Case Study: Operation Smile achieves same-day gift processing, 24-hour donor responses and increased fundraising with Merkle

Operation Smile - Customer Case Study

Operation Smile, an international children’s medical charity that relies heavily on direct-mail fundraising, needed to improve the donor experience by making mailed gifts faster and easier to manage. To address delays and service gaps in deposits, donor inquiries and gift acknowledgments, Operation Smile engaged Merkle Response to provide contribution processing and fulfillment services and to support donor service with its Arch-e web‑based image archive and retrieval tool.

Merkle Response implemented same‑day deposit and processing, 100% scanning of reply documents and checks with Arch-e access for Operation Smile staff, daily printing/mailing of acknowledgments within two days, and improved tracking of bounce-back donation asks. As a result, Merkle Response achieved same‑day deposits at better than 98% service level, cut average response time to donor questions from as long as two weeks to about 24 hours, ensured consistent two‑day acknowledgments, and helped bounce‑back gifts grow to nearly 3% of annual revenue.

Operation Smile

Jann Schultz

Director