VSO International

VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) is an international development organisation that works through volunteers to create lasting change in some of the world’s poorest communities. By connecting skilled volunteers with local partners, VSO helps tackle poverty and inequality, focusing on areas such as education, health, and livelihoods.

VSO’s supporter and volunteer data was held across multiple systems – Raiser’s Edge, Salesforce, and JobScience – with duplication, inconsistencies, and limited integration. This fragmented picture made it difficult to gain a full understanding of supporter relationships and to deliver targeted, insight-led communications.

VSO partnered with Adroit to design and implement a Single Supporter View (SSV), consolidating data from the three core systems. This involved:

• Data standardisation including using  PAF components to ensure accurate and consistent supporter records, email address and phone number validation. These measures tackle dq issues in source systems.
• Complex matching and arbitration rules to merge duplicate and overlapping records both initially and on an ongoing basis for live systems.
• Creation of an SSV layer to transform and structure data, ensuring it was optimised for use in Apteco.

With this foundation in place, Adroit deployed the Apteco Marketing Suite for VSO, integrating:

• Multi-channel campaign automation using Apteco PeopleStage.
• Enabling the transfer of a regression-based ask strategy model, embedded as calculated fields, to generate personalised donation requests at scale.
• Expansion into Email and SMS channels, enabling automated journeys and rapid response appeals.

The Apteco solution now sits at the heart of VSO’s supporter engagement strategy, enabling:

• Sophisticated journey automation such as Cash-to-Regular-Giving upgraders.
• Data-driven personalisation, improving the relevance and effectiveness of campaigns.
• Channel expansion – with SMS and Email automation delivering both engagement and data hygiene benefits.
• Efficiency gains, freeing up team time by automating previously manual selections.

Initial campaigns have shown promising results, including new regular givers from one-off donors and projected long-term retention rates that point to a strong return on investment.

With a clean, unified supporter view and the full power of Apteco in place, VSO can now test, learn, and innovate across channels. Plans include deeper personalisation, integrating social media touchpoints, and expanding model-driven targeting – all with the goal of building stronger, longer-lasting supporter relationships.