I’ve had a number of major gift officers ask me recently if they are going to be replaced by AI in the next few years. They are worried that they will become extinct as they have heard there is a company out there that has now created an actual AI major gift officer.

I had to step back a bit and think about what is major gifts ultimately about?

I believe it’s about helping donors find joy in their giving and helping change the world.

To do that properly, you must really understand the donor’s interests and passions. Then you must align those interests and passions to the programs and projects your organization does every day to make a difference on our planet.

I believe that takes a human-to-human relationship. It takes building enough trust with a donor to allow them to be vulnerable enough to tell you those passions and interests and why they have them.

How you get to that point can take many paths. Originally, you essentially had to sit in front of a donor, and through a series of face-to-face meetings, over time, you would get to that place of trust and solicit a gift. To be sure, this is still a very effective way to do it.

Today, with technology, we can be more efficient and effective. There are so many tools that can assist us to help us make that human-to-human contact be more engaging and cost-effective.

Wealth indicator analysis has been around for decades and can help assist a fundraiser in gaining knowledge about a donor’s potential wealth. Donor models can help us determine who in your entire donor database may have the capacity and propensity to give a major gift years before they start giving actual major gifts to your organization. E-mail and digital tools for texting, sending video messages, etc. all make it easier for you to cultivate and steward donors.

AI can tell you when it’s most appropriate to reach out to donors and give you suggestions on what they may be most interested in talking about. It can help you craft emails, text messages, and phone scripts to help guide you in how to best communicate with your donors.

Will any of this technology replace you? I don’t believe so. At the end of the day, for a donor to make a transformational gift, they still need to trust the person sitting across from them to make a significant investment in your mission.

Can these tools help you build that trust and make it easier for you to cultivate and steward those donors? Absolutely. And your organization should invest in them to help you become more effective and efficient.

But ultimately, it will be your empathy, compassion, and “humanness” that will help donors make decisions on where they want to make an impact on something they care deeply about.

You don’t need to fear technology. Embrace it. Use it and understand it’s importance, but also its limitations, for you to be effective in your work with donors.

Jeff