Nonprofits - Do Not Call

Charities should honor do-not-call lists
To ignore the do-not-call list is foolhardy

Since I have been on the national do not call list, I have been receiving an increasing number of calls from nonprofit organizations. I really don't care that they are nonprofit organizations; I simply do not wished to be called at home. I've made my intentions quite clear. So why do they call? The law says they can. Intelligence says they should not.

I asked a caller why they were calling me. They said they wanted to let me know about their work. I told them I had registered for a do not call list. They said that didn't apply to them. Sure it did, I told them, as far I'm concerned. You may have a legal right to call, but now that you have, I think less of your organization, that you waste the money of your donors, and that you clearly make poor decisions. Does this sound like good communications to you?

Just because your nonprofit organization has used cold calling in the past doesn't mean it should continue. As far as I am concerned, the handwriting is on the wall and I believe nonprofits will eventually be added to the list of organizations that are subject to laws concerning do not call lists.

Respect the wishes of people who do not want to be called. If you do call them, don't try to tell them you have a legal right. Tell them instead that you are sorry to have bothered them, that you will take them off your list and for them to have a good day. Don't direct them to a Web site, tell them how to find additional information about your nonprofit work or in anyway delay ending the call except to adhere to legal responsibilities. By the way, if you are using an auto-dialer and a recorded message to make cold calls, your nonprofit organization will likely fold for problems related to poor overall management rather than just funding issues.

If your nonprofit organization relies on cold calls for fundraising, you should develop a new strategy. Those nonprofits that persist in using cold calls for fundraising will fail in that effort and instead assure that they will face a more difficult task of convincing donors to give when there are people badmouthing them due to their invasive calls.

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