Fundraising Platform FAQs

The insights surfaced in iwave are the result of predictive analytics, not large language models (LLMs). These models analyze a combination of iwave‘s proprietary datasets and customer-provided information (such as RFM scores) to generate actionable recommendations. While these models are intelligent, they are rule-based and statistical in nature, not powered by machine learning.

Kindsight’s Fundraising Platform includes both AI and non-AI components.

• AI Features: We use Large Language Models (LLMs) to generate email and call script drafts, helping fundraisers save time and personalize outreach, which is more commonly known as Generative AI.
• Automation: Our Action Sequences are built on business rules that trigger tasks based on changes in Kindsight or iwave data, these are rule-based automations, not AI. Note:  this could be powered by Agentic AI, but at the moment Kindsight does not feel it is necessary.
• Scoring Models: Scores like the Kindsight Score, Propensity, Affinity, and Capacity are generated using proprietary algorithms. These are transparent, data-driven models, and more commonly known as Predictive AI.

We take data privacy, ethical sourcing, and responsible AI seriously. Our AI governance framework outlines how we handle donor information, ensure data provenance, and maintain compliance with industry standards. You can learn more in our Kindsight Fundraising Platform AI Data Privacy & Security Policy (linked here).

In ascend, AI-generated content, like email and call script drafts, is designed for one-to-one communication, not mass outreach. The platform does not currently support generating or sending mass communications directly.

However, Kindsight’s engage product (linked here) is our AI-powered content generation tool built specifically for marketing teams. It can assist with drafting multi-channel campaigns, including email, social media, and other outreach, helping you scale communications while staying on brand.

We take data privacy and ethical sourcing seriously. You can learn more about our approach to data provenance, how we handle private donor information, and our compliance standards in our Privacy Policy (linked here) and Terms & Conditions (linked here).

At Kindsight, we take a thoughtful and principled approach to AI, just as we do with all aspects of data, automation and privacy.

We understand that some organizations may have religious or ethical concerns about AI, and we respect that. That’s why AI in Kindsight’s Fundraising Platform is entirely optional. It’s never forced, only offered when and where it makes sense to enhance, not replace, human relationships.

There is no cross-organization data sharing, and we ensure that all AI features operate within your org’s secure environment. Our goal is always to empower fundraisers, not automate empathy.

For existing ascend customers, the Fundraising Platform is an optional upgrade with separate pricing and a new contract. It does not replace your current UI or features, rather it layers on additional capabilities.

This isn’t automatically included in your current ascend instance. Interested ascend customers should connect with Vice President of Client Services, Kushal Dasgupta (click to email) and iwave customers should connect with their customer success manager. 

Implementation timelines vary depending on your current setup and customizations.

For new and prospective ascend customers, the Platform can be implemented as part of the larger ascend implementation project. Consult with our sales team about how you can add the Platform to your purchase.

In ascend, we offer out-of-the-box role-based permission sets like “ascend Development” and “ascend Research.”

In the Fundraising Platform, permissions are functionality-based. We provide one default set (“Kindsight Admin”), but admins can create custom sets using modular permissions (e.g., “View Kindsight Component”). Most customers clone and tailor these to fit internal roles, making it easier to manage access as needs evolve.

Yes, ascend supports complex collaborative giving scenarios. It allows distributed individuals and teams to work together on gift opportunities and accurately tracks percentage-based attribution or credit for each team member once the gift is closed.

Our focus to date has not been on collaborative giving opportunities for donors. However, we are looking at new ways to expand our support of Foundations, and the ability to match donors with giving opportunities through Foundations. 

One community foundation transitioned from Raiser’s Edge to Salesforce NPSP but found gaps in gift management capabilities. 

• Data sharing: Account, Contact, and Fund records are synced from NPSP into ascend in a read-only format
• Gift processing: The Gift team processes gifts in ascend, which is integrated with NetSuite
• Two-way sync: Pledges and gifts are sent back to the NPSP org for visibility and reference

Additional use cases: They are currently testing a Fund Request Application workflow, migrating Prospect Management into ascend, and building a local grantee directory and portal.

Kindsight’s Fundraising Platform is a standalone product built on Salesforce that expands on the functionality of ascend. It does not replace ascend or Salesforce—instead, it offers enhanced intelligence, automation, and engagement capabilities within the Salesforce ecosystem.

For existing ascend customers, the Platform serves as an upgrade, offering expanded functionality through additional licensing.

For new customers evaluating fundraising CRMs, the Platform can be purchased as a standalone solution. While ascend is still available, it does not include the advanced capabilities offered in the Fundraising Platform.

If you’re a current customer, reach out to your Account Manager or our VP of Client Services, Kushal Dasgupta (click to email), to explore the upgrade. New to Kindsight? Our sales team can walk you through both options (click to email).

iwave includes logic in its algorithms that include a Common Name Score which utilizes US Census data to determine the frequency of a name in the general population. iwave will also consider variations of the name, when determining this score (such as Jeff vs Geoff, or Elizabeth vs Betty). The overall frequency is used to provide a Common Name Score with any score result generated by iwave‘s automated scoring. 

The Common Name Score is used to increase confidence that the correct prospect has been identified. 

Further to that, the Fundraising Platform is powered by other identifiable data, such as address, to ensure the best possible insights are attached to any donors.

A certain level of biographical data is required in order to access the iwave insights and scores. With the base information such as name and address, iwave can provide additional information related to jobs, board memberships and other connections. 

Yes, the scores, analytics, and live updates apply to our full North American dataset, including Canadian data.

iwave was the first donor insight platform to offer quick access to profiles and analytics for institutions like foundations and organizations, not just individuals. These institutional profiles will also be available in the Kindsight platform soon.

Yes, live profiles in ascend require an iwave profile to first be created and synced with a constituent record. This is the foundation of the integration.

There are two main ways to create that connection from the ascend platform:

• Manually, by selecting “Get Profile” on a constituent record
• In bulk, via a screening project from a list or report in ascend

Once a profile is linked, live data can flow between ascend and iwave. If Live Profiles are enabled, iwave will automatically push updates to ascend when it detects new matching records (e.g., based on name and address). For Managed Profiles, a pending profile is sent instead.

The platform also offers Scheduled Profiles, which let you automate profile creation or updates based on changes in ascend—such as adding a new constituent or recording a new gift.

ascend is a non-profit and donor management CRM built on Salesforce, designed to help organizations manage fundraising workflows, constituent relationships, and giving history.

iwave is a donor prospect research tool that helps identify, qualify, and prioritize potential donors using wealth, philanthropic, and affinity data.

Both are part of the Kindsight suite of solutions—working together to help nonprofits identify the right donors (iwave) and manage those relationships and gifts effectively (ascend).

Yes, to access the full Fundraising Platform and its advanced features customers need active subscriptions to both ascend and iwave. While each product is available separately, the platform’s full value is, please contact your CSM or reach out to our sales team (click to email).

Yes, since ascend is built on Salesforce, you must have a Salesforce license in place to use ascend or the Fundraising Platform. Salesforce serves as the foundation for both solutions.

The full Kindsight Fundraising Platform experience, including Live Profiles, AI-generated content, and Action Sequences, is only available when iwave is integrated with ascend.

However, iwave does offer a standalone Salesforce integration that doesn’t require an ascend license. This allows users to access core prospect research and profile analytics directly within Salesforce.

If you are not a Salesforce customer today but are interested in Kindsight’s Fundraising Platform, reach out to our sales team (click to email). We would love to help you evaluate if ascend (built on Salesforce) is an option for your organization. Even if ascend is not a good fit, we can talk to you about how to make the most of your iwave subscription to get some of the benefits discussed.

Action Sequences and the cadences/tasks included are built on Salesforce Sales Engagement. Prospects can be added to one or many cadences manually, individually or in bulk, through a list or report. Action Sequences include automation to add constituents to a cadence based on new or changing data in ascend.

Yes, we have added this check box as a quick check to ensure users have read and acknowledged the email content before sending. This was a security measure that was requested by our customers during the beta testing program. 

The Fundraising Platform is not designed to send mass mailings. Customers may choose to implement Salesforce features such as Marketing Cloud to accomplish mass mailings from Salesforce. 

Both. Assuming the user/sender email is Outlook, the emails will show up in your Sent folder. Emails that are sent from the platform using Kindsight AI content generation will create a Generated Kindsight AI Content record in Salesforce/ascend. The emails can also be automatically stored as contact reports in ascend (contact report auto-generation is a setting that can be turned on/off). 

More information on Salesforce email sending can be found here. Emails sent from Salesforce appear to the recipient as coming from the individual user/sender’s inbox. As such, any replies to those emails will go directly to the user’s inbox.

The Action Sequences are built in the Salesforce Sales Engagement tool. 

No, Kindsight’s Fundraising Platform is not limited to use in Canada and the US. It is available to organizations globally. However, it’s important to note that while the platform’s core functionalities are accessible worldwide, certain features, particularly those relying on external data sources, like real-time donor data from iwave, may have varying levels of coverage depending on the country. For instance, live profiles and real-time updates may have more limited availability for Canadian constituents due to data source constraints. 

If you’re operating outside North America, we recommend reaching out to Kindsight directly to discuss your specific needs and to understand how the platform can best support your fundraising efforts in your region.

Kindsight’s Fundraising Platform doesn’t replace the need for all data clean-up, but it significantly reduces manual effort by enriching your ascend constituent records with trusted data from iwave, including wealth insights, scores, affinity indicators, and relationship intelligence.

Unlike data scraping tools or generic APIs, iwave uses licensed, reputable data sources and applies structured analytics to surface actionable insights. It’s built specifically for nonprofit fundraising use cases—not just raw data delivery.

We’re also working to integrate with an NCOA provider to help clean and validate mailing addresses and receive change-of-address notifications. Separately, we’re exploring email and phone data appends through future integrations in both iwave and the Platform to help keep your contact records accurate and up to date.

Kindsight would recommend that consultants get access to their client environment. This is our best practice for all consultant engagement so customers own the data. 

The platform is built on Salesforce and ascend, which provide the tools and features necessary to support HIPAA compliance. However, it is the customer’s responsibility to implement and manage those features in a way that aligns with their compliance needs.

Customers are also responsible for determining what data they collect and how it’s managed. Kindsight does not collect or access customer data directly.

iwave will continue to support integrations with other CRMs, such as Raiser’s Edge NXT. These integrations allow donor insights from iwave to be viewed and used within the CRM.

However, advanced capabilities, like additional insights, automations, generative AI, and sales cadences, are only available through the Kindsight Fundraising Platform.

Yes, Kindsight offers its own online giving and constituent engagement solution called connect, which is fully integrated with the Fundraising Platform. This allows organizations to collect donations online and have that data flow into ascend in real time, streamlining both gift processing and donor engagement.

Our broad product suite is designed to support the unique needs of both small and large teams. For small to mid-sized organizations, iwave and engage offer accessible, high-impact tools that can be implemented quickly and cost-effectively. For larger institutions exploring CRM options, ascend and the Fundraising Platform provide the scalability, automation, and integration depth required to manage complex fundraising operations at scale.

Kindsight Action Sequences were developed using Salesforce Sales Engagement (linked here). Kindsight has included in the package 6 pre-built Action Sequences that are made up of a flow and a cadence, to capture the new or changing iwave data and surface it to a fundraiser with a task and suggested next step. Customers can build onto these templates to create full and robust DXO/LAG workflows. 

The flows can absolutely be modified. Customers can simply clone any of the flows or cadences that Kindsight has provided and adjust or build on those as desired. 

At Kindsight, we’ve designed our Fundraising Platform pricing to remove the barriers that often slow down fundraising teams:

• Simplicity & Transparency – Clear, all-in-one pricing with no hidden fees or unexpected charges
• Scalability & Growth – A flexible model that grows with your organization, from small teams to enterprise institutions
• Predictability & Cost Control – Fixed pricing that makes it easier to budget and plan with confidence

Unlike other models that limit access or charge per transaction, Kindsight offers a flat, all-inclusive structure. That means no piecing together tools, no surprise add-ons, just one streamlined platform with everything you need to scale your fundraising efforts. 

Already a Kindsight customer?

• ascend users: Please contact our VP of Client Services, Kushal Dasgupta (click to email), for a personalized quote
• iwave users: Reach out to your iwave CSM for next steps

New to Kindsight? We’d love to learn more about your goals. Please fill out our demo request form (linked here), and our team will be in touch.

Kindsight’s connect, an add-on constituent portal for ascend, includes event management and online giving forms, both of which are managed directly in the ascend CRM. These features use a shared data model and are built on Salesforce Experience Cloud, ensuring a seamless experience across fundraising and engagement activities.

For email marketing, customers can use Salesforce Marketing Cloud or choose from many apps available on the Salesforce AppExchange.

What makes Kindsight’s Fundraising Platform unique is its ability to surface highly targeted opportunities by combining ascend CRM data with iwave insights—enhanced by AI. This intelligence can inform outreach strategies and even drive personalized experiences in connect based on constituent preferences and behaviors.