From Siloed Data to 25% Donor Growth | Nathan Hill
Your ministry is stretched thin, your data is scattered across disconnected tools, and your donor acquisition budget may be reaching the wrong people. In this session from the Digital Ministry Conference, Nathan Hill of AVID walks through a real-world case study showing how Bible League Canada decreased their cost to acquire a new donor by 20% — and grew new donors by 25% — by unifying their tech stack and adding AI-powered automation.
Key Takeaways
New donors are worth far more than year one. Based on data from 43 ministries representing approximately $1.4 billion in annual revenue, the average first-year donor gives $81 — but that number jumps to $214 in year two and $322 in year three and beyond.
Siloed data is silently costing you. Most ministries rely on their CRM as their primary donor data source, but critical giving history, engagement data, and transaction records live in disconnected tools — leading to stale prospecting lists and wasted ad spend.
A unified tech stack changes everything. Bible League Canada brought all of their donor data under one roof using AVID as their fundraising operating system, enabling a more complete "golden record" of their donors — and dramatically improving the accuracy of their lookalike audience targeting on Meta.
Automation is the multiplier. It's not enough to unify data once — the speed at which audiences are refreshed directly impacts how effective your acquisition campaigns are. Nathan explains how automated suppression (removing existing donors from acquisition targeting) alone eliminates significant waste.
The long-term kingdom impact is the real number. A sample organization Nathan shared was on pace for $7.4 million in donor revenue this year. By investing in an acquisition growth strategy, their three-year revenue outlook jumped from $7.1 million to $10.5 million — a 47% increase over three years.
AVID vs. an Enterprise CRM. Nathan noted that when compared to one of the most sophisticated marketing CRMs available for this use case, AVID led to a 143% increase in donor acquisition by comparison.
If you're ready to stop wasting acquisition budget on the wrong audiences and start building a donor pipeline that compounds over time, this episode is your starting point. Nathan breaks down a practical, proven framework that any ministry fundraising team can begin applying today — no massive tech overhaul required.
Resources
Nathan Hill – Vice President of Marketing, AVID | avidai.com
Connect With Nathan – https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathan-peter-hill/
Bible League Canada Case Study – Referenced throughout the session | https://bibleleague.ca/
AVID Fundraising Scorecard – Predictive analytics tool | https://avidai.com/components/scorecard/
Digital Ministry Conference – digitalministryconference.com
Five Q | Launch AI – https://aiofferings.fiveq.com/