"Imagine if someone made a donation and got thanked by a beneficiary in real time. This gets us out of the transactional e-commerce mentality; we are ‘selling’ joy and connection.” ~ Ettore Rossetti, Save the Children

AI-Powered Tools for Charities

AI is used in different ways by charities. It is usually a built-in software that includes online fundraising campaigns, prospect research, reporting and workflow tools.

Let's have a closer look at the top four most commonly used tools. For the purpose of this review, a referende shguold be made to AI4Giving Report as it is most comprehensive resource on this topic with detailed analyses of the tools.

Donor matching and personalization

As the AI4Giving Report anderscores, personalized relationships at scale can be performed with algoruthm and data, and algorithm and data are a key component to matching donors to causes. When donors feel connected to the cause the relationship we are trying to build are more meaningful and the likelyhood of a gift is so much greater.

Donor prediction models and automated stewardship models

These predictive modelling are built-in algorithm work from the existing database and data available for a particular donor. It uses Machine Learning analyze existing data and data from third-party open sources to automate fundraising workflows. Machine Learning saves hours and hours of a prospect researcher's time and allows to personalize donor cultivation and stewardship when it is most timely to deploy these tasks for the increased likelyhood of giving. Fundraising strategy is much more targeted and allows for personalization for a future ask,

Online fundraising campaign platforms

Similar to predictive modelling, algorithm tailors engagement algorithm for any level of propsect, meaning that donors can be reached online with the same degree of personalization regardless of their capacity, or with tailored level of customization depending on their givinbg level.

Prospect research collaboration

Prospect research works with large volumes of data. If all that data from individual charities could be accessed in aggregate and analyzed by AI, the benefit to all the organizations could be so much greater. This is where the idea of prospect research collaborations comes in. The insights received through this massive volume of data are going to give organizations involved to receive more precise models and engagement strategies and increase funds raised.

Reporting tools

Most of the reports in current non-profits are run by staff. Some of them are created from templates available through the databases. AI can save a lot of time by running detailed reports with many datapoints. This can save charities and their staff a lot of time so that fundraising professionals can focus on their mission and building personal relationships with donors.