Club Calling Creates Capital, Connections Annual Fund Program Raises Alumni Money for Student Groups
By Peter Krawczyk ‘08
News Associate Editor
Since April 2005, the Annual Fund run by the Choate Development Office has provided an alternative method of fundraising for student clubs, teams and other groups looking for additional sources of financing. Instead of costly operations such as bake sales, which produce little revenue for a significant investment of time and material costs, student groups can now phone Alumni to request Annual Fund donations, and receive a portion of the funds raised for their club.
Thus far, the program has been highly beneficial to all parties involved and has attracted a multitude of student groups, from UNICEF to the Swimming Team.
“We continue to do [the program] because it’s been so successful,” said Neil Gordon, Associate Director of the Annual Fund. Although Gordon, who recently assumed responsibility for the program from former Phonathon Coordinator Priti Kapoor, was unable to give an exact number, he did say that the program has raised “tens of thousands of dollars” to date.
Similarly, the clubs who have participated in the program have been generally very satisfied with the results of their Phonathons.
According to Vivian Brodie ’08, when she participated in the program last year, the French Club was able to raise over $800 in under five hours, generating even more revenue for the school.
The phoning sessions are scheduled to fit students’ schedules, and usually last from four to six hours on Sundays. They take place in a conference room in Brownell, near the Annual Fund offices, where a bank of twelve to fourteen phones is set up for fundraising.
A minimum of four callers is required for a club to participate, but Gordon says that groups have included up to twenty-two students.
Each caller is given a folder containing a calling script and a list of potential alumni donors, how much they have given in the past, and how much they are likely to give this time. The alumni on these lists are carefully selected from the Annual Fund’s database as past donors who potentially have some connection to the participating student group, as the fact that some of the donation will directly benefit the students is a key selling point for callers. In fact, calls often go beyond asking for money and develop into conversations between students and alumni.
“It was kind of cool,” said Brodie. “I was talking to this one alum who said he had lived in Edsall [House], and I said how I wanted to live in Edsall for the next year. There were a lot of people who were on the phone for almost twenty minutes.”
In fact, the draw of speaking to current students is enough to even convince alumni who have not given previously to give a donation.
“We have had some very good student callers who are able to close gifts with some not very good donors,” said Gordon.
Ultimately, though both the Annual Fund and the students benefit financially, it may in fact be the alumni who benefit most from the Student Calling program. By facilitating contact between students and their predecessors, the program reminds alumni that they can still relate to Choate and its current student body.
