Thinking differently about avoiding new conference call charges
At a time when the charity sector is facing increased financial pressures, trustees and senior managers are faced with a greater challenge than ever before to keep running costs down. For those charities with various offices and centres of operations, and a requirement for field staff to participate in meetings, the need to minimise disruption and the cost of face to face discussion is a constant challenge.
New call charges
Unfortunately, many charities may be completely unaware of new call charges affecting the amount of money spent on conference call services, a key tool for meetings and planning. These new charges necessitate charities not being frightened of looking outside traditional or longer established communication channels and providers to seek alternative solutions, even if this means embracing new technology.
In December 2015 the True and Fair Foundation published a controversial and highly critical report entitled A Review of Charitable Spending by UK Charities, claiming charities spend a minority of their income on charitable purposes.
Covering the public accounts of 5,543 charities with income over £0.5m, the report concluded that 292 charities, with a combined income of £2.4 billion, spent 10% or less on their charitable activities.
While the report was widely dismissed as inaccurate and misleading by sector figures, it shone the spotlight on charities’ expenditure once more.
With a number of similar negative reports on charity expenditure in recent years, the pressure is on for charities to avoid what could be viewed as unnecessary or wasteful spending.
Administration costs
Conference calling remains a popular method of conducting meetings for many organisations, allowing multiple participants to be on a call from different locations and save the expense of travelling to meetings.
Although specific figures on conference call spending are not readily available for many charities, data on their administration costs, which conference calling would fall under, is often available on websites and gives an idea of what is currently being spent in this area.
Data from NCVO's Civil Society Almanac suggests that in the fiscal year 2012/13 the sector’s total expenditure was £39.3 billion of which less than 2% was spent on the governance and running of an organisation, which includes administrations costs. As a more concrete example, well known charity the Red Cross states on its website that just 1% of its £256.6 million expenditure for 2014 was spend on governance.
While these are small percentages of overall spend, they are still large amounts of money - £700 million and £2.5 million respectively - and anything that can be done to cut this back further and make charities aware of potential charges and pitfalls should be encouraged.
Service number charges
On 1 July 2015, Ofcom introduced changes for service numbers (numbers starting 084, 087, 09 or 118). Many of these numbers are used to dial in to popular conference call services and, since the changes, calls are now costing organisations up to 95% more. Despite this increase, there is little awareness of the issue and its potential impact on budgets.
The average service charge for calling the 08 numbers provided by six UK conferencing services is now an additional 6.64p per minute. Since Ofcom made its announcement, some mobile providers have also significantly increased their access rates – 02 has raised its access charge from 25p per minute to 45p per minute with other mobile phone operators charging a similar rate.
Research into conference call service providers using service numbers shows that the average charge for a 40 minute call will now cost £11.31 from a mobile or £6.16 from a landline.
The lack of awareness of these new call charges means charities hoping to keep running costs down, may end up facing an unexpected bill when dialling into a conference call and, as a result, be over spending by thousands of pounds per year.
Looking at alternatives
A recent financial sustainability review into the sector by NCVO highlighted that the price of key goods and services commonly used by voluntary organisations has significantly risen in price. Simultaneously, charities have also seen support from local authorities reduced due to budgetary pressures, meaning they have to spend more to receive services they previously received free or at a discounted rate.
Conference calling is no different and with service charges rising for conference call numbers from some of the UK’s most popular providers, many charities may wish to consider other options. In the digital age, there are more efficient and cheaper services available to organisations looking to change provider, many of which are run by smaller technology SMEs rather than larger corporations.
The same report also found that sector investment into digital technologies has increased as organisations try to do more with less and use websites, social media and online conference tools as a way of generating income and facilitating administration.
However, digital capabilities vary across organisations. The Lloyds Bank UK Business Digital Index which measures the use of, and attitudes towards, digital technology found that 58% of charities had no basic digital skills, compared with 23% of small businesses.
Given the potential for technology to help charities generate and use their resources more effectively and aid with administration, it is important that digital skills and knowledge in the sector are improved in relation to telecoms.
Improving awareness and choice
Conference calls remain an ideal way to conduct meetings and save money on travel expenses. However, there is an opportunity to save even more money, and greater awareness of the new call charges is needed so that charity executives can make a more informed decision about the services they use and ensure that vital funds are not spent unnecessarily.
An improved understanding by charities of the ever expanding range of services offered by technology SMEs in this area, away from the more traditional offerings by larger providers, is also fundamental in order to increase choice and facilitate cost efficiency.
