Case Study: University of Washington achieves ten-fold fundraising growth with Melissa's Data Quality Solutions

University Increases Revenue Ten-Fold with Melissa’s Data Quality Solutions

The University of Washington faced mounting financial pressure and relied on fundraising to boost revenue, but its primary donor database of roughly 900,000 contacts was plagued by outdated, duplicate and multi-sourced records that led to wasted mailings and missed giving opportunities. To tackle this challenge, the University of Washington turned to Melissa and its Data Quality Suite to improve and centralize donor data.

Melissa delivered address, phone and email verification, name parsing, advanced record matching/deduplication and geocoding integrated into UW’s workflow, enabling stronger analytics and clearer relationship mapping for donors. The improved data quality supported more effective outreach and prospect modeling, contributing to a dramatic fundraising uplift — the university’s most recent campaign raised $2.7 billion versus $284 million fifteen years earlier (a ten-fold increase), demonstrating clear, measurable impact from Melissa’s solutions.

University of Washington

Mike Visaya

Associate Director IM, Strategic Technology Initiatives