Donorphone, a company which allows donations to be collected over the phone at any time of the day or night is the highest scoring fundraising initiative in the Institute of Fundraising ‘Innovation Zone’ that took place on Thursday 12th February 2009.
Three suppliers took part, presenting their products for review by a panel of Institute members.
Donorphone
This system allows donations to be taken 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The fundraising organisation is allocated its own telephone number and callers use their phone’s keypad to enter information and their card details.
Card details are transmitted directly to the merchant bank, so callers can find out if their donation has been successful or not and rectify the situation where appropriate.
Zebra, from Occam Ltd.
Zebra is the latest product from Occam Ltd, a data management solutions company. The Zebra database system aims to help fundraising organisations manage relationships with supporters and target them effectively.
The system works in conjunction with other databases, but focuses on relationships with donors and enables fundraising organisations to reach and appropriately target new potential donors.
Telcoinabox
Allowing ‘non telecoms’ organisations to operate their own branded telecoms service, Telecoinabox is presented as a new way to raise revenue that doesn’t involve supporters spending extra money in direct donations.
Fundraising organisations can offer mobile, landline and broadband services to their supporters through Telcoinabox that, although not necessarily the cheapest on the market, are competitive and allow profits to be gained by the fundraising organisation while promoting brand awareness.
The panel gave each product a rating on the scale of 1-5, (1*-low, 5*****-high).
Donorphone Zebra Telcoinabox
Practical application **** *** **
Innovation *** **1/2 ***
Fundraising Potential ***1/2 *** **
Lindsay Boswell, Chief Executive at the Institute of Fundraising, says:
'Last month saw three more of the latest innovations assessed by a panel of fundraisers, representing Institute Organisational members.
'Donorphone was judged to be the best product showcased at the session – the product shouldn’t necessarily replace charities’ normal telephone donation mechanisms but could be used to enable ‘out of hours’ donations, and there’s potential for the system to be further developed in line with fundraisers’ specifications.'
The findings of the Innovation Zone Panel have been published in a full report, exclusively for Organisational members of the Institute of Fundraising. A summary report is available for all interested parties.
The Innovation Zone takes place twice a year. The next event will place in October, with all applications to be received by the Institute by Friday 18th September.
To take part or find out more
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For further information please contact:
Diana Mackie Tel. 020 7840 1027 / 07793 802 852
Institute of Fundraising
