'Phonathon' Brings $100,000 for Venture in Mission in N.Y.
Episcopal News Service. June 26, 1980 [80234]
NEW YORK -- As a result of a mail-telephone campaign this spring, 450 New York Episcopalians gave $100,000 to the diocese's Venture in Mission program.
The telephoning campaign, dubbed a "phonathon, " is believed to be the first one ever put on in an Episcopal diocese. The phonathon was a pilot project involving eight parishes in the diocese whose rectors and vestries agreed to allow volunteers to call every parish member and ask for a Venture pledge. In all, 1,600 people were reached, and more than 25 percent responded with pledges ranging from $5 to $20,000.
The results were so successful that diocesan leaders have planned an extended campaign beginning in mid-June and running during the rest of 1980. The latest phonathon will reach some 15,000 people in all parishes that have not yet achieved their Venture in Mission quotas.
The Bishop of New York, the Rt. Rev. Paul Moore, Jr., and Suffragan Bishops J. Stuart Wetmore and Walter D. Dennis, recently spent a day personally telephoning the rectors of these parishes to ask for their support.
This technique was designed by the Rev. John A. Harms, the diocese's Executive Director of the Venture program, in consultation with Institutional Development Counsel, of Glen Ridge, N.J.
Following carefully planned guidelines, volunteer telephoners called parishioners whose names and telephone numbers had been provided by rectors, explained the Venture in Mission fund-raising/renewal program and asked for support. Earlier, these parishioners had received two letters, one from Bishop Moore and one from their rector, outlining the program and asking for support when the call came.
Mr. Harms said that the telephone technique has "enabled Episcopalians to respond personally to the Bishop's invitation to venture, which has been the objective of our program from its inception. Although phoning is only a substitute for face-to-face contact, our experience has shown that it's a very effective one, and also very involving.
"We have found," he continued, "that phoning gave many lonely people on fixed incomes a chance to visit and share with fellow Episcopalians -- and they made pledges, too."
In some instances, the callers acted as "lightening rods," offering a sensitive ear to people who wanted to get some things off their chests. "A number of these people then decided to contribute to our common mission, " Mr. Harms said. "In fact, we've shattered the misapprehension that people will not give, or that they will feel their privacy has been invaded. They will give, and give cheerfully, if properly asked. Out of 1,600, only ten people hung up on us because they felt their privacy had been invaded. "
The Diocese of New York contains 196 parishes and comprises three boroughs of New York City: Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island; and seven counties to the north: Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess, Rockland, Orange, Ulster and Sullivan.