MDS provides a complete array of telephone fundraising services for non-profit organizations. Outstanding results, unparalleled quality, reasonable prices and attentive customer service have led many of the nation's largest and most respected non-profit organizations to partner with MDS Communications.

tested

MDS has a winning record against every major telephone fundraising vendor in the industry. We have successfully won split tests for all types of calling campaigns including renewal, reactivation, sustainer invite and more.

proven

Time and time again MDS meets or exceeds the campaign objectives of the organizations we serve. We never stop trying to improve because we are committed to providing the very best.

trusted

MDS has been in the industry since 1992. We have dedicated our careers to understanding and enhancing telephone fundraising services and have become one of the nation’s largest and most respected telephone fundraising companies.

why is mds different? we understand your needs.

MDS understands your needs because we were founded by the development director of a small non-profit organization, not a telemarketing professional. We know what it’s like to report to a board and use volunteers to complete office work. We understand the struggle to increase the size of a donor file when it’s so hard just maintaining the donors you already have. We get it.

That’s why we set up our relationships with our clients the way we do. We believe there should be no financial risk whatsoever to the non-profit organization. Every cent of the money received from donors gets mailed directly to the non-profit organization and then MDS is paid separately for our services.

The non-profit organization should always be in control. Our contracts have a one day cancellation clause. What does that mean? Basically, you can cancel your contract at any time for any reason. There is not another telephone fundraising company in the country who offers this level of control.

Why do we do this? First of all, because when you are talking about organizations funded through the generosity and sacrifice of others, it’s the right thing to do. But practically speaking, because we have incredible confidence that you will be satisfied with our results, customer service and pricing.

corporate overview

MDS Communications is one of the nation’s largest telephone fundraising providers. In fact, based upon state regulatory reporting websites, MDS has more registered non-profit clients than any other company in the country.

MDS was founded in 1992 by Jay Mount in Phoenix, Arizona. MDS has over 400 employees. MDS utilizes state of the art technology in the services we provide our clients and is PCI compliant. We serve over 40 national and regional non-profit organizations, the vast majority of which have been with us for many years.

MDS’s specialty is telephone fundraising for non-profit organizations, both outbound and inbound. In fact that is our SOLE focus. We do not work in for-profit commercial sales for the simple fact that we want to be the best at what we do!

That single-minded focus has allowed us to constantly work on enhancing our skills at raising money over the telephone. It has also allowed us to claim the title of “The Nation’s Top Performing Telephone Fundraising Company” when we beat our rivals in split tests over the past few years.

Mission & Values

“In 1992, we wrote the following mission and values statements as a tool to guide our decision making as we grew as a company. Today, I am proud to say that not one word of those guiding principles needs to be updated or changed. They are still as relevant as they were at our founding.”

Jay Mount
President

Our Mission

MDS Communications provides high quality telephone fundraising services to many of the largest and most respected non-profit organizations, ministries and political/public policy causes in the United States. Our mission is to “lower the cost of telephone fundraising for non-profit organizations, whether they are MDS clients or not, and to be a catalyst for change in the fundraising industry.”

Our Values

• To uphold absolute integrity in all we do.
• To conduct ourselves in a manner that honors the commitment and sacrifices made by donors when they give to non-profit organizations.
• To treat our clients, their supporters, their prospective supporters and each other with the utmost respect.
• To conduct ourselves professionally at all times (that doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun now and again).
• To examine our personal and professional actions in the context of our commitment to Christ.

Corporate Philosophy

At MDS, we work hard to constantly implement new strategies and work towards better end results for our clients. We are always asking questions like: “Why?” and “What if?” Our goal is to do things a little bit better today than we did yesterday.

Our standard is not based upon how our competitors perform. Our standard is based only on what we know we could do. We don’t believe that we’ve ever “done our best”. We believe there’s always a way to do something a little bit better. And we’re constantly striving to find that one thing.

Passion

We get to support causes that make a difference. That’s our passion. That is what drives us in our pursuit of excellence. It is why the people of MDS Communications work here instead of somewhere else, from the owner down to the newest Telephone Fundraising Specialist.

We are very selective about what non-profit organizations we work with. We are not hired guns or mercenaries. If we can’t get excited about a non-profit’s mission, we will pass on the work.

A company is defined by the intelligence, work ethic, creativity and integrity of the people who work there. MDS is a company that does not pretend to be something that it is not. We're not rocket scientists and we didn't invent the telephone. Most of us leave at quitting time to go to the place we much prefer over work, home and our families. We understand who we are and what we are about and we stick to what we are good at, which is raising money for non-profit organizations over the telephone.

Our People on the Phones

At the core of any great company are two or three undeniable strengths that distinguish you from the rest. At MDS one of these strengths is our Telephone Fundraising Specialists (TFS). They are by far the best professional telephone fundraisers in the business.

We are very particular when it comes to who we hire because we want to provide our clients with the best possible results and donor care available. We start by paying our TFS's better than any other telephone fundraising company in the country. This allows us to be incredibly selective during the hiring process. It takes a certain kind of personality and a genuine commitment to the missions and values of our clients. MDS only hires about 5% of all our applicants, which we believe is the highest hiring standard in the industry.

The next step is our comprehensive, hands on training program. This allows us to fully cultivate the skills and professionalism we require from every TFS. Our full-time training coaches spend countless hours with each new hire until we feel they are ready to be promoted to a full-time Telephone Fundraising Specialist. Even after a new hire is promoted, continued training occurs throughout the length of their employment with MDS.

"Every phone call I make or receive is an opportunity to make a positive impact."

Patricia joined MDS in 2013
Communication Specialist

Quality and Coaching Philosophy

Anyone can claim to have the "highest quality," but what does it really take to get there?

Quality is not the end result of some creative trademarked slogan. Quality is the end result of a lot of hard work. Plain and simple. It's not about empty boasts. It's about consistency, diligence, patience and insight.

We believe there are five principles that build outstanding quality:

1.) Well paid, professional agents. MDS has the highest starting pay of any major telephone fundraising company.

2.) Employees committed to the causes they represent. Many of our clients tell us that our call centers are the most cause and mission oriented that they have ever encountered.

3.) Comprehensive training in telephone fundraising techniques and thorough training regarding the specific organization.

4.) Strong quality control management tools including digital recording of all calls and proactive use of those tools for the improvement of the agent.

5.) Zero tolerance of rudeness or integrity issues.

MDS excels at all five of these principles.

We go way beyond simply encouraging integrity, we assure it! And we have a zero tolerance policy for people who lack integrity whether it's an employee, a vendor or a client. The end Result is simple: outstanding performance, virtually no complaints and the best call possible.

Quality and Coaching Departments

One hundred percent of our Quality Assurance department and Supervisory staff are former Telephone Fundraising Specialists. They were promoted because of their quality and excellence on the phones as well as their leadership skills. Without exception, we have found that the best people to work with and improve our TFS's are those who have been in the trenches and understand exactly what it takes.

The dedicated professionals of our Supervisory and Quality Assurance departments average in excess of ten years employment with MDS.

Client Services

The Client Services team at MDS is comprised of highly motivated and experienced fundraising professionals that are committed to the missions of the organizations we serve. We see ourselves as an extension of the organizations we team with.

Every calling campaign with MDS is managed by an experienced Account Manager who takes the project from start to finish. The Account Manager develops and oversees every aspect of your telephone fundraising campaign in coordination with your organization.

MDS Account Managers are responsible for understanding your organization's development goals, scheduling and implementing campaigns, writing telephone scripts and gift fulfillment letter packages, analyzing performance of calling programs and making ongoing adjustments to improve campaign results. They interface with all departments at MDS to ensure the implementation of campaign details and conduct calling campaign training for Telephone Fundraising Specialists.

IT / Data Analysis

MDS is committed to providing our clients with cutting edge technology. We are continually improving and upgrading our systems to meet the growing needs of the non-profits we serve.

As a PCI compliant service provider, we guarantee top level security of your donor database. We provide secure data transfers and real-time credit card processing with approved providers.

In addition to the standard reporting we provide to each of our clients, MDS offers complimentary custom reporting and file customization.

Our IT and Data Processing department is made up of experienced hardworking individuals. They are also experts at operating and improving the technological foundation that keeps MDS at the forefront of our industry.

Modeling & Analytics

MDS competitive pricing includes our ability to build custom models to meet the objectives of the organizations we serve. We develop custom models for our clients to enhance ROI, reactivation, response rates, average gift and more.

Each model is custom built to fit the unique objectives of the organization. The models and subsequent calling strategies are flexible and can be adjusted until we reach the desired end results. 

Fulfillment

Located at our headquarters, MDS runs a state of the art fulfillment center that mails tens of thousands of telephone follow-up letters each week.

We make sure that every piece of mail that MDS produces is top quality by using the best printers and direct mail equipment available. Quality is our number one priority. Our fulfillment staff ensures that the printing process runs smoothly and accurately by monitoring the automated process very closely.

In addition to a series of rigorous quality control measures, the staff randomly pulls mail pieces to check for accuracy of donor information as well as the overall appearance of the fulfillment package.

Finance

The Finance Department at MDS works to ensure accurate and timely billing to our clients.

They also diligently complete mountains of regulatory paperwork required to maintain our state and federal compliance. In addition, they provide our clients with any needed support on filing state financial reports.

Our Finance team performs detailed budget to actual financial presentations which enable the management staff to control costs and keep our pricing to our clients as low as possible.

Executive Management / Ownership

MDS was founded by Jay Mount in 1992 and is owned by Jay & Laurie Mount. Jay serves as the President of the company and actively oversees the day-to-day operations of the business. His responsibilities include supervision of the senior management team and direct management of the donor acquisition portion of the business.

Laurie Mount serves as Chief Results Officer, a position dedicated solely to maximizing client results through creative strategy, extensive data analysis and the creation of a dedicated agent system in the call centers. In addition, Laurie has garnered a reputation as one of the finest script/copy writers in the country and was known by one client as ”The Velvet Sledgehammer.“

MDS specializes in both outbound and inbound fundraising calls for renewal, reactivation and acquisition efforts. For each MDS calling campaign our Account Management team determines, with your organization, what the objective of the calling effort is and builds a strategy to best meet that goal.

Renewal Calling

Current Donor Single Gift Call

The most common renewal effort we conduct is a call that asks donors to renew their support with a one-time gift. The script includes a strong thank you for the donor's previous support and an opportunity to give again. We recommend a multi-channel effort that uses messaging similar to what the donor is seeing in the mail, web, etc. from the organization.

New Donor Call

Acquiring a second gift from a new donor is crucial. Using the phone as a thank you and an opportunity to invite the donor to give again is very successful. MDS regularly contacts new donors with the objective of getting the second gift or to become a sustainer donor.

Sustainer Call

MDS contacts donors to invite them to become a sustainer donor. Select segments of the current donor file can be contacted to invite donors to an organization's monthly giving program. In addition, MDS is very effective in contacting current sustainer donors and asking them to increase their monthly support. These calls are designed to first be a thank you call to the donor for the ongoing support they provide with the upgrade ask being secondary.

Thank you/Welcome Call

MDS utilizes the phones for contacting supporters with non-fundraising messages such as thank you calls, welcome calls, survey calls, etc. This is a high level call where the objective is not to raise immediate revenue, but instead to build a strong relationship with the donor that helps to further connect them to the organization.

Reactivation Calling

Lapsed donor reactivation is vital to the health of any donor file. The phone is a very successful tool for regaining the support of past donors. If a donor has received mail for more than a year or two and hasn't given a single gift, it is clearly time to try another approach. The high level touch of a telephone call is often exactly what the donor needs to resume their support.

MDS has built our pricing structure to allow non-profit organizations to go deeper into their lapsed files and reactivate more lapsed supporters. We understand the great value in reactivation and that is why our pricing to this segment of the file is less expensive than for current donor calling.

MDS uses data analysis to determine the best segments to penetrate in a lapsed calling effort. We are able to adjust the call strategy to match your objectives whether it is aggressive reactivation with lower revenue or less aggressive reactivation and higher revenue. The flexibility of telephone fundraising allows us to make immediate changes to meet the goals for the campaign.

Acquisition calling

If you aren't growing you are dying. In order to grow, it is essential to continually be acquiring new donors to your organization. Most organizations have a list of people that have shown an interest in the organization at some point but have not made the next step to become a financial supporter. MDS uses the phone to contact these potential donors in an attempt to acquire a gift.

In addition, we have extensive experience in rental list acquisition. MDS works with the top list vendors in the country to identify the best prospects for your organization to contact by phone with an acquisition effort.

Inbound Telephone Fundraising

Is your organization using radio, DRTV, print ads or the web to drive interest and support to your organization? If so, MDS can offer our fundraising expertise to your effort by taking those inbound calls. MDS' top performance isn't just in outbound calling. We are one of the best in the industry for receiving calls from your current and potential supporters and acquiring a gift.

Mailing Services

MDS has our own on-site mailing center. On top of the tens of thousands of telephone pledge and follow-up letters we send each week, MDS is able to provide mailing services for special mailing efforts.

MDS Communications serves over 40 of the nation's largest and most respected non-profit organizations and Christian ministries, many of which are household names across the country. Most of our clients have been with us for 10 to 15 years, or longer.

A small sampling of our current ongoing clients include:

Join Our Team

Thank you for your interest in applying for a career at MDS Communications. If you are interested in a career that truly makes a difference, apply today.

We are presently hiring for the following positions:

"I work for MDS because I feel like God's presence is here and there's lots of love, and great people. The work that is being done around the world with MDS is amazing! I enjoy being a part of it and making a difference! God Bless."

James joined MDS in 2004
Communication Specialist

Sign up for our “Do Not Call” list

Since MDS only makes non-profit, charitable and political calls, we are exempt from the federal do-not-call registry and most state do-not-call lists. However, we understand that you may prefer not to receive phone calls.

If you would like to be added to the MDS do-not-call list, please complete the form below. (One for each number you wish to register) You will be added to the MDS do-not-call list for a period of 5 years (the same length of time as the federal do-not-call registry).

Thank you.