AI in Fundraising

THOUGHT LEADER ARTICLE,
BY MELANIE JACKSON

AI in Fundraising by Melanie Jackson

let’s define generative AI

Everywhere I turn these days, people are talking about artificial intelligence (AI), and very often, it seems to be from a place of fear. I have heard everything from the threat of the robots taking over to plagiarism concerns or fearing the theft of industries’ proprietary intellectual property.

My own daughter, a copywriter in a well-respected advertising agency, came home nearly in tears when generative AI first hit the public sphere, fearing that AI was going to render her redundant. But I’m here to tell you – and her – that this is far from the truth. While there are aspects of artificial intelligence that scare the living daylights out of me, I genuinely believe that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. At least for now …

Firstly, let’s define generative AI – IBM describes it as “artificial intelligence (AI) that can create original content, such as text, images, video, audio or software code, in response to a user’s prompt or request.”

It relies on deep learning models – algorithms that mimic the human brain’s learning and decision-making processes. These models identify patterns and relationships in vast amounts of data, using that information to understand natural language requests and respond with relevant new content.

This is great news for overstretched fundraising and marketing teams, who can leverage AI’s almost limitless capacity to efficiently create personalised donor communications, generate campaign content and optimise outreach efforts. The even better news is that, while generative AI is brilliant at conceptualising (and even writing!) detailed campaigns or funding proposals, humans are still essential to critically evaluate its outputs and ensure that interventions are properly executed.

Historically, the South African non-profit sector has been slow to adopt new technologies, often due to cost constraints. But with AI rapidly infiltrating every aspect of our lives, non-profits can’t afford to lag behind.

AI is revolutionising how organisations understand and connect with individual donors, analysing large datasets to identify patterns in donor behaviour, preferences and giving history. This enables effective donor segmentation and the creation of personalised engagement strategies. For instance, AI can help predict which donors are most likely to give again, what type of communication they prefer and what motivates their giving decisions​.

This personalisation extends beyond emails to include tailored social media content, dynamic website experiences and personalised video messages. By leveraging AI for personalisation, fundraisers can create more meaningful connections with their tribe, potentially increasing engagement and long-term loyalty.

These same tools are making automation in campaign management more efficient. AI-driven platforms automate donor outreach, follow-ups and stewardship processes, while chatbots engage with donors on websites and social media, providing instant responses to frequently asked questions and facilitating donation processes.

Additionally, AI tools can handle tasks like drafting emails, creating social media posts and generating reports, significantly reducing the time and resources needed to manage campaigns. This automation allows fundraising teams to focus on strategic planning and relationship building.

And fear not, grant-writers, there is space in this brave new world for you, too! Ever had to condense an organisation’s every achievement in a 20-year track record into 200 words? Rather than laboriously cutting one phrase at a time, judicious use of AI can reduce time spent on such tasks significantly, allowing for focus on the all-important case for support and explanation of the interventions. And if you are struggling with this, AI can come to the rescue here, too. But again, I add the caveat – it’s still your responsibility as the grant-writer to ensure that the information is 100% accurate and correct.

So where do we find these wondrous electronic team members? The most obvious one is ChatGPT. I recently subscribed to the paid version of the app and it has changed my life! I decided to ask it what average fundraising office tasks could be delegated, and this is what it said:

Practical tasks that can be delegated to AI

Drafting fundraising appeals and emails

  • Task: Generate initial drafts for donor appeals, thank-you emails, newsletters and other donor communication.

  • Benefit
    : Save time by using AI to create content based on donor segmentation, campaign goal, or past messaging. ChatGPT can quickly produce multiple drafts, allowing the fundraiser to choose the most compelling version.

  • Example
    : Creating personalised email templates for different donor segments (e.g., major donors, lapsed donors, or corporate partners) to increase engagement and conversion rates.

Generating content for proposals and reports

  • Task: Generate initial drafts for donor appeals, thank-you emails, newsletters and other donor communication.

  • Benefit
    : Save time by using AI to create content based on donor segmentation, campaign goal, or past messaging. ChatGPT can quickly produce multiple drafts, allowing the fundraiser to choose the most compelling version.

  • Example
    : Creating personalised email templates for different donor segments (e.g., major donors, lapsed donors, or corporate partners) to increase engagement and conversion rates.

Creating social media posts and campaign ideas

  • Task: Generate content for social media channels, including posts, captions and campaign ideas.
  • Benefit: Maintain a consistent presence on social media platforms with engaging content tailored to different channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.
  • Example: Crafting regular posts highlighting donor stories, project updates or calls to action for a crowdfunding campaign.

Researching potential donors and partners

  • Task: Summarise information on prospective donors, companies, trusts, foundations or service clubs, for example.
  • Benefit: Quickly gather background information and identify potential areas of alignment between the donor’s interests and the organisation’s mission.
  • Example: Using ChatGPT to summarise a foundation’s funding priorities, recent grant recipients and application deadlines.

Generating ideas for fundraising events or campaigns

  • Task: Brainstorm creative ideas for fundraising events, campaigns or donor engagement strategies.
  • Benefit: Provide fresh perspectives and diverse ideas that can help reinvigorate annual fundraising efforts or introduce new campaigns.
  • Example: Suggesting themes for a virtual fundraiser, coming up with unique donor incentives or planning interactive donor appreciation events.

Assisting with data analysis and reporting

    • Task: Analyse donor data and produce summaries or insights that can guide fundraising strategy.
    • Benefit: AI can help identify patterns in donor behaviour, predict trends and suggest opportunities for targeted outreach.

       

    • Example: Analysing donation data to identify high-potential donors who have not been approached recently or segmenting donor lists for specific campaigns.
    • Example: Preparing a meeting agenda for a potential corporate partner and summarising the key discussion points for post-meeting follow-up.

Supporting content for websites and blogs

  • Task: Draft content for website updates, blog posts or donor spotlights.
  • Benefit: Keep web content fresh and engaging, which can drive traffic and improve donor engagement.
  • Example: Writing blog posts that share success stories, project updates or insights on relevant topics in the non-profit sector.
AI in Fundraising by Melanie Jackson

We’ve chatted about ChatGPT, my absolute favourite so far, but there are other similar apps to try:

Microsoft Copilot (Bing AI): Integrated into Microsoft Office products and powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4, this tool assists with writing, summarising and generating content directly within Microsoft Word, Excel and other Office applications. This is very cool, as it delves directly into your Microsoft ecosystem, so if you use Office 365, this is a very useful resource.

Gemini by Google: An AI chatbot developed by Google that integrates with Google Search to provide answers, generate text and assist with various writing tasks, offering access to real-time information through its search capabilities.

Jasper AI: Ideal for marketing and content creation, Jasper AI generates SEO-optimised content, blogs, social media posts, and ad copy.

Claude by Anthropic: A conversational AI model from Anthropic, focused on providing safer and more reliable interactions, with a design emphasis on being helpful, honest and harmless in its responses.

Copy.ai: designed to generate persuasive copy for fundraising appeals, social media content, donor communications and website updates.

Midjourney: an AI tool that generates high-quality images and artwork from text prompts, useful for creating compelling visuals (especially useful if your NPO works with sensitive issues).

DALL·E 2: an AI image generator that creates detailed visuals based on text descriptions.

Lumen5: an AI-powered video creation tool that turns text content into engaging videos, ideal for promoting fundraising campaigns, sharing success stories or updating donors on project progress.

Otter.ai: a transcription service that converts spoken content from meetings or webinars into text, making documentation easier.

Quillbot: a paraphrasing tool that helps rewrite and enhance text for clarity, conciseness and tone.

Zapier: a workflow automation tool that connects different apps and automates repetitive tasks, such as updating donor databases, sending personalised thank-you emails or triggering reminders for follow-up actions.

Surfer SEO: helps optimise content for search engines, making it easier to attract organic traffic to fundraising campaigns, blog posts and website content.

 

Closing Thoughts

These are just a few of the many AI tools available. While some come with a price tag, the cost is still typically far less than a human salary or freelancer invoice.

And then, a golden rule – ALWAYS proofread and edit what AI provides to give it your special flavour (even though it does learn to mimic your tone of voice alarmingly well). Some of the dead giveaways of AI-generated NPO text are:

  • The frequent use of the words ‘tireless’ and ‘unwavering’. My eyes roll back so far in my head when I see these, I practically dislocate an eyeball.
  • AI seems to love Oxford commas. I trained as a journalist many, many moons ago and Oxford commas were a no-no. They remain so for me!
  • American spelling! Watch out for words like organiZation or catalyZe.

Avoiding these pitfalls will help ensure that your copy remains natural and human!

Finally, don’t forget to say “please” and “thank you” when writing AI prompts. Who knows? It might come in handy if the robots ever do take over! (Just kidding… mostly!)

Melanie Jackson

CEO, WORDS THAT COUNT

AI in Fundraising by Melanie Jackson

The team at Words that Count removes the stress of seeking sustainable funding, by providing professional outsourced strategy, implementation, training and evaluation of funding efforts, allowing your organisation to focus on achieving its goals.