CharityVillage® Research: 900-numbers: no longer just for heavy breathers

Resources & Library

Path: Main Street : Resources & Library : Research Articles : Feature Article

900-numbers: no longer just for heavy breathers
December 11, 1996; Canadian FundRaiser
No longer relegated to the back section of magazines and psychic hotline flyers, 900-number pay-per-call phone lines are slowly carving a legitimate role for themselves. Businesses and even government are turning to them to reduce costs and improve customer service levels. More slowly, the service is making its way onto the fundraising scene, and generating some impressive results in the process. The 900-number lines used during the telethon for the Saguenay region flood raised $2.3 million.
A major advantage of 900-numbers is their ease of use for donors: they just have to dial the phone to help. The donation is added to their phone bill and they don't have to send in a cheque or give their credit card number. The major drawbacks for charities, however, have been a limit on donation amounts and the inability to issue charitable tax receipts for 900-number donations. To combat these shortcomings, the Stentor group of companies plans to conduct a market trial that will reduce operating costs to charities and offer full receipting information to organizations using the group's Advantage 900 service.
Trial program cuts costs and boosts feedback
Stentor is the alliance of Canada's full-service telecommunications companies and includes BC Tel, Bell Canada, Island Tel PEI, Manitoba Telephone System, Maritime Tel & Tel, NBTel, NewTel Communications, SaskTel and TELUS. Presently, they are the only companies offering 900-number services in Canada. According to Beth Powers of Phone Power, Stentor's business consulting group, the market trial will run from January through April and will involve five to seven charities. In addition to the regular cheque for total donations resulting from calls to the 900 lines, the charities will receive the necessary caller information for use in issuing charitable tax receipts.
This new program will fit into the 1-900-565 exchange, currently set aside for business, government and nonprofit applications. This exchange offers a unique pricing structure to help charities maximize their revenues. Phone companies have reduced the billing and collections fee which is applied to the callers charges from 10 per cent to 5 per cent. Charities will pay $0.35 per name for full receipting information about their callers, surely not much to pay for committed donor information. If the market trial is successful and receives subsequent CRTC approval, the new receipting option could be available nationally by June, 1997.
Program options vary, as do costs
Regardless of which exchange type you select, your organization controls your 900-number message content and structure, and can choose from flat-fee calls or time-sensitive ones that are either passive recordings, live human connections or interactive recorded messages.
You should note that while the majority of charities will probably elect to use the 1-900-565 for fundraising initiatives, contests and sweepstakes regulations vary among provinces and are not available on this exchange. Service bureaus can help to outline the regulations for these services in your area.
Pricing for Advantage 900 services outside the 565 exchange includes a minimum charge of $0.50 and a maximum charge of $50 per call. Depending on your strategy, you can price the call on a flat-fee basis of $5 or $10 per call, or on a time-sensitive rate like $2 per minute. Charities pay a usage fee of $0.35-$0.40 per minute for each timed call, in addition to upfront application, installation and access charges.
Today, charities interested in capturing information about their callers can also use optional features such as caller identifier and dialed number identifier. The primary purpose, however, of 900-lines is to make it easier for donors to contribute and charities to collect those donations. The current costs of adding optional tracking features to draw caller names into your database may be prohibitive. The trial program, if successful, will make this a more viable option.
Effective promotion is essential
The key to a successful 900-number program is to get the phone number in front of people and make it easy for them to use. Part of the reason for its success with American public television stations is their ability to promote it continuously and generate immediate results. Your organization might include it on regular advertising materials, direct mail pieces or in a special promotional campaign about the number itself. Ron Proudfoot, former head of new business development at ITV Edmonton, recommends seeking a media partner to help maximize your promotion. "Media time is a big issue," he says, "you've got to expose people to the number because that's the only way you can get them to use it - and volume is everything."
In addition to their obvious applications for emergency relief efforts, special events and telethons, organizations might also leverage corporate partners' resources to create some fun and innovative ideas for the 900-number. Pseudo-polling activities - where callers vote for one item over another - have been most popular on MuchMusic and talk shows, but other organizations are also doing similar things with print media. According to an article in Nonprofit Times Online, Marie Claire magazine is running a page with three designer outfits and corresponding 900-numbers. Callers vote for their favourite combination and have a chance to win it. The magazine expects 50,000 calls and proceeds from each $2 call will go to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation in New York.
While 900-numbers may still not be commonplace among Canada's charities, they are slowly gaining acceptance among donors as a hassle-free way to support a cause. Growing business use is also helping to legitimize the service, so that someday, the heavy breathing on the line may be from the excited fundraiser who has just tallied the organization's latest 900-number revenues.
The Stentor alliance market trial is still considering additional customers for participation. They are looking for registered charities that have a "pioneering spirit" and that have both the staff resources and budget to undertake the project between January and April, 1997. Interested charities should contact Beth Powers at 1-800-267-7400.