Have you ever wondered how you can harness the power of AI to aid your fundraising? If you have, you’re one of the many nonprofits turning to this new technology to raise more funds for your mission. In this article, we’ll discuss seven ways to add AI-powered fundraising to your strategy.
It’s becoming more and more apparent that AI isn’t just a trend – it’s here to stay. The global AI market is projected to hit $1 trillion by 2028.
Many nonprofits are sharpening their fundraising strategy with data-driven approaches powered by AI. Read on to learn more about AI-powered fundraising, including seven ways to use AI in your data-driven fundraising strategy. We’ll also share three example scenarios where AI comes to the rescue!
AI-powered fundraising is a strategy that involves leveraging AI technologies to make smarter fundraising decisions. Ultimately, the goal of this type of fundraising is to save your team time and effort while maximizing each and every fundraising move you make.
While AI can’t fundraise for you – yet! – there are tons of tools that make the administrative and strategic aspects of fundraising easier and more efficient.
Now that we understand AI-powered fundraising, let’s list the many benefits this brings to your organization.
Wise fundraisers know that making decisions without adequate data can waste valuable time and resources that your organization may not have.
AI helps you analyze your available data quicker and more effectively so you can make better decisions and pull together a more effective strategy.
Obviously, time is an important factor for any fundraiser. You have an urgent mission to support, limited time to do it in, and an already-full plate.
AI can help you knock out time-consuming tasks like pulling contact lists, drafting correspondence, and more, saving you valuable time to focus on building up your donor relationships.
You could look at something for hours waiting for an idea to click and…it simply doesn’t. Using AI is an opportunity to connect your fundraising strategy to new ideas you may not have created on your own. This spark of creativity can help you try new things and expand your fundraising strategy.
You know how crucial leading with data can be. AI-powered fundraising is a great way to focus on data – without overwhelming your team.
Prospect research refers to identifying those who are likely to support your organization. The purpose of this research is to compile a list of potential new donors of any size, but typically, organizations are looking for major donor prospects.
Prospect research will take the following qualities – among others – into account:
AI can review a large database of donors to identify those who are more likely to support your organization – sparing you from doing the heavy lifting.
Every time anyone interacts with your organization, you should have some data from that interaction. Your list of donors, the amount they gave, which campaign they gave to, their giving method – all of this is valuable information that allows you to learn more about your donors and ultimately create a better fundraising plan.
AI tools can take that raw data and turn it into actionable insights by crafting a report showing you the best way to move forward with stewardship and future fundraising.
Pro tip: Ready to take your data collection to the next level? Learn more about Donorbox Tracking & Analytics and sign up today!
Segmenting allows you to send outreach targeted toward a specific part of your audience. Segment based on demographics, giving history, interests, and more. Although it can majorly pay off by personalizing your campaigning, segmentation can be a painstaking process of reviewing your donors and filtering by specific qualities.
But AI can easily sort your donor data and suggest custom segments that fit your desired campaign outcomes. This saves you the time and effort of manually segmenting donors – plus, AI may think of segments you haven’t considered yet!
We’ve all seen how effectively AI can write content these days. There is a huge opportunity to leverage AI when it comes to writing your fundraising materials!
AI can write drafts of fundraising materials like:
While it will never replace the personal touch necessary to maintain strong donor relationships, AI is a great tool for drafting your campaign materials. No more racking your brain trying to think of the perfect start to your appeal letter – AI can do that work for you!
What if you had an easy way to predict how your next fundraising campaign would perform? AI-powered predictive modeling can do just that!
By analyzing your past data along with current trends, AI can predict which fundraising strategies will be the most successful for your organization. Use AI modeling to determine the best time to reach out and which channel will be most effective with your audience.
Dealing with lapsed donors is a yearly task that involves careful monitoring and targeted outreach. But AI can help you predict when donors are going to lapse based on standard warning signs – meaning you can reach out before they stop giving or reduce their gift amount.
This allows you to share the impact their donations have on your crucial mission and retain their support.
Understanding your donors’ preferences is the key to effective fundraising outreach. But speaking to each different preference takes time and effort that your team might not have.
AI can analyze these preferences to create effective, personalized outreach strategies. This includes targeted messaging or suggesting donation amounts based on prior giving, along with recommending donors for specific campaign outreach.
Now that we understand how AI for nonprofits can power up your fundraising strategy, let’s look at three example scenarios of how to use this tool to its best advantage.
Your organization is ready to launch a capital campaign to raise funds for a new building. To prepare, you plan to conduct a feasibility study to determine whether your supporters have the capacity and appetite to make major gifts.
Your AI prospecting tool can help you identify which of your previous major donors may be interested in making another significant contribution. It can also identify donors – even those who haven’t given to your organization yet – who would be likely to make major gifts to your campaign.
This saves you time with your feasibility study so you can jump to the next step of interviewing your prospects and beginning the cultivation cycle.
You just got a bunch of new donors. This is excellent news! Now you need to come up with a plan to keep them engaged and excited about your mission.
AI can help you analyze this new batch of donors and come up with a personalized stewardship strategy for each! Factors like age, donation amount, campaigns donated to, and location are all helpful segments to consider as you craft a personalized stewardship plan. It can even help you craft the perfect content to keep them in the loop!
Every year, you sit down to plan out your fundraising calendar. You have some tried-and-true fundraising campaigns that you plan on running again, but otherwise, you aren’t sure of the best times to reach out to your audience for an ask.
Your AI tool can review data from the last several years of fundraising to determine the best time of year for you to reach out. It can also show you which types of campaigns function best. For example, you might learn that spring is the perfect time for you to launch a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign.
Looking for the perfect tool to help you power up your fundraising? Donorbox DonationDriver AI serves as your diligent fundraising assistant, helping you:
And more. DonationDriver AI is available for all Donorbox Premium organizations. Need to sign up or upgrade? Register for a Premium demo with our sales team. Learn more about DonationDriver AI in this blog.
Ready to take on your next fundraising challenge with the power of AI on your side? Allow AI-powered fundraising to build your strategy with insightful data, compelling copy, and the perfect outreach plan.
We hope these tips have been insightful! Donorbox is here to help with robust fundraising tools to help you capture more online and in-person donations. Learn about all of our features and sign up to start fundraising in under fifteen minutes!
For more fundraising tips, check out the rest of our Nonprofit Blog. Sign up for our newsletter to receive the best of the blog directly in your inbox every month.
Lindsey spent years wearing many hats in the nonprofit world. Whether she was helping arts nonprofits with their messaging and content, planning a fundraising gala, writing an NEA grant proposal, or running a membership program with over 400 members, she learned how to navigate – and appreciate! – the fast-paced world of fundraising. Now, she loves sharing those hard-earned lessons with the Donorbox community.
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Lindsey Baker Bower