NPOs (Non Profit Organizations)  are under more pressure than ever to do more with less. As the economy continues its path, Federal and state funds are withering while the needs for NPO services are increasing.

With fund-raising more critical than ever, NPOs often miss calls because there isn’t enough dedicated staff to answer both those they service as well as properly intake donor inquiries.

Cloud-based business telephony is most critical to NPOs who need to better service their participants who receive benefits at a lower cost, while being more effective at closing phone donations form event-driven pledge campaigns.

Here’s how in 3 steps:

1) Get a toll free number specifically for donors and fund drives. Numbers from Halloo can be had quickly and on the fly as new campaigns are being launched.

This is critically important for NPOs as event-specific fund-raisers need numbers on the periodically, and not necessarily year-round.

2) Make sure you always answer the donor hotline, even when you can’t answer. That means a live receptionist to ensure every call from a potential donor gets answered.

Live On Demand receptionists are the best answer at $1.80 per answered call minute to engage potential donors – but make sure it’s set up at the toll free number for donors, not participants.

Nothing tells a potential donor their money isn’t going to be effective as when no one answers their call.

3) Give your participants (those who benefit from NPO services) a separate number, than use an Auto Attendant so they can get self service information they typically inquire about.

Much of the information given to participants of an NPO are rote data being delivered again and again from a live human being. This takes time in an era where NPOs need to deliver information to their participants more cost-effectively than ever.

Instead of just answering every participant call, participants can be greeted with an auto-attendant where information like benefits, hours, locations, eligibility, etc. can be answered in a menu tree 2/7/365, only choosing to go to a live operator if their needs haven’t been met by the self service system.

Previously, these systems were not only expensive, they were cumbersome to set up. But Halloo’s cloud-based system means that all the hardware and software is “in the Cloud, meaning it’s hosted by Halloo and everything is processed and delivered over the Internet. The set-up of potential questions your participants will have and the answers to them can be done in less than 20 minutes by someone that knows little about computers.

In an age where NPO’s bottom lines are more important than ever, spending a few dollars a month to cut costs and increase donor contributions with no hardware, software or upfront fees is a no-brainer.

Most importantly, it’s easy!