How the Baker Institute Uses AI to Power Smarter Omnichannel Appeals and Drive Record Results

Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute is one of Australia’s leading medical research organizations, dedicated to preventing and treating two of the nation’s biggest health challenges: heart disease and diabetes.

To fund this lifesaving work, the Institute depends on the generosity of donors through public appeals. These campaigns play a crucial role in bridging funding gaps, accelerating research, and keeping the community actively engaged in the Baker Institute’s mission.

In 2024, faced with rising campaign costs and a declining and aging donor base, the Baker Institute’s new fundraising team adopted a more strategic approach to their Tax Appeal - shifting from high-volume mailouts and gross revenue targets to an audience-first, omnichannel strategy focused on donor experience and net revenue. 

Leveraging Dataro’s AI-powered insights, the team tailored outreach by channel, engaging donors through direct mail, email, and telemarketing based on individual preferences and likelihood of giving or reactivating. 

The Baker Institute’s AI-powered audience strategy, combined with compelling creative and personalized messaging across every channel, delivered stronger donor engagement and record-breaking results. The 2024 Tax Appeal achieved the highest ROI in the organization’s history, grew gross revenue by 79%, increased total income by $216,000, lifted direct mail response rates by 4%, increased direct mail average gift by $40, and reduced mail volume by 8,000 packs.

These results demonstrate how an audience-first approach, powered by AI, combined with smart channel planning and donor-centered storytelling, can maximize returns and improve donor engagement.

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Key Results

The Baker Institute used Dataro’s AI-powered insights to turn powerful storytelling into support - ensuring the right audiences, received the right message, through the right channels at the right time in their donor journey.

This strategic, data-driven approach delivered record-breaking results including:

• 79% increase in gross revenue
• $216,000 uplift in total income
• 4% lift in direct mail response rate
• 8,000 fewer mail packs sent
• $40 lift in average gift for direct mail
• 270 lapsed donor reactions with an average response rate of 6.13%
• Highest ROI  recorded for a Baker Institute Tax Appeal
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How We Did It

Dataro helps nonprofits deliver stronger appeal performance by building high-performing donor audiences and identifying the next best action for every supporter - from who to contact, how much to ask, which channel to use, and how to optimize campaign size for maximum impact.

For their 2024 Tax Appeal, the Baker Institute set out to run a smarter, more efficient campaign. Instead of focusing on gross revenue, they prioritised net return by targeting the right donors, with personalized asks made through the most effective channels.

To achieve this, the team utilized Dataro’s AI-powered audience-building platform, which was integrated with their Salesforce CRM. Dataro’s predictive models assigned each donor with a propensity score and rank indicating their likelihood to give or reactivate, along with a personalized ask amount and a channel recommendation predicting the best way to reach them - whether by mail, email, or phone.

These insights allowed the team to:

• Focus direct mail for high-propensity donors most likely to give and respond by mail
  
  
• Move low-propensity or email-engaged donors into an email-only appeal stream
  
  
• Tailor ask hierarchies to each donor using Dataro’s optimized ask amounts
  
  
• Target lapsed donors most likely to re-reactivate via a personal telemarketing call
  
  

Dataro’s campaign size recommendations also helped the team identify the tipping point where adding more donors to the mail file would diminish ROI. This enabled them to confidently reduce their mail volume by 8,000 packs, cutting costs without sacrificing anticipated revenue.

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Analyzing the Results

The Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute’s 2024 Tax Appeal was its most successful yet, raising $489,612 - a 70% increase on the previous year’s total of $273,588. 

Exceptional creative and compelling storytelling brought the campaign to life, inspiring supporters to take action. A smarter, AI-powered data strategy ensured the campaign reached the right people through the most effective channels.

Using Dataro’s AI-driven donor propensities, channel recommendations, ask amounts, and campaign size insights, the team shifted their focus from one-size-fits-all outreach to building strategic donor audiences for more personalized and cost-effective outreach based on each donor’s likelihood to give and preferred communication method.

While direct mail remained a key channel, it was used with far greater precision. Using Dataro’s insights, the team prioritized high-propensity donors for mail and shifted low-propensity or email-engaged donors into an email-only appeal stream. The charity also utilized Dataro’s campaign size recommendations to determine the ROI tipping point, enabling them to confidently cut  8,000 mail packs, thereby further reducing costs without compromising revenue. This smarter approach delivered strong direct mail results, including a $40 increase in average gift, a 4% lift in response rate, and a $13 reduction in cost per response.

Re-engaging lapsed and long-lapsed donors was another strategic focus. With Dataro’s reactivation insights, the team identified high-potential individuals for a targeted telemarketing campaign. The results exceeded expectations, reactivating 121 lapsed donors (4.7% response rate, with an average gift of $53) and 150 long-lapsed donors (7.55% response rate, with an average gift of $61). This success cemented telemarketing as a powerful reactivation tool and laid the groundwork for its expanded use in future appeals.

The campaign also marked the Baker Institute’s first significant investment in digital acquisition. Paid ads on Meta and Google attracted 165 new donors, laying the groundwork for a more scalable and cost-effective digital program in 2025.

The Baker Institute’s record-breaking 2024 Tax Appeal was driven by exceptional creative and an audience-first, AI-powered targeting strategy - delivering the right message, through the right channels, to the donors most ready to give. As a result, the campaign raised more revenue, boosted donor engagement, and achieved the highest ROI of any appeal in the Institute’s history.

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