Case Study: Catholic Diocese of Charleston achieves 50%+ fundraising growth and 30% more donors with Blackbaud (Target Analytics)

Catholic Diocese of Charleston sees multi-year growth using predictive modeling and consumer data from Target Analytics

The Catholic Diocese of Charleston needed to sustain and grow fundraising across 96 parishes, 22 missions and 33 schools amid a challenging economy. Having relied on a successful but familiar campaign approach, the Diocese sought new methods to meet aggressive annual appeal goals and drive real, multi-year growth.

Director of Stewardship Matt Dwyer partnered with Target Analytics to add predictive targeting models, consumer data appends, ask‑amount calculations and campaign response scoring to their appeals. The data-driven strategy produced measurable gains: overall giving rose about 52%, donors increased ~31%, $1,000 and $5,000 donor counts grew 3x and 6x respectively, and 60% more parishes met campaign goals—all while maintaining fundraising investment levels.

Catholic Diocese of Charleston

Matt Dwyer

Director of Stewardship and Development