UNICEF is a leading global non-profit organisation working to improve the lives of children in need. As an organisation that is entirely donor-funded, UNICEF Australia relies on the generosity of individual donors to finance their work.

In 2020, UNICEF Australia teamed up with Dataro to enhance their direct mail appeal campaign targeting and raise more funds, more efficiently using AI.

Dataro’s AI donor predictions have since become the cornerstone of UNICEF’s data practices, delivering enhanced donor experiences, positive returns, and better outcomes for children in need.

By utilising Dataro’s AI-driven targeting approach to make their direct mail appeal selections, UNICEF Australia has consistently raised more funds in their direct mail appeals, with reduced outreach and cost and increased efficiency.

Key results

Using AI to identify the right donors for their direct mail appeals, UNICEF Australia achieved:

• An increase in gross return, despite mailing 15,000 fewer individuals

• 26% uplift in appeal net revenue

• 35% increase in campaign ROI

• Saved $30k in direct mail expenses

How we did it

Since 2020, UNICEF Australia has been collaborating with Dataro to enhance the efficiency of their appeals selection process and drive improved fundraising outcomes. Prior to using Dataro’s AI donor propensities, the charity relied on laborious and basic segmentation methods such as RFM for their appeal targeting, which often resulted in missed donations from donors and wasted outreach to donors who were unlikely to give.

Through machine learning, Dataro’s Direct Mail propensity model was integrated into UNICEF Australia’s Salesforce CRM, generating propensity scores and ranks for all of their active cash donors. These scores were updated weekly in the charity’s CRM and used to make appeal selections.

Analysing the results

As a consequence of using Dataro’s predictions, UNICEF Australia was able to target a smaller audience for their tax appeal, reducing mailing volume by 15,000 and saving $30K in costs. Despite sending significantly fewer letters, they generated more gross revenue and increased net appeal income by 26% and achieved a 35% increase in campaign ROI.

The Christmas Appeal in 2020 experienced similar success, generating a $32,401 increase in net revenue and 265 additional donations, despite mailing 6,200 fewer individuals. These outcomes have given the charity the confidence to solely rely on Dataro’s AI predictions for all of their appeal targeting.

UNICEF Australia has since incorporated the use of Dataro into their regular operations, allowing their entire team of fundraising experts to utilise Dataro’s models for selecting donors across other fundraising programs, such as recurring giving and Gifts in Wills, and to target their engagement email communications and telemarketing campaigns.

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