Personalised Donor Communications for UNHCR: Scaling Across Languages and Regions

Introduction

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, operates across more than 130 countries, supporting millions of displaced people worldwide. This case study explores how Giving Analytics partnered with two UNHCR operations to deliver personalised donor communications at scale: ACNUR (UNHCR Argentina) in Spanish and UNHCR MENA in Arabic.

Each operation had its own fundraising team, communication style and technology stack. The challenge was not simply translating content but delivering genuinely personalised messages that felt native to each region.

The Challenge

ACNUR (UNHCR Argentina)

ACNUR needed to scale personalised communications in Spanish while maintaining the tone and dialect of their existing donor messaging. Their fundraising emails were distributed through Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

The team also wanted to connect each donor’s contribution to tangible impact, measured in days or full courses of Plumpy’Nut malnutrition therapy (a peanut-based therapeutic food for treating severe acute malnutrition in children). This was particularly valuable given the recent large depreciation of the Argentine peso, which made raw donation amounts feel less meaningful to donors. Framing impact in concrete, currency-independent terms helped reinforce the real-world value of their support.

UNHCR MENA

UNHCR MENA’s large donor communications were individually hand-crafted in Arabic by a native speaker, with each email taking approximately 10 minutes to compose. The quality was high, but the process was not scalable.

Their emails were distributed through Selligent.

Two UNHCR operations, two languages, two email platforms and two very different challenges: one focused on donation performance, the other on replacing a manual process without sacrificing quality.

The Solution

Giving Analytics applied the same core approach used in other personalisation projects, adapted for each UNHCR operation.

The process began with donor data exports. Each donor’s giving history, preferences and engagement patterns were analysed to build a detailed picture of their relationship with UNHCR.

Rather than generating English content and translating it, personalised emails were crafted natively in each language:

• Spanish (Argentina): Emails matched the specific tone, dialect and communication style of existing ACNUR messaging
• Arabic (MENA): Emails replicated the quality and nuance of the hand-written communications donors were accustomed to receiving

Giving Analytics did not integrate directly with Salesforce Marketing Cloud or Selligent. Instead, personalised messages were provided in formats that each platform could readily distribute, keeping the approach CRM-agnostic.

Results: ACNUR Argentina

• 10x donation value per email from LLM-generated emails compared to standard template emails in A/B testing
• Successfully matched the tone and dialect of existing ACNUR Spanish communications
• Each donor shown their contribution measured in days or full courses of Plumpy’Nut therapy for children

By linking each donor’s specific contribution to tangible outcomes for children, the emails transformed abstract donation amounts into concrete, meaningful impact.

Results: UNHCR MENA

• Matched the performance of hand-crafted emails that previously required a native Arabic speaker
• Saved approximately 10 minutes per email that would have been spent on manual composition
• Scalable approach replaced the manual large-donor email process entirely

The key metric here was not outperforming the existing approach but matching it. The hand-written emails set a high bar, and the personalised communications service met that standard while removing the manual bottleneck.

Key Learnings

1. Personalisation works across languages: The approach proved effective in both Spanish and Arabic, demonstrating that data-driven personalisation is not limited to English-language communications.
2. CRM-agnostic delivery is an advantage: By providing platform-ready output rather than requiring direct integration, the solution worked across Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Selligent without additional technical overhead.
3. Different contexts call for different metrics: In Argentina, the focus was on donation uplift (10x improvement). In MENA, success meant matching existing quality while saving time.
4. Tone and dialect matter: Matching the regional communication style of each UNHCR operation was essential for maintaining donor trust.

Conclusion

The partnership between UNHCR and Giving Analytics demonstrates that personalised donor communications can scale across languages, regions and technology platforms. Whether the goal is dramatically increasing donations or replacing manual processes without sacrificing quality, the same core approach adapts to meet different operational needs.

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