The Challenge
A leading global non-profit organization dedicated to helping children overcome poverty wanted to strengthen how its donor care teams engaged with sponsors. Every conversation carried deep emotional value and sponsors needed to feel connected, appreciated, and confident in the impact of their support.
To improve communication consistency and empathy across regions, the organization partnered with SymTrain to bring AI-driven practice simulations into its training and coaching programs. While the organization’s mission-driven culture was strong, the donor care teams faced several training challenges:
- Inconsistent empathy and tone during sponsor calls.
- Limited practice opportunities to handle sensitive donor conversations.
- Slow onboarding for new agents joining international support centers.
- Difficulty scaling quality coaching across growing global teams.
Traditional role-play training was effective but time-consuming and hard to scale. The organization needed a more dynamic way to help agents develop confidence, emotional intelligence, and conversation flow—all critical for fostering long-term sponsor relationships.
The Solution
Working closely with SymTrain’s implementation team, the non-profit designed a series of AI-powered simulations that replicated real donor interactions across beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels.
Key Features of the Implementation:
- Customized Scenarios: Built simulations around common donor conversations—first-time sponsors, renewals, and child update inquiries.
- Empathy Coaching: Integrated AI feedback on tone, pacing, and active listening.
- Progressive Skill Building: Designed learning paths to help agents grow from basic call handling to advanced emotional engagement.
- Scalable Training: Made simulations accessible on-demand, allowing agents to practice independently without additional trainer time.
After a successful pilot, the non-profit quickly expanded SymTrain across additional support teams and languages, embedding it into their ongoing training programs.
The Results
| KPI |
Before SymTrain |
After SymTrain |
Improvement |
| Donor Satisfaction (CSAT) |
74% |
97% |
+32% |
| Empathy/Quality Scores (QA) |
68% |
86% |
+26% |
| New Hire Ramp Time |
5 weeks |
4 weeks |
–20% |
| Training Coverage (Teams) |
1 region |
3 regions |
+200% |
Key Takeaways:
- Agents demonstrated measurable growth in empathy, tone, and active listening.
- Donor satisfaction reached record highs, directly tied to improved communication quality.
- Leadership gained deeper visibility into agent readiness through SymTrain’s analytics and scoring tools.
By integrating SymTrain into their training ecosystem, this global non-profit empowered its donor care teams to connect with sponsors on a deeper, more emotional level. Agents who once struggled with confidence now lead conversations with empathy, clarity, and purpose—creating stronger relationships that directly support the organization’s mission.
In just a few months, the program expanded across multiple teams, achieving measurable improvements in empathy, communication quality, and overall donor satisfaction.
Business Impact:
- +32% in donor satisfaction
- +26% in empathy scores
- –20% ramp time for new hires
- Expanded to 3 regions within 90 days
