The Columbia Student Calling Center crossed the $2 million mark this past weekend—an all-time high!
How do they do it? Here are 10 facts about the magic happening in that room tucked in the lower level of the Columbia Alumni Center.
- As of Monday night, the call center brought in $2,058,000 from 13,100 pledges.
- Our top callers each raise as much as $100,000 per year and confidently make leadership asks at the $10,000 level.
- Over the last four fiscal years, the call center has set records, bringing in $1.2 million, $1.7 million, $1.8 million, and $1.9 million.
- The call center employs 60 enthusiastic and persuasive students—our largest staff ever—who represent Barnard and Columbia.
- One dynamic manager, Swaati Puri, and four energetic student supervisors run the center.
- Students speak to 45,000 alumni, parents, and friends of 19 schools and programs each year. (That’s an average of 750 calls per student!) Of those, 12,000 are stewardship “thank you” calls.
- Students are dialing year-round, seven days a week.
- For Columbia Giving Day 2014, student callers brought in $146,544.
- Last week, a student secured a $1,500 gift from a first-time donor on the spot.
- Student callers improve our data by updating contact information and finding “lost” alumni.
Bonus: Student call centers can jumpstart careers in development. As a School of General Studies student, Connelly Stokes-Buckles supervised Columbia’s calling center. Jake Strang was a “Carolina caller” at the University of South Carolina. CloEve Demmer called on behalf of Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota, and I worked at Penn State’s “Lion Line.” If there are others out there, please let me know.
Want to see the call center in action? Contact me ([email protected]) for a visit. A special thank you to our deans and annual fund colleagues who come down and check us out!
