can be answered.
“A lot of times the alumni, this is their only contact with Fordham throughout the year, so a lot of times they like to unload on a student caller,” said Steiner.
Steirer said she is grateful that she got involved with the call center. It is a strong resume builder, according to Steirer, and has helped hone her public speaking and personal communication skills.
Slattery said that the call center look to hire students who are involved, good with people and love the Fordham community.
Ponticello said her experience as an employee of the call center has helped her with her phone-speaking skills, as well as given her a deeper connection with Fordham. “You get a really good sense of the community here,” she said.
