Data-Driven Impact: How Peconic Bay Medical Center Increased Annual Giving with DonorSearch AI

Client: Peconic Bay Medical Center
Sector: Healthcare

“We reduced our mailing volume by 75%, cut costs by $50,000, and still grew annual fund revenue by 10%. That’s the power of targeted, data-driven fundraising, and DonorSearch helped us get there.”
– Darrien Garay, Senior Director of Development, Peconic Bay Medical Center Foundation

Client Overview

Peconic Bay Medical Center is a 144-bed community hospital in Riverhead, New York, serving over 250,000 residents in Eastern Suffolk County. The region’s semi-rural location and underserved populations create ongoing healthcare access challenges. To address this, PBMC has expanded services with initiatives like advanced cardiac care, a new stroke center, and plans for the area’s first NICU. Since 2004, philanthropy has been essential to supporting this growth.

The Challenge

• Peconic Bay Medical Center’s development team faced shrinking budgets and increasing demand to drive results with fewer resources.
• Their annual fund program, which relied heavily on direct mail and digital giving, needed greater efficiency.
• Without a data science team on staff, Peconic Bay Medical Center needed help identifying which prospects were worth investing limited time and dollars into.

The Results

• Cut Costs Dramatically: By removing low-affinity donors (those with DSAI scores 0–4) from mailings, Peconic Bay Medical Center reduced their mailing volume by 75%—from 100,000 pieces in 2023 to just 25,000 in 2024—saving around $50,000.
• Raised More with Less: Despite the reduction in outreach volume, annual fund revenue increased by 10%. Digital giving rose by 50%, thanks to more targeted, data-driven strategies.
• Optimized Donor Targeting: DSAI helped Peconic Bay Medical Center focus on donors most likely to give, ensuring frontline fundraisers spent 

The Solution

Peconic Bay Medical Center turned to DSAI to help answer a key question: Who should we be talking to? While traditional wealth screening only offered part of the picture, DSAI provided powerful affinity scores, predicting who was most likely to give in the next 12 months. PBMC used these scores to remove low-value names from mailing lists and concentrate resources where they mattered most.

The results were immediate and measurable: lower costs, higher returns, and a more strategic annual giving program.

The Benefits

• Targeted Efficiency: Using DSAI’s predictive scores, Peconic Bay Medical Center eliminated ineffective outreach, making better use of limited staff and budget.
• Proven ROI: DSAI paid for itself through mailing cost reductions alone, and the gains in annual revenue only added to the return.
• Strategic Partnership: Peconic Bay Medical Center sees DonorSearch as a data science partner. Regular collaboration, bi-weekly check-ins, and responsive support helped shape ongoing improvements to the platform.

Conclusion

By embracing AI-driven prospecting with DonorSearch, Peconic Bay Medical Center Foundation made smarter decisions, raised more money, and stewarded donor resources with greater precision. With major initiatives ahead—from the new NICU to stroke care expansion—Peconic Bay Medical Center is better positioned than ever to grow philanthropy and transform healthcare access for their community.