How SRUK’s AI-Powered Appeal Strategy Delivered Record Results and Stronger Donor Support

Scleroderma & Raynaud’s UK (SRUK) is the only UK charity dedicated to improving the lives of people affected by Scleroderma and Raynaud’s. 

As a small but ambitious organisation, SRUK sought to utilise data more effectively to target the right supporters in their fundraising campaigns and sustainably grow its income.

In 2024, SRUK partnered with Dataro to see whether AI-driven propensity modeling could help grow their individual giving program by identifying donors most likely to respond to appeals, upgrade their giving, or consider a legacy gift. The goal was to transition from blanket mailings and generic outreach to a more targeted, data-driven approach that delivered more personalised donor experiences and improved fundraising outcomes.

In their first appeal guided by Dataro’s AI-powered targeting, SRUK achieved record-breaking results - surpassing income goals by 27%, more than doubling response rates, and lifting the average donation value by 32%, all while reaching out to fewer, but more engaged donors.

Key Results

Using Dataro’s AI audiences and personalised donor insights, SRUK’s 2025 Summer Appeal achieved:

• 39% increase in net revenue - achieved with a 37% smaller mail file
• 2.2x higher response rate (12.8% vs 6%)
• 32% increase in average donation value (£71.17 vs £54.21)
• 11% improvement in ROI
• 17 new recurring givers converted

How We Did It

Dataro helps nonprofits run smarter, higher-performing appeals using AI-powered donor insights to reveal who to contact, how much to ask, which channels to use, and how to optimise campaign size for maximum impact. By putting donors at the center of every campaign, this audience-first approach helps organisations create more personalised experiences while achieving stronger results.

For Scleroderma & Raynaud’s UK (SRUK), adopting Dataro’s audience-first targeting transformed how the Summer Appeal was planned and delivered. 

Dataro’s predictive models, integrated directly with Raiser’s Edge NXT, automatically generated ranked propensity scores for every donor based on giving and engagement history. These insights identified which supporters were most likely to give, upgrade, or re-engage with the 2025 Summer Appeal plus those likely to upgrade to recurring giving.

Guided by Dataro’s predictive scores, SRUK reduced its typical appeal mail file by 37%, removing low-propensity donors and concentrating on a smaller, higher-quality audience of donors most likely to give. To validate the approach, the team also ran A/B tests comparing Dataro’s AI-driven audiences with their own selections.

With donor scores and optimized ask amounts flowing directly into Raiser’s Edge NXT, SRUK’s campaign planning became faster, easier, and more precise. What once required hours of manual work could now be done in minutes, giving the one-person fundraising team more time to focus on strategy, creative and meaningful donor engagement. This streamlined approach not only improved efficiency but also ensured that every supporter received a more personalised and relevant ask.

Analysing the Results

SRUK’s 2025 Summer Appeal demonstrated how an AI-powered targeting strategy can drive exceptional appeal performance, even for small organisations with lean teams. By concentrating on a smaller audience of donors most likely to give, the charity achieved record results in campaign revenue and individual donor support while reducing costs and improving efficiency.

Dataro’s ranked propensity scores enabled SRUK to identify and prioritise high-value donors and cut its mail file by 37%, eliminating low-likelihood supporters with no loss in revenue. Personalised ask amounts generated by Dataro further improved precision, helping the team more than double the previous appeal’s response rate (12.8% vs 6%), increase the average donation value by 32% (£54 to £71), and lift the most common gift amount from £25 to £50. Combined, these optimisations drove a 39% increase in net revenue - the strongest appeal performance in SRUK’s history.

A/B testing also confirmed the accuracy of Dataro’s predictions, with AI-driven audiences consistently outperforming SRUK’s manual selections.

The more personalised engagement approach contributed to 17 new recurring donors (up from just one the year before). SRUK now continues to use Dataro’s AI insights to identify existing monthly donors at risk of churn, allowing proactive engagement to retain their support.

Adopting Dataro’s AI insights and audience-first approach has reshaped SRUK’s fundraising strategy. By putting donors at the center of their targeting, the team now delivers more personalised, targeted engagement that drives stronger relationships and better results. 

“The summer appeal was a big success for us, but what’s even more exciting is the consistent value Dataro brings - from identifying at-risk regular givers to uncovering mid-level and legacy prospects we’d never have spotted before. It’s shown us that our database is bigger and more full of opportunity than we ever realized.”

SRUK’s success shows how even small teams can achieve outsized results with the right tools and data insights. As a one-person Individual Giving team, SRUK has gained major time-saving benefits in campaign planning and supporter selection, freeing up more capacity to focus on strategy and meaningful donor relationships. 

With Dataro’s AI-powered audience strategy, the charity is raising more with fewer resources while building stronger, more personal connections with the supporters who make its mission possible.