What is the student calling program?

• A team of approximately 30 enthusiastic and dedicated Carleton students who call alumni during 28 weeks of the fiscal year to solicit gifts for the AAF. Students receive ongoing training and are effective fundraisers.
• The goal of the program is to increase participation by cultivating responses from alumni who won't otherwise be contacted by a classmate.
• Student callers are given an outline of important points to cover during the call, but they are encouraged to develop their own style and make each phone call unique.
• Regardless of the outcome of the phone call, the students re-establish a link from the alum to the College, perhaps opening a door to AAF gifts in the future.
• The calling program is automated, which allows for more efficient calling and tracking of results, and utilizes progressive dialing. This means that computers dial for the students, calling one alum at a time, allowing the student to focus on that solicitation. Many telemarketing firms use predictive dialing. With predictive dialing, one computer dials many phone numbers at once and as the calls are answered, they are distributed to the callers. Carleton's phone system does not use predictive dialing.

How do the student callers support classes?

Despite a concerted effort, Class Agents and Assistant Agents are rarely able to personally solicit each and every one of their classmates. The students work with AAF volunteers to solicit those who may not be called by a classmate.

Although student calling doesn't compare to the effectiveness of a solicitation by a classmate, personal contact is one of the best ways to raise money.

This year calling started on September 16, 2007 and will end on June 30, 2008.