Phone-a-thon for alumni support may become a student position

By: Johnathan Skidmore
Copy Layout Editor

An important element to the livelihood of any college or university is donations from alumni. Monmouth College currently employs a company called RuffaloCODY (RC) in order to contact our alumni via the telephone in events referred to as a “phone-a-thon.” According to RC’s website, they are “the recognized leader in providing software, consulting, fundraising, enrollment management and other innovative solutions for nonprofit organizations. Each year, RuffaloCODY assists more than 500 nonprofit organizations with their fundraising, membership and enrollment management objectives.”

This, however, will hopefully be changed in the future. The college is taking steps to create a phone-a-thon run by faculty members and managed by student workers. According to the president of Monmouth College Mauri Ditzler, “It is the consensus of all those involved that we should offer these positions to students.”

There are pros and cons to the current system, but it appears to be in the college’s best interest to discontinue the use of an independent third party corporation, instead giving the jobs to students.

With RC, the college doesn’t have to deal with organizing and maintaining staff and data. “This is a tremendous organizational challenge. I don’t criticized those who outsourced; it’s a big headache,” said Ditzler. According to director of alumni relations Lucy Thompson, “last year RuffaloCODY had 3,628 total contacts. They called for 697 hours and secured $149,190 in pledges.” The phone-a-thon currently lasts approximately six weeks and, while it is not the highest source of income for the college, it definitely adds up. RC is contracted for a certain number of hours of phone calls in the attempt to reach the college’s potential donators.

The decision to outsource the phone-a-thon was made several years prior to Ditzler’s arrival. “I don’t think outsourcing was very enthusiastic,” said Ditzler, “At one point, we simply didn’t have enough faculty to oversee and organize. Our goal is to have it available for student positions by next year.” Ditzler continued, stating, “fifty years ago, the college would have done these things themselves. Now we hire organizations to take care of these things, but this is one of the things that we want to bring back.”

Besides the obvious benefits of student employment positions, having the phone-a-thon conducted by students might also boost the possibility of alumni donations. “It’s a difficult task to sell a non-tangible entity,” said Ditzler. “It’s one thing to sell someone on a car, they know why they want a car, these people have to sell the college. These people [RC] know the basics about the college, but not everything. Students are much more knowledgeable. It seems to me, if I were an alum, I’d like to take five minutes to talk to the student before making a donation.”