This year’s caller crew is the best yet, which Allen Lunde largely
attributes to experienced supervisors such as Jonathan Reyes
(standing in background) and enthusiastic callers such as Gabe
Shapiro (right). Photo by Thomas Del Brase.
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Calling for
Connections
At the Chico State Calling Center, students don’t just dial for
dollars, they build relationships
By Anna Harris
If you get Chico Statements, you’ve likely also gotten
a call from the Chico State Calling Center. And chances are—because
this seems to be the way these things work—the call was during
dinner, when you were unwinding after work, or when you were trying
to put the kids to bed. And you immediately thought, “Oh,
telemarketers again.” But after a few moments, it probably
became clear that the Calling Center is actually something quite
different from the typical dinnertime caller.
“Telemarketing. We don’t like that word,” says
Allen Lunde, Chico State Fund manager and director of the Calling
Center. “What
we are doing is establishing a connection with our alums, even
if they are not in a position to give us a pledge at this time.”
The Chico State Calling Center, located in historic Sapp Hall,
also home to Alumni and Parent Relations, is staffed by students
who call alumni, parents of current students, and “friends
of the University.” The callers ask for donations to the
Chico State Fund, which helps the University maintain excellence
and take advantage of opportunities, as well as meet unexpected
challenges. Lunde gives examples of the kinds of things the fund
makes possible: “In terms of excellence, the fund helps ensure
that our labs are up to date, that the students have the technology
they need to be successful. Challenges arise when we have budget
cuts and other limitations; we must find ways to replace those
lost funds.”
The center collects two kinds of funds: “unrestricted funds” that
the University can use to meet a variety of needs, and “restricted
funds,” which are designated for a specific use, such as
lab equipment or endowing a specific scholarship. The callers find
that many alums are enthusiastic about helping to generate these
funds for an institution that gave them so much. “We’re
not doing a cold call selling you some product—what we have
to sell is the relationship with the University and the pride you
get from being associated with the University,” explains
Lunde.
That pride in CSU, Chico is reflected in the voices of the student
callers. Listen to what they have to say for awhile, and those
telemarketing prejudices fade. The callers don’t have a slick
and polished script; they don’t sound preprogrammed. Their
calls are unrehearsed and authentic, and often evolve into conversations.
Lunde (pictured on page 1 with case manager and student Jonathan
Reyes) and the Calling Center managers try to foster this rapport
between students and alums.
“Our callers are talking with people who have accomplished
what students are trying to accomplish now—they have graduated
from the University and gone out and started a life—we encourage
students to ask alums about those things,” he says. The student
callers are often inspired by the success stories of alums, and
alums are buoyed by the chance to mentor—briefly—a
student struggling to establish an independent life.
Erin Goldfarb (BA, Religious Studies, ’06), a former employee
of the Calling Center, appreciated this aspect of the job. In her
last year of school, she worried that she had made a mistake in
choosing to be a religious studies major, that maybe it wasn’t
practical enough or wouldn’t lead to a career. But the religious
studies alums she talked with on the phone told her they were happy
with their choice of major, that their lives fell into place after
graduation. “It reassured me,” says Goldfarb. And sure
enough, her life also fell into place, thanks to both her major
and her experience at the Calling Center.
Goldfarb is now a membership coordinator for the Simon Wiesenthal
Center and the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. She says she
owes her current job to the experience she gained at the center. “I
want to go into development for a nonprofit,” she says. “I
wouldn’t have known to get into that if I had not worked
at the Calling Center.”
Gabe Shapiro, a communication design major who has been the No.
1 caller at the center for the past two and a half years, also
credits his work at the Calling Center with shaping his future
career, exclaiming, “Oh, it has changed my life.” Shapiro
originally wanted to be an actor; he now wants to sell advertising
spots for a TV station. He calls this job his “Little League,” saying, “It’s
done wonders for me; the opportunities it has given me have been
tremendous.” Already his experience at the center has lead
to numerous sales jobs, among them selling tickets for the Golden
State Warriors, catered events for Baja Fresh, and advertising
spots for The Orion. Shapiro also spent last summer working in
sales for payroll company ADP.
Lunde thinks there will be quite a few companies battling to hire
Shapiro after he graduates because “he is so skilled at presenting
cases.” But this isn’t unique to Shapiro, adds Lunde. “It’s
been the case since I started to do this that callers come back
and say, ‘Of all my experiences at Chico State, the thing
I use most at my job is my experience at the Calling Center.’ ”
The student callers are also rewarded with the chance to be of
service to the University. Alumni and parents often don’t
understand how much CSU, Chico depends on donations. “We
have a tradition in this state of public funding, and people say, ‘Well,
I pay tuition to the University’ or ‘The University
is paid for by the state,’ ” notes Lunde. “They
don’t understand that that time has passed. While the state
funding in California is better than that in most states, the money
is decreasing and the need for fund-raising is increasing. Most
people don’t realize that the fees they pay cover only about
a third of the cost of their education and that they too were supported
by private funds when they were in school.”
Calling Center staff members realize this and are proud of their
contribution to CSU, Chico. Jonathan Reyes, Chico State Calling
Center case manager for three years and an environmental economics/biology
major, says, “It’s easy to get inspired about fund-raising,
realizing that the money you make really does affect other students.”
Shapiro sometimes even uses his work with the Calling Center as
an icebreaker: “When I am in the classroom, I like to say, ‘Hey,
you like that desk over there?’ The woman will say, ‘Yeah,’ and
I’ll say, ‘I raised money for that.’ ” He
laughs as he tells this story, but then becomes more serious. “I
know it sounds corny, but it’s true. The table I’m
sitting at right now, I helped raise money for that with the general
fund. That’s rewarding. I love Chico State, and Chico State
has given so much to me, I’m thrilled that I have given so
much to it.”
Shapiro has given a lot to the University. In his first year at
the center, he raised $60,000, breaking the previous record of
$52,000. He hopes to break another record by raising $200,000 for
the University by his graduation in May. While the big donations
are exciting, he says, small donations are equally appreciated. “Every
little bit helps us meet our goals,” he says. Reyes agrees, “I
know that sometimes alums feel their $25 or even $10 isn’t
enough or won’t really make a difference, but it absolutely
does.”
Goldfarb knows this firsthand. Now, as a young woman just launching
her career in Los Angeles, she looks forward to giving back to “the
place that made me so happy for four years.” And if she got
a call from the Calling Center, she says, “I would always
give—always.” |
