FUNDRAISING
OPERATING ARCHIVE · 2013–2026
Good fundraising does not pressure people
The job is to find people who want to help and can afford to help, not to sign up everybody who answers.
Read the articleRESULTS & STORIES
THE WORK, THE NUMBERS AND THE PEOPLE
Thirteen years of work, finally written down.
We spent years doing the work instead of writing about it. The company has been running calls since 2013; this public record began in July 2026. Every article says when the experience came from and when we wrote it down. The strongest results are first. The rest stay grouped by subject until you choose what you want to read.
THE MOST IMPORTANT FUNDRAISING JOB · 29 JULY 2026
Finding the people who love your charity
The donation is not the whole relationship. Find the people who truly care, learn why the cause matters to them and give that love somewhere real to grow.
Read the main articleLIVE APPEAL ARCHIVE · 2020
The only call centre on RTÉ Does Comic Relief
Forty agents. About 8,000 of roughly 10,000 incoming calls answered in two and a half hours. Ali and Rickie appeared on the television coverage from the call centre. More than €5 million was raised through phone and online giving on the night.
Read the full recordHOW GOOD CALLS BEGIN · 29 JULY 2026
The first 30 seconds decide an outbound call
Say who you are. Say why you are calling. Then listen. The opening is not about forcing a result; it is where the person decides whether they like and trust the caller.
Read the articleHOW WE CHOOSE CALLERS · 29 JULY 2026
Why early results mean nothing when I choose callers
A few quick conversions can be luck. Before the numbers settle, one measure tells me far more: how long people choose to stay talking to the caller.
Read the articleBrowse by subject
Fundraising and donor work8 articles
THE STAFF FAVOURITE
OPERATING ARCHIVE · 2013–2026
Charity upgrades: the staff favourite campaign
Donors already know the charity, so upgrade calls become warm conversations about their own journey with the cause.
Read the articleTHE EMOTIONAL WORK
OPERATING ARCHIVE · 2013–2026
The hardest charity calls stay with the agent
Calls involving homelessness, a dying child or a bereaved parent can affect even experienced fundraisers long after the conversation ends.
Read the articleSOCIAL-MEDIA LEADS
OPERATING ARCHIVE · 2013–2026
Five attempts is a plan, not a rule
ContactCentre.ie normally makes about five attempts on a social lead, then uses the live contact rate to decide whether another pass is justified.
Read the articlePROTECTING THE RELATIONSHIP
OPERATING ARCHIVE · 2013–2026
Why we do not over-dial people who know the charity
Random-number polling can require hard dialling, but existing donors, customers and hand-raisers must be treated as relationships rather than spare numbers.
Read the articleFUNDRAISING CHANNELS
CHANNEL ARCHIVE · BEFORE AND AFTER 2020
When direct-response television stopped working
Before television response collapsed after Covid, ContactCentre.ie was signing up about 25,000 regular donors a year from the channel.
Read the articleFUNDRAISING LEAD QUALITY
FUNDRAISING METHOD · LEADS BEFORE WORDING
Why a fundraising audience cannot be too general
A fundraising list can produce answered calls and emotional conversations while still reaching too few people who can and intend to give.
Read the articleFIXING THE OPENING
CAMPAIGN CHANGE · RESULT UP 400%
The letter was the touchpoint, not the message
A fundraising call built around an unread letter failed until ContactCentre.ie changed the opening and lifted the result by 400%.
Read the articleMarket research and elections8 articles
BUSINESS SURVEYS
OPERATING ARCHIVE · 2013–2026
How we reach the hardest business respondents
Experienced Donegal callers reach senior business people because they sound trustworthy, human and very difficult to refuse.
Read the articleELECTION RESEARCH
FIELDWORK ARCHIVE · 2016
How a Donegal team saw Brexit at 52–48
ContactCentre.ie completed about 100,000 short Brexit surveys and its calls showed the final 52–48 split.
Read the articleWHAT THE LISTS NOW SHOW
OBSERVED RESULTS · 2022–2026
The contact rates have fallen—and pretending otherwise costs money
Social-lead, donor-upgrade and reactivation contact rates have all fallen, increasing the hours needed to complete campaigns.
Read the articleRESEARCH DIALLING
OPERATING ARCHIVE · 2013–2026
Why power dialling is essential for random-number polls
Random-number research lists can require dozens of attempts to produce one live voice, making careful automatic dialling essential.
Read the articleTWO DIFFERENT DISCIPLINES
OPERATING ARCHIVE · 2013–2026
Surveys must be exact; fundraising must be free
Research callers ask every fixed question as written to protect the result, while fundraising callers control the human conversation.
Read the articleNOT ALL SUCCESS IS GOOD WORK
INTERNATIONAL WORK ARCHIVE
A successful American poll we refused to repeat
ContactCentre.ie completed successful American political polling but stopped because overnight hours were wrong for the Donegal team.
Read the articleREGIONAL ELECTION WORK
ELECTION ARCHIVE · 2016–2024
Election fieldwork is more than one national number
ContactCentre.ie has delivered constituency, mayoral, regional and national telephone election work across Britain and Ireland.
Read the articleWHEN A CAMPAIGN GOES BAD
OPERATING METHOD · ABOUT 100 CAMPAIGNS A YEAR
How I know the campaign is the problem
ContactCentre.ie uses about ten proven agents as an unprompted test when a campaign struggles, separating a campaign problem from a caller problem almost immediately.
Read the articleGreat callers and real conversations9 articles
CALLBACKS
OPERATING ARCHIVE · 2013–2026
Why the same agent must make the callback
A promised callback works because the person gave their word to a caller they liked, not to a random voice from the same company.
Read the articleEXPERIENCED AGENTS
OPERATING ARCHIVE · 2013–2026
You cannot teach masters of conversation
Experienced callers teach younger agents to listen, make jokes and care, but the best callers have judgement no script can create.
Read the articleSMALL EXPERIENCED TEAM
OPERATING ARCHIVE · 2013–2026
Why 15 great callers beat 100 seats
ContactCentre.ie would rather put 15 proven callers on the work than compete with a 100-seat operation full of unknown voices.
Read the articlePROTECTING GREAT AGENTS
OPERATING ARCHIVE · 2013–2026
Why we run research and fundraising together
Two different kinds of calling let ContactCentre.ie move good agents away from pressure without losing them.
Read the articleOUR PROMISE
OPERATING ARCHIVE · 2013–2026
The one thing to remember about ContactCentre.ie
Give ContactCentre.ie good work and the people called will not have a better call-centre experience anywhere else.
Read the articleUNASKED-FOR PRAISE
OPERATING ARCHIVE · 2013–2026
When people write to the client about the caller
People regularly contact end clients to praise ContactCentre.ie callers, offer them jobs and describe them as a credit to the organisation.
Read the articleWHEN PEOPLE NEED TO TALK
OPERATING ARCHIVE · 2013–2026
A 20-minute conversation with no sale can be the right call
ContactCentre.ie callers may spend twenty minutes listening to somebody's story even when they know no fundraising result will follow.
Read the articleBUILDING THE RIGHT MIX
OPERATING ARCHIVE · 2013–2026
Why great callers can be too slow
The very best callers protect conversion and show the standard, while faster solid callers help the campaign make money.
Read the articleSTAFF RETENTION
OPERATING ARCHIVE · 2013–2026
Why our best agents have stayed for 13 years
Fifteen ContactCentre.ie agents have remained since the centre opened because flexibility and human support run in both directions.
Read the articleChoosing work and keeping our word4 articles
CHOOSING CLIENTS
OPERATING ARCHIVE · 2013–2026
Why we refuse about half the work offered
ContactCentre.ie normally has five or six offers in front of it and chooses clients partly by whether they are decent people to work with.
Read the articleFALSE SAVINGS
CAMPAIGN RETURN · 2026
The cheaper call centre was over 600% more expensive
A charity wanted to go somewhere cheaper. The cost for each new donor ended up over 600% more expensive.
Read the articleKEEPING OUR WORD
OPERATING ARCHIVE · 2013–2026
Keeping my word can cost me money
When an honestly described survey took twice as long as quoted, ContactCentre.ie kept the agreed price and completed the work.
Read the articleWHERE THE WORK PAYS
OPERATING ARCHIVE · 2013–2026
Our three best kinds of work
Charity upgrades lead ContactCentre.ie's margins, followed by client-supplied business lists and consumer research.
Read the article
TEAM FUNDRAISING DAY
Our Special Olympics superhero day
The office became a superhero headquarters for a fundraising day supporting Special Olympics Ireland. These are the original photographs from the team.
Read the storyWant this team on your campaign?
Tell us the work and the result you need returned.