Top 10 Ways to Use AI in Fundraising Today

In a sector where every moment matters, it’s important that you use every tool at your disposal to help carry your mission forward. But have you considered the potential value that automated intelligence (AI) could bring to your nonprofit?

Perhaps you have but are unsure of how to implement it. According to data provided by the 2024 Fundraising Outlook Report, 32% of nonprofits expressed that they had a lack of clarity on how to use AI in their operations. If you’ve considered using AI in your organization, but are unsure where to start, this blog is for you.

Let’s take a look at the top ten ways you can start using AI in your nonprofit’s day-to-day operations to help you save time, deepen donor relationships, and bring in more revenue.

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Prediction Insights

You may be surprised by how much more funds you can raise if you time your campaigns around when your donors are feeling generous. AI helps you quickly analyze giving data from years past and can offer optimized campaign timing. This prediction of donor behavior and preferences helps you stay effective and timely in your engagement strategies.

For example, if your audience is more generous during the spring or fall months, you may want to schedule your signature event around that high-interest period to maximize engagement.

Segmentation Based on Donor Data

Sifting through your donor data to organize your campaigns tends to take precious time away from your team. AI can help segment your donor data based on location, age, and giving history/preference, allowing you to be more effective in your messaging to these audiences.

It can also help you retain donors by personalizing messages to their specific donation patterns. For example, you should use different appeal language with your annual donors than with your monthly donors. AI can help you draft these messages to maximize success.

Personalization At Scale

Every donor wants to feel as though their time and money are valued, and that their efforts are helping accomplish something good. Sharing your appreciation for your donors is especially important, as donors who are recognized for their efforts are more likely to return to give in the future.

While your team likely can’t personally appeal to every donor, AI allows for mass customization of communications. By utilizing AI and personalizing your messages at scale, every donor will feel individually valued. AI eliminates the burden of large-scale personalization from your administrative team while effortlessly building trust between you and your supporters.

Graphic or Logo Generation

Designing the perfect logo or graphic for your upcoming fundraiser can be daunting, especially if no one on your team has a graphic design background. Instead of hiring a freelancer or putting the burden of design on a member of your staff, you can turn to AI for support. Consider using a tool like Canva or Stockimg.AI to help you build out your brand.

Generating an eye-catching logo or graphic to market your next campaign takes seconds with the help of AI. Make sure to feed it your existing organization logo and brand colors so it has something to go off of. Continue to edit your graphics until you find one that’s ready to use, and you’re all set!

Time-Saving Text Generation

With so many other priorities on your to-do list, sometimes putting pen to paper (or hands to keyboard) is the last thing on your mind. Crafting dynamic and engaging messaging for every piece of content can be difficult. This is where AI can help!

Through text-generating AI tools, you can quickly create valuable messaging in a matter of seconds. Whether it’s an email or an auction item description, AI can support you by creating eye-catching messaging to get donors engaged. Be sure to review the content before sending it out to ensure that it matches your organization’s voice and tone!

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Enhanced Donor Understanding

Understanding what donors want makes it easier to form events and campaigns around their expectations and interests. AI can help analyze the data you collect to provide deeper insights into donor motivations and engagement patterns, letting you make more informed decisions around your fundraising appeals.

For example, if your audience gives more online during the winter but donates in person during the summer, you now have a basic understanding of how to build your yearly fundraising calendar. By using AI, creating an effective and impactful fundraising campaign calendar is easy.

Effective Social Media

Staying active and responsive on social media is important for nonprofits, as it could be the first time a potential donor learns about your mission. But consistently posting fun, engaging posts can be challenging enough – and keeping up with the hottest trends only adds to the challenge.

With AI, your organization can quickly generate and schedule exciting and relevant content to reach your donors. Through the combination of text generation and a post scheduler, you can consistently keep supporters engaged in your efforts.

Editing Existing Content

Not comfortable with letting AI create content for you? AI can still prove to be a valuable asset to you outside of content creation as an editor. After all, who wouldn’t want a professional editor to review their writing? Utilizing AI to edit the content that you create can help you save time in the production process while helping you catch mistakes that could have been passed over due to human error.

For example, after gathering the materials for a grant and drafting a proposal, you can have an AI editor like Grammarly do a sweep-through to check for anything you missed and potentially offer areas where you can make your copy even stronger. With a professional editor in your corner, you can make your grant proposals soar and get funded in no time!

Streamlined Volunteer Management

Volunteers are the lifeblood of your mission! But have you ever had trouble matching the skillset of one of your volunteers with an appropriate task? With AI, you can streamline your volunteer intake forms and filter for specific tasks, then match volunteers with projects that are naturally suitable to them. This saves you the time of going through them by hand and gives your volunteers the perk of working on a project that matches their interests. It’s a win-win!

Brainstorm Ideas

Stuck on how to shake up this year’s fundraising schedule? Even if you aren’t comfortable with using AI in your organization for content creation or organization, it’s an excellent tool to help you brainstorm new ideas and workshop initiatives that you may already be working on.

Feed your campaign calendar to an AI tool with your annual goals in mind. It may help suggest new ideas that you have not considered before to help reach your goal.

Wrapping Up

AI offers powerful tools that can help give you time back to use toward your mission – and in a sector where every minute counts, that time saved is invaluable. By understanding how AI can utilized, you can maximize your fundraising potential and engage with donors on a whole new level.

As you begin looking for tools to add to your tech stack, consider an all-in-one fundraising platform like OneCause. The robust fundraising software has AI woven in throughout, helping you achieve more for your mission.

More fundraising resources are just a click away:

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