UNICEF Netherlands turns donors into lifetime supporters with Dynamics 365

Private donors and volunteers are increasingly hard to find and retain. Many not-for-profits compete for the time and resources of these individuals, and the expectations of these supporters have risen. “The old fundraising models are not working as well as they used to,” says Suzanne Laszlo, Executive Director, UNICEF Netherlands. “Our donors are changing. They want to give something to UNICEF, but the next day, they want to give something to another organization.” UNICEF needs to build strong, personal relationships with the donor community to find and retain long-term contributors. “We have to stay in touch. We have to tell our stories. We have to explain where the money went, how it’s spent, and what the results were,” she explains.

Although UNICEF Netherlands found that personally engaging supporters and potential supporters increased their overall commitment to the organization, personalizing interactions at scale was a challenge. Key details on donors, such as their contact information, philanthropic interests, and donation history, were housed in disparate data silos. “What made it hard,” shares Guus van Dijk, Digital Transformation Manager, UNICEF Netherlands, “[was that] data was not easy to connect. We have millions and millions of records. It was difficult to bring in all those different sources.” Without a single, unified source of information on donors, it was challenging to create and send personalized communications to each of them.    

To solve this problem, the team needed a customer data platform (CDP) to quickly and easily combine data from multiple sources, analyze the data to derive insights, and activate the insights via marketing and communication channels. UNICEF Netherlands selected Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights as its CDP solution. “We chose Dynamics 365 Customer Insights because it provides us with a fully connected platform,” says Bart De Ruigh, Director of Finance and Operations, UNICEF Netherlands. “It was a no-brainer.” The solution is so beneficial to UNICEF Netherlands, De Ruigh adds, that the organization is teaming up with Microsoft to roll it out to “the entire NGO sector.”

“Customer Insights really helps us to segment the right audiences, to focus on them, to engage them in a very relevant way, and to retain them,” says Astrid van Vonderen, Director of Fundraising and Private Individuals, UNICEF Netherlands. The platform’s out-the-box interoperability with Dynamics 365 Marketing helps the team create and optimize marketing campaigns on the fly. “With Dynamics 365 Marketing, we can run and test campaigns at scale while delivering more precise and personalized communications,” she adds.

Michiel van Straten, Senior Data Analyst, UNICEF Netherlands, appreciates the speed of the Customer Insights and Marketing combination. “We can be faster about getting insights about our donors,” he says. Those insights can be quickly turned into action. “We can act fast on our data,” he adds. AI drives even greater efficiencies. For example, the UNICEF Netherlands team uses predictive modeling from Customer Insights to send more targeted messages to prospective donors who are most likely to respond and offer greater value.  

UNICEF Netherlands looks forward to next steps. “With Customer Insights, we are more future-proof because it’s adaptable, flexible, and gives us the possibility to innovate,” says van Dijk. The team is using Customer Insights to develop a customer lifetime value model, which will help them identify, and optimize engagement with, high-impact donors.

The organization will use AI-driven recommendations and real-time, customer-led journey orchestration capabilities in Dynamics 365 Marketing to tailor messages to individual donors, regardless of their demographics and chosen communication channels. This creates a closed feedback loop in which past interactions and customer preferences drive future communication improvements and increase donors’ lifetime value. “With customer-led journey orchestration, we can personalize messages in real time and serve every donor where they are at that moment,” says Pauline Wielens, Omni-Channel Manager at UNICEF Netherlands. “Whether the donor is 20 years old or 80 years old, we deliver an individualized, seamless experience no matter how they connect with us, and we can share meaningful stories of the children we work for. It’s a great way to build donor loyalty.”

“Every child matters,” says Laszlo. “We have to reach more children.” But, she says, “to make this happen, we need more funds.” Using the easy-to-use, efficient, and scalable platform of Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, UNICEF Netherlands can secure the necessary support to expand its efforts and reach potential donors with high-converting solicitations for support. “Microsoft is a great collaborator,” she says. “Its expertise helps us in our mission to save children’s lives.”

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