“Smile when you’re on the phone.”

Maria Keen, the assistant director of Alumni and Parent Engagement, said that although this is corny, it is the best advice to give to her Phonathon callers.

The Office of College Advancement runs phonathon, one of the many jobs available on Dickinson College’s campus and a major contributor to the Annual Fund, which provides funding for student scholarships, academic programming, facilities enhancements, and more.

After a fall Phonathon season that reached out to 3,831 alumni and raised $271,479 through 1,519 individual gifts, the spring Phonathon season began on February 6.

“The main reasons for Phonathon are to update alumni and parents about what’s going on around campus, to get their updated information and to ask them to make a gift to the annual fund,” said Keen.

While many students find jobs in the Cafeteria or in the library, Phonathon, which is located on 50 Mooreland Street (located between Malcolm Hall and Matthews House), provides Dickinson students the chance to connect with alumni.

“Last year I worked in the Caf and the Quarry and it was the most thankless job,” said Liza Knapp-Fadani ’16. She added that Phonathon was the perfect job for her because she “love[s] talking to people and [is] obsessed with Dickinson.”

Prateek Allapur ’15 has worked at Phonathon for three semesters.

“It is a job, but it’s also a great way to get connections with Dickinson alumni, because there’s not too many avenues through which Dickinson students can interact with alumni,” he said about calling. “I think my favorite conversations, the ones where I’m most likely to get a donation, are where I have a parent or alumni that has done something similar to what I’ve done… they more likely to donate because we have that personal connection.”

Phonathon calls are made through Protocaller, a calling software which was developed in-house about four years ago.

According to Keen, with Protocaller, callers are able to contact the 15,000 Dickinson alumni and parents in the calling pool, because “everybody’s information is in Gateway Banner: students, parents, alumni, friends of the college.”

Keen mentioned that these contacts are divided up in to categories that differentiate people by the frequency and amount of their previous donations. These categories include GOLF (Graduates of the last five years), Reunion classes, The John Dickinson Society (members who give $2500) and The Mermaids (donators who have supported the college for at least five consecutive years).

Each donor is contacted eight times before being taken out of the calling pool. While each donation does go toward the annual fund, donators can specify a certain facet of the college, called “Buckets,” of student life to donate to.

Calling hours are Sundays through Thursdays, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and sometimes there is day calling. During the fall semester, Keen said she had 42 callers with 19 contacts to reach each night. New callers earn $7.80 per hour plus bonus incentives.

A typical Phonathon call, according to Keen, begins with the “Greeting” and then is quickly followed by “Demographics,” during which the contact’s information is updated. “Building Rapport” comes next, where the caller updates the contact on any campus updates and inquires about their experience at Dickinson. Finally, the last segment is “The Ask,” which can result in either a donation by credit card, a pledge or a refusal.

Siobhan Pierce ’16 has worked for Phonathon for three semesters and is one of the three student managers of Phonathon.

“There’s a lot of people, especially the older generation, who look forward to our calls because it’s the only contact they have truly with the school,” she said. “They wait for us to call because they’re interested in what’s going on, what we’re doing, what we’re majoring in. If we didn’t call and give that reminder, people wouldn’t just go on the website and decide to give $500.”

“Even if we didn’t get money for the Annual Fund, I would still say that Phonathon is important because these people need to have this connection to the college, their alma mater,” said Keen. “College is one of the most influential and important times in your life and this was such a big part of their lives. We want the alumni here to feel engaged and feel like they’re still a part of it.”

Phonathon has been at Dickinson since the mid-1980’s and as the years goes by, technology has continued to develop and grow.

“Nothing can replace the human interaction that Phonathon offers for its alumni and for the annual fund,” said Katie Henwood ’15 about the future of Phonathon. “In today’s world where there’s so much spam and emails that go out…it’s very impersonal…. Calling shows that we put in extra effort to make that human connection with alumni so that they feel like a part of Dickinson.”

For more information about Phonathon, contact [email protected].