In this blog I have spoken a lot about how businesses benefit from using conference calls to reduce their expenses and increase their profitability. Well, the benefits of conference calls is not exclusive to companies that make a profit, non-profit entities can benefit as well from the use of conference calls.
The inherent nature of a non-profit is that they are supposed to be trying to leave the bulk of their money for the use of the charity, whatever that is, but they still have activites that need to be performed to keep the non-profit going. One of the thise activities is soliciting donations and conference calls work well when you are trying to get a group together to get donations. Many of the non-profits have found that soliciting donations in a group setting is more effective than doing it one on one. There is a herd mentality when someone provides a donation and others are present. The other participants do not want ot be out done and are more willing to contribute. A conference call allows a non-profit to perform this type of activity without the need for an in person meeting. And just like a for profit company, they save time and money by performing it on a conference call. And the participants benefit as well since they do not have to leave their home or office to participate on a conference call.
Another activity that would be very costly for a non-profit without the help of conference calls is the regular board meetings that need to tak place to run their charity. Usually there is a benefactor and a board of trustees that needs to meet on a regular basis to help runa non-profit organization and many times they are spread around the country. Without the help of a conference call the participants would need to travel to a central location and incur the high cost of travel and so forth to attend the meeting. Not only is it more expensive, but many of the members would not be able to attend without the conference call.
And, in many cases the actual activities of the non-profit itself are assisted by the use of a conference call. Depending on what the charity provides, the use of conference calls allows them to perform their charity without the need to physically be present where they are doing their work. Sometimes this means they can assist more people across a wider geographic area because they can do it remotely. It also means they can perform more work because they are not incurring the high cost of travel, even within their local area to perform some of their activities.
So, don’t think that conference calls only help the bottom line of a for profit company, they help non-profits as well.