Donor Phone Calls and Voicemail Asks: A 5-Minute Framework

Why the Phone Still Wins

Which donors are you not calling? On the Hey Nonprofits! podcast, Trevor Nelson sat down with Kel Haney of Kel Haney Consulting, who says most nonprofits aren't calling enough of them. Kel started as a theater director in New York, took a fundraising job on the phones to pay the bills, and says she raised about $6 million in under eight years in donations of $2,000 and under. She has since reverse-engineered what worked into her five-minute fundraising ask framework.

Trevor's team of 22 has a rule: "just pick up the damn phone." Kel agrees, and says she doesn't think phone calls are the problem. People don't hate phone calls from nonprofits, she said. They hate calls that aren't done well. A call from someone who's genuine, who connects over a shared reason the organization matters, is one people enjoy. And there are fewer of them than you'd think. Kel said many organizations have moved toward direct mail and email, which means a donor may get fewer calls than ever.

Take the Ick Out of the Ask

One of Kel's catchphrases is "taking the ick out of the ask." She says it gets a smile and a visible relaxation every time. She likes calling people in to community and often says community member instead of donor. The first step is to acknowledge that making an ask is uncomfortable for most people, and to find where your own ick comes from. "If you are feeling icky about making an ask, that person on the other end is going to pick up on that."

Kel's second point is that fake-it-till-you-make-it doesn't work. People can smell it, she said, in a world where we're marketed to thousands of times a day. Being yourself, vulnerability included, is what connects. She tells fundraisers that being themselves is enough. And she thinks the first 15 seconds of a call are the most important.

Mini takeaway: Acknowledge the discomfort, drop the act, and lead with who you are and why you're calling.

The Five-Minute Ask: A Tent With Four Poles

Kel describes the five-minute fundraising ask as a tent held up by four poles. You know the four markers you'll hit in the call, and everything else is a conversation. She compares it to hosting a dinner party: you know the arc of the evening, from the sherry to the salad to the main course, but what happens between courses is up to the guests.

She gave a live example of the opening. Instead of "Hi, is this Trevor? How are you today?", she suggests something like this. Hi Trevor, this is Kel, calling from the organization. We haven't met yet. Thank you for the gift of $1,000 you made this time last year. We're wrapping up our year-end campaign and haven't heard from you yet, and we'd love to get you more involved. But first, I'd love to hear what brought you to us in the first place.

In a few sentences, she has said who she is, shown she knows the donor, expressed gratitude, set the tone, and asked a curious question. It also says plainly that the call includes an ask, so nobody is surprised later. "If you don't know what to say, say thank you," Trevor added, and Kel agrees: she begins the call with gratitude and ends it with gratitude, whether or not the person gives. She also builds thanks in right before the ask, thanking the donor for staying on the phone. Nonprofits that spend their time with their noses in spreadsheets, she said, can start to feel that money is owed to them, when it's always a gift.

Kel says the same call is stewardship and solicitation at once. Calling someone further into the community can include making a gift.

Who to Call, and How Much Time to Block

Kel focuses this on mid-level donors, not grassroots donors and not major gifts. Major donors, she said, presumably get coffee or a meal. Grassroots donors are well served by email segmentation and technology, and phone calls to them don't return enough for the time. Trevor suggested a floor of around $1,000 or more depending on history, and Kel agreed. If a smaller donor happens to be on the phone and wants to stay, great, but it isn't the strategy.

As for volume, Kel doesn't give clients a call quota. She gives them time. Her math is that a caller can make around 12 calls in an hour. Two hours a week over 48 weeks is about 1,150 calls. One hour a week is about 576. Clients who say they called for an hour and spoke to four people have barely begun, she told Trevor. Her advice: time-block it in your calendar like a workout, because it will be the first thing to fall through the cracks.

Voicemail Asks That Work

Kel is a believer in voicemail, and an underused one. If you don't get a donor on the phone, she recommends a real voicemail of 60 to 90 seconds. It'll be a little boring to leave, she said, but it's effective. In a voicemail she covers three of the four tent poles. Here's the structure from her example:

Say your name and role. Thank the donor and name their exact gift amount from last year. Mention where the campaign stands, such as how much you're trying to raise and how close you are. Ask for a specific number, and she suggested aiming a little higher: "shoot for the moon" at $1,500 if the donor gave $1,000 last year. Point them to the website's donate button. Invite them to call you back. Mention you'll send a short email and that you'll call again next week.

The exact dollar amount matters, she says, though some people feel uncomfortable naming it. The email that follows should be more informal and personal, with a link to give. Its subject line can be as simple as "Re: voicemail" or "just left you a voicemail." Kel says it's a matter of personal preference, and you should test what works. When you call back and reach voicemail again, leave a shorter message and refer to the email. Keep the campaign progress consistent in both channels. If you were $100,000 away last week and are $75,000 away now, say so. As Kel put it, the donor becomes part of something that's winning.

Mini takeaway: Leave a 60- to 90-second voicemail with the donor's exact past gift, a specific ask, and campaign progress. Then send a short email with a link to give.

Collect the Phone Number

Kel and Trevor talked about the mail disruption affecting Canadian nonprofits at the time of recording, and the scramble it caused for organizations that relied on direct mail. Kel hosted a workshop that drew more than 100 fundraisers on short notice. A major problem she found: many of them didn't have phone numbers.

She thinks frictionless giving tools are partly to blame. Technology companies sell the idea that fewer fields mean more gifts. But Kel would rather have fewer donors whose contact information she actually has. One of her clients ran a nationally recognized event and collected donations through YouTube, but couldn't get contact information, so those donors never heard back. Some later told them so. Her suggestion is to make the phone number a required field, or at least ask for it. "They're looking at the tree that is this one interaction. They're not looking at the forest."

What to Do When the Answer Is No

Trevor said his own rule is that no means no for now, not forever. Kel goes a step further: she calls no a gift, because it's feedback. If she asks for $1,500 and gets a flat no, she'd say "totally hear you" and ask for the $1,000 the donor gave last year. If that's a no, she would try $500. Then she'd come back to the donor's relationship with the organization and get curious about why.

Sometimes the reason is personal, and she backs off. Other times it's useful. A donor might say they only hear from the organization when it wants money, or that every thank-you letter spells their name wrong. Neither is fixable in that call, but both are fixable going forward, and the call is a chance to thank them again. "I'm just teasing open that rope a little bit to find out what is that no actually about."

Don't Let Your Inner Critic Drive

Trevor closed by asking Kel to finish a thought he's been using on the show: fundraising is hard, so don't make it harder by doing what? Kel's answer: don't let your inner critic drive the car. Get clear about your why, share it, and remember that you're building a stronger relationship with this one community member. "If we're truly leading with relationship, the money always follows."

If you want a starting point, pick ten mid-level donors, block two hours on your calendar this week, and write the first 15 seconds of the call before you dial.

Insights in this article are drawn from the Hey Nonprofits! podcast episode “Master Phone Call & Voicemail Asks - Fundraising Framework Using Your Phone”, featuring Kel Haney of Kel Haney Consulting.