A huge smile spread across Yogitha’s face as she put the phone’s receiver down. She had been talking to a prospective donor who had confirmed to her that he was more than willing to donate a considerable amount to Akshaya Patra’s noble cause. The smile at the end of the call was the highlight because it seemed like the after-effect of Yogitha’s conversation was similar at the other end of the line as well. Yogitha, a fundraiser, is part of the foundation’s tele-marketing team.
With more than 200 million middle-class citizens in the country, India has opened a wider avenue for our fundraisers to not only follow traditional methods of fundraising activities but also innovate and work on new techniques for the same.
One such initiative in Akshaya Patra is the tele-marketing team. The model which was implemented more than a year ago has rapidly expanded to a strength of 70 employees, with about 70% of it outsourced. The in-house tele-marketing team consists of close to 15 members with an upsizing plan underway. Trained on tele-marketing techniques, the team is quite different from a tele-marketing agent who would call you to sell credit cards or insurance because Akshaya Patra is not selling anything. The sole objective of Yogitha and her other colleagues is to educate public about the foundation and its noble cause and also provide them with a gateway, should they have plans to donate.
Sufficient training is provided on regular intervals to ensure that the team is well aware of their basics. Their language is analytical in nature, which many a times, is a motivation for donors to hit the ‘call for action’ button. There are times when some of them would not like to be disturbed. The team pushes hard to minimize such instances by maintaining a ‘Do not call” list.
There are also instances where our team gets included in the donors emotional circle. For instance, Yogitha once called a lady who narrated the tragic story of her husband’s death. Her husband had a strong bond with Akshaya Patra and had been donating for the Foundation’s noble cause since its beginning . The lady, with tears in her eyes, had told Yogitha that she would want to continue the same on her husband’s behalf.
Saanil, the head of the Analytics and BPO initiative at Akshaya Patra, has been overlooking this model since its inception. Keeping himself up-to-date with the latest in tele-marketing initiatives, he says “The purpose of setting up this model is to keep the society at large informed about the children of our country and the help they need. This also serves as a platform for supporters to find an easy gateway to help us”. He also talks about the employment opportunity, for about 70 people, the telemarketing model has paved way for.
The tele-marketing initiative, today, is scaling heights by reaching up to 15 Lakh people every year. This could not have been achieved without the significant contribution to the process from external partners. Kankei Relationship Marketing in Bangalore and Hyderabad, Transact Global in Bangalore and BNKe Solutions in Kolkata have provided phenomenal support in spreading Akshaya Patra’s word. With this enormous reach, Akshaya Patra has become the first and the only organization to have expanded so rapidly in the development sector.
