How Claire House Children’s Hospice raised over £100,000 against a £65,676 goal by reactivating the right lapsed donors

Claire House Children’s Hospice provides specialist nursing and end-of-life care for seriously and terminally ill children. In 2025, the team launched a targeted appeal to fund a rapid response vehicle for children needing urgent care.

The campaign raised just over £100,000 against a £65,676 target. It became their strongest summer appeal to date and marked a clear shift in targeting: mailing lapsed donors who had mostly been excluded from past appeals.

Testing which donors were ready to re-engage

The small fundraising team at Claire House Children’s Hospice stays at the forefront of new approaches. But after several years of campaigns focused on recently active donors, the team wanted a more reliable way to decide who to include, without defaulting to a broad mail file.

They partnered with Dataro to guide targeting so the team could reach the right supporters at the right time.

When we began exploring Dataro, our decision-making process was driven by a clear need to modernise how we work. We wanted to save money by using our resources more efficiently, and we recognised that relying on historical bias and intuition alone wasn’t sustainable. We needed to make confident, data-led decisions.

Vicky McKellar

Individual Giving Manager @ Claire House Children's Hospice

Balancing reactivation with gift potential

For this campaign, Claire House used Dataro’s predictions to introduce two new segments:

1. Lapsed predictions: supporters who had not given in more than 24 months but showed signs of re-engagement.

2. >£500 predictions: supporters with lower likelihood to give but higher potential gift size.

The team allocated 42% of the mailing file to lapsed supporters, testing whether reactivation could meaningfully contribute to campaign performance while reducing the risk of repeatedly mailing the same active donors.

A small number of reactivated donors drove a large share of income, including a £25,000 gift

Using Dataro’s rankings as a guide across warm, lapsed and higher-value potential donors, the team reduced overall volume and focused on supporters showing stronger signals of intent and value.

By the end of the summer, the appeal raised more than £100,000 with:

• £65,676 target largely surpassed

• 7.6% response rate, the highest of any comparable campaign

• £70,101 raised from direct mail responders

From the lapsed segment: the team received 51 donations and one £25,000 gift, representing 36% of matched appeal income.

Dataro has helped us make much smarter, data-driven decisions by taking the human bias out of the process. Every programme it has touched is now working in a more targeted and effective way, and ultimately we’re seeing it deliver more income. It’s given us a clearer, evidence-based approach that strengthens our fundraising across the board.

Vicky McKellar

Individual Giving Manager @ Claire House Children's Hospice

While the response rate from lapsed supporters sat below average at 1.7%, the impact came from identifying the small number of donors capable of making a significant contribution. Not everyone will re-engage, but the right few can materially affect the result.

Extending reactivation testing to churn segments

Claire House is now testing more Dataro rankings across the donor file. Next up: thank-you calls for regular givers at risk of cancelling, and targeted outreach to supporters who have recently lapsed.

Confident in the combination of Dataro’s predictions and the team’s expertise, the team is continuing to test and grow.

Trust in the data and don’t look into the rankings too much…just go with it.

Vicky McKellar

Individual Giving Manager @ Claire House Children's Hospice