Digital & Phone a top team
Acquisition for Charitable gaming
Aspire Non Profit Consulting and Thomas Direct teamed up six years ago to deliver charitable gaming and donor fundraising services, utilising proven closing techniques, quality training and strategic database marketing without the need for auto dialling or cold calling.
During the preceding seven years, the principals, Steven Banks and Doug Thomas Jr, helped form a 100-seat telephone fundraising centre for one of Australia’s largest charitable lottery programs – Mater Prize Home – and notably recruited a strong base of mature telephone operators with an average age of 51.
While this large call centre provided a place to execute a range of opportunities, strategies and tactics, the same strategies could also be applied to smaller programs, while enjoying the scale Thomas Direct offered.
Aspire then created telemarketing revenue streams for its clients to complement their mail and digital services. “The combination is working well with renewal, reactivation and acquisition files being sent back and forth daily,” says Managing Director Steven Banks. “In particular, Aspire is able to access high volumes of new leads, de-dupe them and send them to the telephone room inside 24 hours. This level of agility optimises the response rates achieved on acquisition, resulting in an earlier return on investment. In many cases, the cost of acquiring leads and telephone conversion to sales operates at break even, and in most cases the return occurs in the very next campaign.”
The enduring partnership between Aspire and Thomas Direct means the two companies can test new concepts, invest in ideas and generally look for the best possible returns for their charity clients.
Their latest challenge is to source large volumes of leads that convert to regular purchasing – with a return on investment achieved within 12 months.
In summary, Aspire applies strategic database fundraising principles, data management and payment processing to the dedicated telephone conversations executed by Thomas Direct.