MAZON unified donor data with digital fundraising and achieved 45% online conversion

MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger is a US non-profit working to end hunger across faiths and backgrounds. The team advocates for systemic change at federal, state and local levels so elected officials act on the reality that millions of Americans struggle to put food on the table.

A small development team supports more than 30,000 active donors. For years, every appeal went to the entire file. The work was manual, the segmentation was rough and the approach was getting harder to defend as costs rose and donors expected more relevance.

In 2024, MAZON brought in Dataro to bring precision to their appeals. The first campaign raised 23% more than the previous year on a 10% smaller list. More donors gave. The average gift grew 21% to $130.

Headline results

MAZON's first appeal with Dataro:

• $91,075 raised

• 23% more revenue year on year

• 3% more donations received

• 21% larger average gift, at $130

• 10% smaller mailing list

Year-on-year comparisons are to the 2023 appeal.

The problem: blanket outreach was the default

MAZON's old appeal process treated every donor the same. The same letter went to the full file regardless of giving history, preferences or capacity.

The team tried to fix this with manual segmentation. It helped, but it took one to two days and several spreadsheets per campaign. It also missed signals already sitting in the data. Major donors were sometimes asked for amounts based on a small tribute gift instead of their full giving history.

The cost was real. Wasted print, postage and donor goodwill on people who weren't ready to give. Missed revenue from donors who deserved a different ask. A small team spending capacity on list pulls instead of donor strategy.

The decision: who to engage right now

Dataro sits on top of MAZON's Salesforce NPSP as a decision layer and scores active donors with an appeal propensity model. Scores refresh weekly, in Dataro and in the CRM.

For the 2024 High Holiday appeal, MAZON used those scores to answer one question: who should we engage right now? The team excluded donors with a low propensity to give to the appeal. The list shrank by 10%.

How it fits the workflow:

• Where it lives: on top of Salesforce NPSP, with weekly score refreshes

• What it produces: ranked donor scores and a recommended appeal audience

• How the team acts: pulls a smaller, sharper mail file in hours instead of days

The result: more revenue, fewer sends

The smaller, sharper list raised 23% more than the 2023 appeal.

• More donors gave. The multi-year decline in active appeal donors reversed, setting aside an outlier year in 2022.

• Average gift rose 21% to $130, helped by more relevant outreach and ask amounts.

• Mail file preparation dropped from one to two days down to a few hours.

For MAZON, precision became the strategy. Fewer letters. More revenue. Less waste.