Telesales for Non-Profits: Why HRF Put Their Bets on Telefundraising

Hörselskadades Riksförbund (HRF) is a non-profit organisation working to empower and protect the interests of the hard-of-hearing community in Sweden. Founded over 100 years ago, HRF is the largest organisation within the hearing loss community, built by hearing-impaired people. 

HRF: behind the project

There are around 1.5 million people living with some kind of hearing loss or other hearing issues in Sweden. Hörselskadades Riksförbund is an organisation that has been working for more than a century to empower the hard-of-hearing community in a variety of different ways. As the largest organisation linked to hearing problems, HRF is the leading change maker in Sweden, actively working to spread awareness, educate the public, find solutions, and empower individuals to have equal rights and opportunities. 

“Our vision is a society where all hard-of-hearing people live in full participation and equality”, says Jenny Höglund, Marketing and Fundraising Director at HRF. “We spread knowledge, empower individuals and push decision-makers to make a change”, she adds. Furthermore, the organisation supports and educates not only individuals but also their employers and family members. Many of them contact Hörsellinjen, HRF’s helpline and email support.

“Every donation makes a difference! During our hundred-and-two years of existence, we’ve changed Swedish society and made it more inclusive and equal. That wouldn't have been possible without our donors. We are dependent on donations and wouldn't be able to keep making an impact without them.”

HRF’s awareness-raising campaigns

Hearing Week is HRF’s recurring campaign that aims to draw attention to the country’s 1.5 million hard-of-hearing people and also raise public awareness for a hearing-smart society where all hard-of-hearing people can live in full participation and equality. This year, HRF’s Hearing Week will occur between the 16th and 22nd of October, with Hard of Hearing Day falling on the 21st. 

As part of Hearing Week, HRF invites the public to test their hearing in the comfort of their home with HRF’s digital, scientifically validated online test. 

Additionally, HRF will be soon launching a new awareness-raising campaign that will spread knowledge about hearing problems to a wider audience. 

However, educating society and providing direct support is not enough. HRF actively looks for resolutions to issues at all levels, regularly talking to politicians and policymakers, and trying to influence their decisions. Due to their expertise and ongoing collaboration with more than 20,000 hearing-impaired members, families and co-workers, they point to the things that are not working well, give options for a solution, and provide ideas for improvements. 

Another important aspect that the hard-of-hearing organisation works towards improving is access to correct and reliable information. “It’s important that people can find the right information when looking for answers online. (...) Some companies try to make money on the hard-of-hearing community, especially the older generation, by selling hearing aids that can be obtained for free. We want people to be well informed about their rights”.

How HRF uses telesales to secure funds for further projects

Being a non-profit organisation, HRF hugely relies on financial support from private individuals. “We work with traditional fundraising channels including sales letters and different online platforms but telesales is the most important and biggest channel because it allows us to have a direct dialogue with donors”, points out Jenny Höglund. One-time and recurring donors secured through other sales channels than telesales are always connected with the telesales team anyway so that the organisation can establish a better relationship with the donor. 

HRF has been working with telesales for more than 25 years! “It’s been a great way for us to engage people and spread information about our work and mission. Direct dialogue has many positive benefits besides raising funds”, says Jenny. 

HRF’s fundraising agents’ experience with Waytobill’s telesales checkout 

Many of HRF’s telesales agents are elderly people who live an active lifestyle and although they’re already retired, they enjoy their half-time jobs as fundraisers. Their good life experiences make them great conversation starters, especially as some of them can share their own hearing-problem experiences, making them trustworthy fundraisers. 

“The majority of our donors are elderly people and we didn´t know if they would prefer receiving our traditional letter sent by mail after the call, or if they would choose the digital checkout solution. We chose to offer the digital solution to donors under 75 years old and 50% of them chose the digital checkout.”

Numerous agents have been used to working in traditional ways, never coming across online checkouts. While Waytobill is working on plugging into the HRF's outbound dialer software, agents were able to kick off the payment collection very early, using Waytobill's Merchant Area from where they created payment links sent to interested prospects.

“The agents were curious and optimistic about learning new skills and it turned out not to be a problem” points out Jenny. Agents’ eagerness to learn was a great factor that resulted in all agents learning the online signing process. 

HRF is optimistic about the early results and they’re looking forward to continuing using Waytobill’s payment plugin.