Bristol & Weston raised 161% more net revenue by mailing only the top 500 donors
Mailing everyone used to feel like the safest bet. But as response rates fell and costs rose, the team needed a way to make a smaller, defensible mail file without losing revenue.
The old world was “send to all,” and returns kept getting worse
Bristol & Weston Hospital Charity is committed to helping its hospitals go the extra mile for patients and families. But over time, direct mail appeal performance was declining, and the usual segmentation approaches weren’t delivering strong returns.
The team also wanted a simpler, faster way to make a defensible mailing decision without spending hours building lists.
The turning point was choosing precision over volume
In 2023, the team partnered with Dataro to test a different operating posture for appeals:
Use their own donor data to prioritize who to contact right now
Make a smaller, higher-confidence mail file
Learn fast, then scale what works
For the Christmas 2023 appeal, the team set a clear constraint: mail to 500 people.
The new rhythm: CRM → decision → mail file
Dataro integrated with the charity’s CRM (Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT) to generate appeal-giving propensities for active cash donors. Predictions were refreshed weekly and written back to each donor record as both a likelihood percentage and a rank.
That created a repeatable weekly workflow:
Where it lives: Inside the CRM, on the donor record
What it produces: Ranked donors and a clear cutoff for the mail file
How the team acts: Pull the top-ranked donors, set the threshold, and mail with confidence
The proof: higher response, more net revenue, and a dramatically smaller file
For Christmas 2023, Bristol & Weston mailed only the top 500 predicted donors, which was an 86% reduction in mail volume year over year.
Results reported:
Net revenue increased 161% year over year
Response rate rose from 4.9% (2022) to 18.1% (Christmas 2023)
Mail file reduced by 86% year over year
Campaign ROI increased by 331%
Dataro has completely changed how we think about our appeals and approach our targeting. We had been spending a lot on our appeals and not getting the return back. Our previous targeting approach was no longer working for us. With Dataro, we can easily and accurately rank our supporter base in terms of who is most likely to donate again. Our hyper-targeted approach to our Christmas Appeal helped us save costs and lift response rates from 5% to 18%. In addition, we achieved a 160% increase in net appeal revenue and tripled our campaign ROI. These results exceeded our expectations, and Dataro has completely changed how we think about our appeals and approach our targeting.
Sam Foreman, Individual Giving and Legacy Manager @ Bristol & Weston Hospital Charity
Start with one appeal where list quality is the biggest lever.
Set a constraint (a fixed mail volume or a clear ROI goal) so decisions stay practical.
Use ranked prioritization to build a smaller file you can defend internally.
Measure vs the prior campaign and expand scope only after proof is clear.
Cut your next appeal file without cutting revenue
Share your last appeal results and your current file size. We will show you a simple, low-lift way to set a smaller, higher-confidence mail cutoff for your next campaign.
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