For nonprofits struggling to get everything done due to staff and funding limitations, AI can seem like the magic answer. Tools that will save your team time and take to-dos off their already full plates? You might be thinking, “Sign me up immediately!”
AI can be a powerful tool for supporting and improving your nonprofit team’s operations. However, just like with any organizational change, you will get out of it what you put into it. In this article, we’ll explore how to build an intentional AI strategy that enriches and empowers your staff.
Shifting Your Mindset From Automation to Augmentation
AI platforms are an exciting innovation because they perform tasks that previously were only done by humans, like generating content or making strategic recommendations. AI is a tool that can take on more of your workload than ever before. However, it’s important to remember that it is still just a tool, not another member of your staff.
Having a realistic approach to AI is vital for your nonprofit’s success. If you treat AI as the catch-all for anything your team can’t tackle or don’t take the time to be strategic with implementation, here are a few of the risk factors:
- Plummeting staff morale. If a task that a staff member has been responsible for, that they have the specific experience and knowledge for, is suddenly handed over to AI without ceremony, they can feel like their efforts aren’t valuable.
- Insecure data management. Immediately diving into open-source AI platforms without researching their data use and storage can pose a significant threat to your nonprofit’s and donors’ information.
- Insufficient oversight. While AI results can be incredibly useful, they still need to be closely monitored by humans. To implement AI effectively in your operations, you need to take the time to establish clear oversight from the get-go.
AI automation capabilities, especially for repetitive tasks, can relieve your nonprofit of some of the pressure you feel. However, the technology should support your team’s judgment, not replace it. Approaching AI as a tool that augments your team’s skills, rather than automates them, will set your nonprofit up for long-term success with your AI fundraising strategy.
Your Staff’s Expertise is More Vital Than Ever
You and your development team have invested so much into your careers, and your fundraising knowledge and experience are in no way diminished by AI. In this section, we’ll dive deeper into how AI augments, but doesn’t overshadow, your staff’s expertise.
This is especially true for generic AI. Generic AI tools are flexible and can be applied in a variety of contexts (think ChatGPT). But because they are a “one size fits all” approach, the results reflect that. Generic AI lacks industry and organizational context, so the outputs can be vague or not appropriate to your situation.
This is where your team’s guidance and prowess make the difference. By crafting specific prompts informed by each staff member’s unique knowledge, you’ll achieve higher-quality results.
To help your team infuse their expertise into generative AI models, Bloomerang recommends the RCGO Framework, which helps draft effective prompts. We’ll break down the framework below, with an example of applying it to a fundraising email draft.
| Role | Identify what perspective the AI tool should take | “Act like an expert in nonprofit recurring gifts.” |
| Context | Share the pertinent details: audience, tone, style, constraints | “The audience is a group of monthly donors who are currently giving $25 per month. The tone should be appreciative and friendly.” |
| Goal | Outline what you want to accomplish | “Ask these donors to consider increasing their monthly gift to $50.” |
| Output | Clarify what format you’re looking for the output in | “Draft a 300-word or less email that invites these donors to increase their donation.” |
This framework can help you procure results more aligned with your goals; however, they will likely still need to be vetted. Your team knows your audience. They’ve done the work: developing donor personas, segmenting your audience, having conversations, and securing supporter loyalty.
Human staff members should always have the final say on any communications distributed to your audience. They bring the nuance, mission alignment, and emotional authenticity that’s needed for your messaging to resonate.
Thoughtful Uses for AI in Nonprofit Operations
Part of developing your AI strategy is intentionally identifying what tasks you’ll use AI for. Research other nonprofit organizations that are using AI successfully and learn from your current software providers as well. The fundraising and donor management tools you are already using may have new AI-enhanced features that are specific to the nonprofit context, are easily adoptable, and align with your organization’s approach.
Here are a few ideas for strategic AI application that might work for your nonprofit:
- Identifying donor trends. Predictive AI (which applies machine learning primarily to data analysis) can provide insights into your organization’s donor data. By analyzing giving patterns and engagement metrics, these models can flag donors at risk of lapsing or who might be good candidates to ask for larger donations.
- Recommending data-driven outreach cadences. Determining the right number and method of touchpoints can be time-consuming. With the right inputs, AI can generate a plan that’s rooted in donor preferences and personalized to each donor segment, minimizing donor fatigue.
- Building institutional knowledge. Purpose-built tools capture strategy and recommendations in one place. This ensures expertise stays with the team even during staff turnover and helps all team members find resources more quickly.
Whenever you introduce a new AI tool, identify and track key metrics aligned with your fundraising goals to gauge the implementation’s success. Keep lines of communication open with your team and donors, so you can learn from the process and make adjustments as necessary.
Keep Your Approach People-Centric to Maintain Trust
The bottom line for using AI in your fundraising and nonprofit operations is: don’t let it get in the way of your human relationships with staff, donors, and your wider community. It’s not a substitute for authentic connection, and irresponsible use of AI can instantaneously erode the trust you’ve built over many years.
To ensure the day-to-day use of AI at your organization aligns with your values and ethics, we’ve outlined a few practical suggestions:
- Institute an AI-use policy at your organization. Define your nonprofit’s expectations clearly for staff and stakeholders. This will ensure AI use is ethical and complies with local legal requirements.
- Practice healthy data management to optimize AI outputs. If your data is siloed or poorly maintained, the insights AI produces are unlikely to accurately reflect your donors.
- Communicate transparently about your use of AI to donors, staff members, and stakeholders. This includes instituting opt-in permissions for AI use of donor data, sharing your AI and data policies publicly, and being open to discussing AI use with people who have questions.
When you’re upfront and minimize ambiguity, staff and donors aren’t left to fear the worst or feel out of the loop. They feel like the trusted partners they are.
Generosity expands when nonprofits have the capacity to connect, understand, and act with purpose. By leveraging AI as an augmentation partner, your fundraising staff can operate from a mindset of abundance and intention, with the time, energy, and strategy needed to cultivate relationships and achieve your mission.
