How Edinburgh Dog & Cat Home Used AI to Grow Their Recurring Giving Program

Edinburgh Dog & Cat Home (EDCH) has been rescuing and rehoming animals in need for over 140 years. With an increasing reliance on sustainable revenue streams to fund its mission, EDCH sought to grow its recurring giving program and engage and retain its individual giving donors more effectively.

In 2024, the charity partnered with Dataro to explore how AI could help optimize their recuring giving program by helping them identify:

1. high-potential donors to upgrade their monthly gift
2. lapsed recurring gift donors most likely to reactivate
3. the best single-gift donors to convert to recurring giving

In their first campaign using Dataro’s AI recommendations to guide campaign targeting, EDCH successfully converted 35 new recurring monthly donors, reactivated 40 lapsed recurring givers, and upgraded 156 donors to increase the value of their recurring gift.

Key results:

Using Dataro’s smart AI audiences and predictive donor insights to target their recurring giving campaign activities, the charity saw:

• 156 monthly donors opt-in to upgrade their recurring gift value (37% conversion)
• 40 lapsed donors reactivate their recurring gifts
• 35 single-gift donors convert to recurring giving

How we did it:

Dataro helps nonprofits grow recurring giving programs and create more personalized donor experiences by identifying the next best action in a donor’s giving journey.

Dataro's Al-powered audience-building platform analyzes donor data to generate propensity scores, ranks, and smart donor segments to predict the best ask for donors and enable precise campaign targeting.

In this case, Edinburgh Dog & Cat Home brought data from their custom CRM into Dataro using our drag-and-drop data upload tool. Dataro's machine learning models then analyzed the data and generated predictive propensity scores and ranks for every donor in the charity's database. These scores are updated weekly in the Dataro platform to ensure they have timely and accurate insights to inform their campaign targeting.

For their first recurring giving campaign, Dataro’s software provided ranked lists and smart segments of donors most likely to:

• Upgrade their existing recurring gift value
• Reactivate recurring giving after lapsing
• Convert from one-time giving to a recurring giving program

By focusing on high-potential donors ready to take the next step in their giving journey, nonprofits can concentrate their efforts and resources on the donors and strategies that deliver the greatest impact.
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In this case, Dataro's insights helped EDCH's fundraising team identify the donors most likely to take a particular fundraising action, such as increasing the value of their recurring monthly gift, reactivating their recurring giving, or converting from one-time to recurring giving.

EDCH then used these respective donor lists to target their campaigns, tailoring asks and communications for the best results.

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Analyzing the results:

In their first campaign using Dataro’s AI donor insights and List Builder feature, Edinburgh Dog & Cat Home (EDCH) achieved outstanding results that surpassed expectations.

With Dataro’s insights, the charity's fundraising team successfully increased recurring giving revenue by upgrading the gifts of 156 recurring monthly donors. An impressive 37% of donors approached to increase their gifts opted to do so, showcasing the power of AI to identify the most committed donors for upgrade asks.

The campaign also expanded the charity’s recurring giving donor base by reactivating 40 lapsed donors and converting 35 single-gift donors to recurring giving. While donor acquisition is needed to scale recurring giving programs, the charity's focus on reactivating and converting existing donors proved a cost-effective approach for growing its donor base of monthly donors. Recurring monthly donors who are converted or reactivated also tend to have higher retention rates and lifetime value than those acquired directly into recurring giving programs.

By focusing on retention strategies and leveraging AI to target the right donors at the right time, EDCH not only maximized recurring giving revenue and grew its donor base but also optimized the efficiency of its fundraising efforts.

Additionally, EDCH secured new Gift Aid declarations, further boosting the value of recurring gifts and increasing the program’s overall impact.

Edinburgh Dog & Cat Home’s success demonstrates the transformative impact AI can have on growing, maintaining, and sustaining recurring giving programs. 

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What they said:

“Working with Dataro has been transformational for our individual giving. The List Builder allowed us to identify opportunities and prospects who wouldn’t have been on our radar otherwise. We were thrilled with the results, especially the 156 upgrades, with 37% of supporters opting to increase their gift.”

– Gillian MacAulay, Head of Fundraising