You are here: Home > Data Quality > Caritas Australia maximises fundraising
Caritas Australia maximises fundraising

Overview: Caritas Australia maximises fundraising

Maximises engagement using Experian's data validation solution

Caritas Australia is the international aid and development organisation of the Catholic Church in Australia. With over 50 local partners across 18 countries, the organisation works closely with local communities in Australia and overseas to provide support to those most vulnerable and tackle the root causes of poverty and social injustice.

Challenge overview

In 2018, Caritas Australia experienced data quality issues which affected their ability to communicate with donors and resulted in higher costs for their fundraising campaigns. With 370,000 records in their CRM system, the Fundraising team recognised that donor contact data needed to be cleaned and tools put in place to capture accurate data across their donor touchpoints moving forward. Caritas Australia reached out to Experian to discuss their challenges and invested in the solutions needed to future-proof their data management strategy.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Caritas Australia needed to transform their approach to donor engagement and fundraising. Many of the traditional community donation channels were suddenly closed due to stay-at-home requirements, making contact data and their website more important than ever. With valid and complete contact data for donors to hand, the Fundraising team were well prepared to make the pivotal shift and focus on direct marketing. This activity included shipping postal donation packs as well as digital tactics such as email and SMS campaigns.

View Caritas Australia Profile
Company Bio:

Caritas Australia is the international aid and development organisation of the Catholic Church in Australia. With over 50 local partners across 18 countries, the organisation works closely with local communities in Australia and overseas to provide support to those most vulnerable and tackle the root causes of poverty and social injustice.

Accurate contact data is essential for our community fundraising efforts. Fixing data is a never-ending task but Experian had the solutions to do this for us, validating the data we already had in the system and making sure that all new data is also validated. By doing that it allows us to save time and money.
Viviane Piccinini, Direct Marketing Fundraising Manager at Caritas Australia

Solution overview

Since 2018, Caritas Australia has used Experian’s real-time data validation solutions for addresses, email addresses and phone numbers within their Salesforce CRM and website.

It was important to have comprehensive data quality checks in place across the various platforms where contact data is captured. This included the Salesforce CRM, marketing preference centre and donation website.

Donations from direct marketing appeals alone have increased by 76%.

 

Salesforce CRM
Many supporters prefer to contact Caritas Australia and donate over the phone. By integrating Experian’s certified data validation app for Salesforce Sales Cloud, addresses, email addresses and phone numbers for donors are validated in real-time when employees enter data into the CRM. Existing address records are also regularly cleansed and corrected. This ensures that only accurate and usable donor information enters and remains within the database.

 

Marketing preference centre
As part of email campaigns, Caritas Australia enable donors to update their contact details in the marketing preference centre, which is linked to Salesforce. Experian’s data validation solutions were recently integrated into the preference centre form so contact details are seamlessly validated before being submitted to the CRM system.

 

Website
With around 50% of donations via Caritas Australia’s website, it is a key income channel and an important link with supporters. Experian’s data validation solutions are integrated into the donation forms on the website. The validation technology makes it quicker for donors to enter their contact details and ensures the information collected is error-free.

Caritas Australia is continuing to evolve its donor fundraising strategy, keeping donor data at the heart of everything they do.
Experian’s real-time data validation solutions
Results
  • Increased donor retention rates and overall active donors in the database by 5%
  • Increased supporters’ appeals response rate by 6%, due to the increase in active, contactable donors
  • Delivered more effective direct marketing campaigns, resulting in a 76% increase in donations
Solutions

Start your 14 days free trial today

Get started
Case Study
Overview: Tasman Holiday Parks turns audience insight into action

As Tasman Holiday Parks prepared for a national brand refresh, the business needed a clearer understanding of who its highest value audiences were and where future growth opportunities existed.. Without that clarity, the business risked investing in the wrong messages, markets and moments. 

By applying Experian Mosaic segmentation to its customer and park-level data, Tasman Holiday Parks moved beyond self-selected booking information to a richer, quantified view of its audiences. The insight shaped its refreshed brand strategy, informed media and messaging, and gave teams across the business a stronger basis for park development and investment decisions. 

See full story >
Case Study
Building a strong data foundation for more meaningful fundraising initiatives

Plan International Australia, an independent development and humanitarian organisation, engaged Experian to address the growing challenges with the quality, accuracy and consistency of supporter and donor data stored within its Salesforce environment. By implementing Experian’s advanced matching, merging and validation capabilities, Plan International was able to move beyond the limits of native Salesforce tools to achieve cleaner, more accurate contact data. With a stronger data foundation, Plan International can now fundraise more effectively, build deeper supporter relationships and reduce campaign costs.

 

See full story >
Case Study
Defining the target market for smarter growth

NOW Finance, a consumer lending provider specialising in personal and auto loans, collaborated with Experian to solve a critical challenge: defining its target market. By leveraging Experian’s Mosaic segmentation and Credit Demand Index, NOW Finance shifted from broad acquisition tactics to a data-driven brand strategy. This approach helped reduce acquisition costs, improve brand health and create a foundation for more sustainable growth. 

See full story >