Case Studies > Non-Profit > Special Olympics
Data-Driven Strategy Powers Record Year for Special Olympics
Forecasting donor behavior led to smarter ad spend, resulting in a 30% increase in fundraising and surpassing the $1M milestone.
Highlights
Early and Late Peaks Drive Donations
Analysis revealed 60% of donations occur in the first 4 weeks post-launch, and 30% in the final 2 weeks—only 10% fell in between.
Strategic shift breaks fundraising records
In 2023, Special Olympics applied RMG insights by front-loading ad spend and cutting mid-campaign marketing—raising 30% more and topping $1M.
Predictive Modeling Informs Smarter Spend
RMG analyzed 50,000 records to uncover donor trends by channel, timing, and demographics–enabling accurate event forecasting.
Audience Segmentation Boosts ROI
Targeting repeat donors, team-affiliated participants, and top-performing cities helped optimize outreach and maximize returns.
Summary
Region
- International
industry
- Non-profit/Sports
Company size
- Large
rmg solutions
- Digital Marketing
- Modeling
- Direct Mail
- Analysis
about
Special Olympics is the largest sports organization for people with intellectual disabilities. Through the organization, donations help fund everything for the athletes in need.
Challenge
Special Olympics wanted to understand the distribution of participant sign ups and donations up until an event by key event dimensions. Ultimately they wanted to forecast sign ups and donations so they could optimally change marketing activities to meet their desired event targets.
strategy
The analysis focused on a foundational exploratory analysis to understand sign up and donation patterns. Over 50,000 records were analyzed containing participant signups and donations. In addition the following fields were provided:
- Event
- State
- Gift amount
- Online vs offline donation
- Group vs Individual
- Repeat donor vs one-time donation
The distribution of sign-ups and donations were examined by Days to Event.
solution
Our analysis determined that the average donation had increased each year and the average gift was higher if an individual belongs to a team, donates offline and is a repeat donor. Participant sign up and donation contributions are very predictable by week so we were able to provide an excellent opportunity for forecasting total event dollars. We also found that online donations represent 69% of total donation dollars and occur at a faster pace presumably due to the ease of making an online donation.
We helped the client understand that it made sense to market to past participants and donors using social and email marketing to increase engagement, to look at donations by city and focus marketing in those high donation areas to “pick the low hanging fruit.”
results
RMG analyzed 50,000 donor records to model giving behavior from prior years. The data revealed clear patterns: 60% of donations occurred in the first four weeks after launch, 30% in the final two weeks before the event, and only 10% in the middle period.
This insight led Special Olympics to reconsider the effectiveness of mid-campaign marketing. While they initially maintained mid-phase efforts to avoid negative consequences, they later acted on RMG’s recommendations.
In 2023, Special Olympics front-loaded their ad spend, significantly reducing mid-campaign marketing. The result: a 30% increase in donations and the organization’s first-ever $1M fundraising year. The shift validated the model and demonstrated the power of data-informed strategy.
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