Paid phone solicitors call people who have previously given and ask them to give again. Paid phone solicitors call people who have never given, but who have been deemed good prospects. Volunteers call people who have never given but who have been deemed good prospects. Poorly paid phone solicitors call people at random. Poorly trained volunteers call people at random.
People often wonder whether to use paid phone solicitors.
If they are well trained, paid a salary plus a bonus for money raised, and have some basic belief in the organization, paid phone solicitors can be very effective. They have a greater detachment than volunteers do from the donors, which allows them not to take rejection personally. Because they are being paid a salary they don't need to try to pressure anyone into making a gift, and their bonus gives them an incentive to work through the list. Volunteers, on the other hand, are bound to be more sincere and will know more about the group and its work. They can let the person being called know that they are a volunteer, which tends to soften the heart of the most abrupt phone curmudgeon.