BGSU Phonathon employs approximately 60 students who call alumni, parents and friends of the University. Located in Harshman and formerly known as BGSU Telefund, the Phonathon’s goal is to raise money to fund scholarships.

Patrick Jones is the newly hired year-round director of the Phonathon. Hired four and a half months ago, Jones was previously in charge of running six Toledo franchise locations of Cricket Wireless. He is taking his skills and expertise in technology and management from his former experience and applying it to the BGSU Phonathon. 

Jones has an ambitious goal for the semester of $380,000. Last fall, the goal was $330,000, but Phonathon fell short on last year’s goal, reaching about $300,000. 

“We’re $50,000 dollars ahead of where they were this same time last year,” Jones said. 

It’s an impressive start to the year, but by no means comes undeserved. When Jones arrived at the University he immediately made a few significant changes to the calling script used by the callers. 

“There was a lot of points on the script that were just filler,” Jones said. “(It was) too wordy, and by the time they got to point where we were actually asking the prospect to talk back they just didn’t care anymore.”

The new script has been shortened and is now more interactive. Callers and those being called become more engaged in the conversation than they used to be.  

Jones is committed to the mission of Phonathon – as he describes: “Getting alumni to help make BG better by providing scholarships to the students that are here now.” The changes brought about by Jones are raising more money that goes towards scholarships for students. 

Another change Jones has implemented is in the hiring process of the center. Interviews are more strenuous than they were last year, in an effort to higher better employees who are more committed to the position. As a result, the turnover rate since Jones took leadership is significantly lower than last year’s. 

Jones isn’t employed by the University. Since 2014, the University has partnered with Wilson-Bennett Technology – an Arkansas based company founded in 1998. Wilson-Bennett created phonathon software and now runs the software for hire.

Wilson-Bennett runs over 150 year round campaigns at colleges and universities around the nation. The company uses only student employees, which, according to their website, “establishes a more personal connection.”

Phonathon calls alumni, parents of current students and friends of the University. The information for calling is gathered by the alumni office and transferred to Wilson-Bennett to be formatted. Callers need not to dial numbers – at the press of a button the next name on the list is called. 

Steven Nicolet, senior director of on-site programs at Wilson-Bennett, credits the company’s success to the innovative software used. Wilson-Bennett’s software includes “more bells and whistles,” Nicolet said, which uses advanced algorithms and generates more accurate data. This accuracy means callers are able to make more calls and waste less time with out of date numbers than if they were using other phonathon software.

Of the approximately 60 student employees, five of them are student supervisors. Student supervisors have greater responsibilities than the other callers, including conducting interviews for hiring. They also have their own office space. Student supervisors work an average of 18-20 hours per week, while callers work around 12 hours a week. 

Employees at the call center can end up with more than just a college job – some graduates of the University who worked as student callers are now employed with Wilson-Bennett. Nicolet said that he “keeps an eye out” for students with the potential for a career at the company. One alum from the University is the program director for the call center at Oakland University, another travels and runs shorter campaigns. 

Wilson-Bennett is a small but growing company – it had a growth of 30 percent last year compared with the year prior.  

On Sunday alone, the call center raised $13,000, Nicolet said. Although the software helps the calling process, Nicolet gives most of the credit to the student callers. 

“They’re on the front line,” Nicolet said. 

Nicolet remarked about the alumni of the University, describing them as loyal, faithful and philanthropic. 

The Phonathon center is open Monday through Thursday from 5:35 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. and Sundays 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.