On telemarketing's 20th anniversary - disturbing trends, great possibilities.

All is not rosy on this 20th anniversary of big-time, fundraising telemarketing. In the two decades since Yale University wowed the fund-raising world with a combination mail and telephone solicitation that generated $15 million from 60,000 low-rated prospects for its capital campaign, attitudes about telemarketing as a fund-raising technique have moved from skepticism to acceptance.

"Prior to that no respectable academic institution would consider doing what we today would call professional telemarketing," said William Freyd, chairman of IDC and consultant to Yale for the program.

Yet, Freyd and four colleague consultants see disturbing trends in current telemarketing practices. They see too many fund-raising managers making telemarketing decisions based on commercial models and technology rather than fundraising principles. They believe those decisions have long-term negative impact on major gift programs.

Less personal solicitation

"Solicitation is much less personal today," said Russell G. Weigand, president of Campbell & Company. Telephone programs have replaced volunteers in annual fund campaigns. The five- or ten-minute phone conversations provide less time to develop understanding of the institution's mission and vision, nor can an institution provide the same stewardship by phone that was possible in face-to-face visits, he observed.

Weigand recalled the practice at Berea College in the 70s when each of the institution's donors, regardless of gift size, would receive a personal visit from a representative of the college.

"We see the results [of the changes] in capital campaigns with unprepared constituencies. There is less understanding of the case and fewer volunteers with solicitation experience."

Technology, not methodology

Freyd complained, "In telemarketing, technology is being used too often as a replacement for methodology. It isn't about processing names and doing it as inexpensively as possible. That [approach] doesn't lead to any long-term results. You still need to have cause, case and constituents in your program." The Yale program adapted major-gift techniques to mail and telephone communication. Too few managers take that fundraiser approach today, he said.

Intensive price competition among telemarketing firms is to blame for some of these problems, according to G. Douglass Alexander, president of Alexander, O'Neill, Haas and Martin. The tendency to pick the lowest bid puts the emphasis on processing names, not fundraising.