Guest post by Monika Burchfield, Client Experience Leader

Growing up, I watched The Jetsons, a cartoon about the future that included robots, flying cars, video meetings, and conveyer belt wardrobes. While we’re still waiting for a few of those to become a part of daily life, many of us are accustomed to video meetings, and now, our new virtual assistants built on artificial intelligence can even help us do things like take meeting notes or summarize the highlights of a call. 

In the evolving world of fundraising, our clients are always on the lookout for fresh ways to secure major gifts and sustain their vital work. With the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), non-profits have a powerful tool to supercharge their fundraising efforts. But integrating AI into major gift fundraising requires careful thought and planning. As one of the many Veritus Group client experience leaders committed to your organization’s success, I’ve outlined five considerations for non-profit leaders venturing into AI-driven fundraising.

What Non-Profits Need to Know About AI

1. Reliable Data is Key

Successful fundraising starts with good data. Before diving into AI strategies, make sure your donor database is accurate and up-to-date. AI relies on data to work its magic, so it’s crucial to gather information like donor demographics, giving history, and engagement levels. Investing in data cleanup and enrichment will ensure your AI tools have the best foundation to deliver results. This is often the HARDEST part.

2. Using AI to Find the Right Donors

AI analytics can help pinpoint potential major donors efficiently. By crunching large amounts of data, AI can identify individuals who have both the means and the interest to support your cause. Segmenting donors based on their interests and past giving behavior allows you to tailor your outreach efforts for maximum impact. This requires a deep understanding of your donor’s passions and interests, which requires a human touch. Your work as a fundraiser is all about getting to know someone in a way that technology cannot do for you, though it can help to make those initial connections.

As you use AI to discover potential donors, be flexible and adjust your strategies as donors’ giving habits and preferences evolve over time. Think of this as a series of filters and sorting that may have taken one person a couple weeks to sort out using Excel each time you needed a list or segment.  The power of AI is the ability to process large amounts of data at speed like a couple hundred people slicing and dicing through data in a matter of seconds.

3. Using AI to Predict Donor Behavior

Imagine how much more time you could spend getting to know the donors who align to your cause and engage in a two-way relationship if you could use technology to support your work. AI can assist in the prediction of donor behavior and help prioritize prospects for major gifts. By analyzing historical data, AI algorithms can build a model to forecast who is likely to donate and how much. This enables your organization to focus your time on developing meaningful relationships with donors with the highest potential for impact.

Continuously refining these models based on real-world results ensures they remain accurate and reliable over time.

4. Personalized Engagement Matters

AI can deliver personalized experiences to donors at scale, strengthening relationships and fostering long-term engagement. Automated platforms can tailor communications and content based on donor preferences and interests. Implementing chatbots and virtual assistants can provide timely support and enhance the donor experience. Predictive analytics anticipate donor needs, allowing proactive engagement with relevant opportunities and updates. This doesn’t replace human intervention, but it elevates what your MLOs or MGOs can do with their time.

5. Ethical Considerations and Privacy

As your organization embraces AI, it’s essential to maintain ethical standards and address privacy concerns. For example, analyzing meeting recordings for donor insights can be useful in remembering what was discussed, capturing action items, etc…. but raises privacy issues.

Always obtain donor consent before analyzing sensitive data and ensure information is handled securely. Transparency about AI usage and data protection policies builds trust with donors and fosters accountability within the organization. Data handling (what you do with donor information), privacy (how sharing and visibility is managed) and retention (how long you securely store the information) are all topics that will need to be addressed to develop an effective policy.

To conclude: there are a lot of promising uses for AI in the fundraising space. But non-profits need to carefully consider their policies, especially where donor data is involved, to ensure that sensitive information is protected.

Monika Pandya Burchfield is a Client Experience Leader with Veritus Group. She has 20+ years of experience in non profit fundraising and IT consulting. Monika has been responsible for fund-raising, events, communications, volunteer and CRM operations. She has degrees in Industrial Organizational Psychology and Human Resource Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Monika lives in a farmhouse in the country.