Confident Outreach: How AI Can Help You Connect with Donors
Artificial intelligence and machine learning technology are exciting spaces for nonprofits right now. All kinds of new strategies and tools are emerging. But while invigorating, all this energy can also make the endeavor of getting into AI overwhelming for newcomers and smaller organizations.
Buzzy startups, confusing lingo, endless think pieces and headlines—what are the actual, actionable ways that nonprofits are using AI?
Or more specifically, how can AI help with some of your most important tasks? For nonprofits, this usually includes building stronger connections with the communities of donors who help make their work possible.
Let’s take a look at how AI technology can help nonprofits improve their approaches to donor stewardship and outreach:
How does AI work?
First, some background. Artificial intelligence is the ability of specially-trained computer systems to recognize patterns, draw conclusions, and make recommendations, which are functions similar to, but not exactly like, those of human intelligence. To work, AI systems require input (data) and a process for understanding it (a machine learning algorithm).
The process of machine learning is like the nuts and bolts of most AI systems. A machine learning algorithm is the set of precoded instructions that an AI system follows to find patterns in data, which it can recall and use to actively shape how it interprets data and makes recommendations in the future.
For nonprofits, your AI tools will draw from their own data sources and/or your own in-house data on donors and their engagement histories.
There’s a wide variety of AI tools available today, but most that an organization might use will fall into one of two categories:
Generative AI. These are AI systems that can answer your open-ended requests for information and suggestions to produce written responses, like ChatGPT. Generative AI is also used to produce images, video, and audio based on user prompts.
Predictive AI. These systems are designed to deeply analyze more limited datasets (like your house file of donor data plus a set of third-party prospect research data) to find trends and make predictions.
Software built specifically to aid with nonprofit fundraising will usually fall into the predictive category. These tools are often more of an investment for nonprofits, but many are designed and sold by well-known and reputable vendors in the space.
As a much broader category, generative AI tools come in all shapes, sizes, and price points—and levels of reputability, effectiveness, and security. We’ll discuss some important risks and considerations to keep in mind below.
How can AI help you connect with donors?
So, what are the specific ways that AI technology can help nonprofits build stronger connections with donors?
Some of AI’s nonprofit use cases involve directly generating predictions that you can use as you reach out to donors. Others have more indirect benefits—saving you time on repetitive or mundane tasks so that you can focus on building more authentic connections with your community.
In both cases, it’s important to remember that while AI is valuable for streamlining your work and generating helpful insights and predictions, it does not replace human expertise and judgment. This makes AI an ideal tool to help with donor stewardship, which is a very human task full of menial tasks when done on a large scale.
Let’s look at some specific use cases:
Conducting donor research. AI can analyze your donor database to find patterns in giving histories, engagement records, and demographics. When publicly-available prospect research data on wealth and philanthropic markers is added into the mix, some tools can help you quickly identify your top giving prospects for campaigns or gifts of particular sizes. This saves your team immense time that can be put towards first verifying the findings and then connecting with those prospects.
Analyzing engagement and fundraising data. Looking only at your in-house data, AI can also uncover valuable insights about your bigger-picture performance. How well are you engaging particular generations or localities? Can your segmentation strategy be improved? Use these suggestions to refine future fundraising and outreach campaigns.
Generating and refining outreach lists. In line with the first two use cases, AI’s findings can help you quickly develop mailing or call lists for particular campaigns. With the right AI tool, this can improve your ROI and the donor experience, as you’ll only be contacting those most likely to give. Whether you’re conducting a more casual outreach push or a major fundraising campaign, these fast lists can streamline your work and reduce overhead time and expenses.
Personalizing messages and appeals. AI features integrated with your database and marketing software can automatically personalize your digital messages. Names, pronouns, previous donation amounts, event attendance histories, communication preferences, and more can be used to effortlessly personalize your messages. Generative AI can also be used to fully generate some simpler messages, although you’ll want to use this strategy in a very controlled capacity.
Automating social media tasks. Some AI tools are designed specifically to analyze your social media engagement trends and then make content recommendations, generate text for potential posts, and lay out posting schedules based on those insights—perfect for social media-centric peer-to-peer campaigns!
Detecting fraud to boost safety. AI features built into your fundraising and/or payment processing tools can also help detect fraudulent transactions. Backed up with informed consent AI policies (more on these below), backend AI features can help you build increased trust and transparency with your donors and, ultimately, a stronger community.
While not all of these diverse use cases involve AI directly providing you with suggestions and strategies to better connect with donors, they do all save your team time and protect your organization’s resources. By streamlining tasks that AI is capable of handling, you can put your valuable human expertise and relationship-building skills to more productive use.
What key considerations should you keep in mind?
AI does bring a number of risks and additional considerations that your nonprofit will need to keep in mind. These include:
Data privacy - Is the data that your AI tools use ethically sourced and used with permission?
Data security - Is your system secure and accessible only to your authorized users?
Data hygiene - Is the data used by your AI technology kept clean and up-to-date?
Potential biases - Are there any inadvertent biases in your data or in your tool’s algorithm that could amplify harmful biases or prejudices?
Incorrect information - Are your tool’s predictions, suggestions, and generated responses truly correct, helpful, or accurate?
Explore the DonorSearch guide to the ethical use of AI for nonprofits for a more thorough explanation of each of these risks and how to mitigate them.
To cover your bases, though, the most important best practices to remember are:
Carefully vet your AI vendors. Only use trusted, reputable tech vendors. Established software providers in the nonprofit space have released a wide range of predictive AI tools in recent years. The field of generative AI is much broader. In both cases, read reviews and ask about security and bias prevention protocols before investing in any new tech.
Secure informed consent from your donors. If you’ll use your own records of donor information and donation histories to generate AI insights, you should let donors know how this information will be used. A disclaimer included on first-time donations or email sign-ups should suffice, as long as donors have a clear, easy way to contact you to opt-out.
Build human judgment into all AI-related processes. Never follow AI recommendations or use AI-generated content without first reviewing it through the lens of your team’s own nonprofit expertise. You know best when it comes to your needs, goals, mission, community, and donors.
With solid steps in place to protect your nonprofit, constituents, and donors, there’s no reason why AI can’t help you reach new levels of growth and engagement. Build them into your policies and ensure your whole team knows about them—provide training and orientation to staff and organizational leaders alike so that they can effectively speak to your organization’s diligence.
For those who’ll directly interact with your AI tool and insights, ask your vendor about their support and training options. For everyone else, a broader overview of data best practices (like Mission Capital’s courses) and the basics of AI and AI ethics should suffice.
Are there tasks you currently do that take up way too much time, but don’t necessarily require you to do them? Are you struggling to connect with certain groups of donors, or are you unsure if your campaigns and outreach are even working? Review the use cases listed above and think through how AI might fit into your existing stewardship workflows—you’ll be strengthening your relationships and driving your mission forward in no time.