AI for fundraising: 10 ways to raise more (with tools)

You’ve likely heard the phrase, “work smarter, not harder.” Artificial intelligence (AI) fundraising tools help nonprofits do just that. Using AI can help streamline your administrative processes and lead to more precise – and lucrative – fundraising. 

With thoughtful implementation, AI tools can lighten heavy workloads and prevent burnout in nonprofit professionals. In fact, over 50% of nonprofits are currently using AI to advance their mission.

Below, we’ll review what AI for fundraising is, best use cases and tools, and how nonprofits can incorporate AI in an ethical way that helps further their mission. 

What is AI for fundraising? 

AI is a type of machine learning technology that replicates the way humans learn—by building their intelligence over time. Typically, AI tools fall into two main buckets: 

• Generative AI: Used for creating images and written content. 
• Predictive AI: Discovers patterns and makes predictions based on data. 

Common use cases of AI for nonprofits include creating marketing materials, automating aspects of the donor cultivation cycle (like thanking supporters after a donation), and analyzing data to identify the people most likely to give. 

Research shows the top 3 ways nonprofits are using AI tools are for increased internal productivity, marketing, and development fundraising. 

Benefits of AI solutions in fundraising 

There’s no one “right way” to implement AI. With many different tools and approaches, you can use the tools that work best for you. 

Whatever your approach, AI fundraising tools bring the following benefits: 

• Save time: With AI handling your administrative tasks, staff members can focus their energy on the areas that require human oversight.
• Gain valuable insights: Predictive AI tools can provide a deeper, analytical insight into your nonprofit operations. From here, it can provide suggestions and a framework for improvement. 
• Increase your ROI: Using a more targeted, AI-informed approach to fundraising means your fundraising efforts are more likely to succeed. In fact, 30% of nonprofits report that AI tools have increased fundraising revenue in the last year. 

Limitations of Artificial Intelligence for fundraising 

AI can’t replace human intelligence or build those all-important deep connections and relationships. What it can do is streamline operations and provide insights to help you meet your goals. 

Think of AI as a member of your team with specific strengths—like automation, analytics, and content generation. Only outsource the tasks that align with these strengths.  

How to integrate AI into fundraising

Using AI often comes with a trade-off: Learning new systems takes time, but the resources you’ll save in the long run will likely be significant. 

Fortunately, there are steps you can take to make the integration process smoother:

• Define your nonprofit’s goals: First, identify your goals to ensure you’re using AI in a way that aligns with your organization’s mission—are you looking to simplify your administrative process, for example, find new grant opportunities, or improve your marketing? (Below, we’ll dive into more detail on available AI tools and their use-cases). 
• Research available tools: Consider the accuracy rates, privacy policies, and price of the tools you’re interested in. Look at how they’ll fit with your nonprofit’s larger goals, and if they’ll be scalable over time. 
• Create a responsible AI framework: Determine your AI code of ethics before implementing your tools, using your mission and core principles to guide you. Have a system in place addressing potential issues. 
• Train your staff: AI can be anxiety-inducing—92% of nonprofits currently feel underequipped for the change. A little care and comprehensive training can go a long way. 
• Track metrics: Measure your success based on your goals. If your goal is to raise more, measure fundraising over time. If your goal is to improve your marketing, track engagement metrics. 
• Choose the right time: Choose a slower time of year to implement your AI tools, so you have more time to get to grips with your new systems. If you’re making big changes, consider hiring an AI consultant to help you get started. 

Read our ebook, A Nonprofit Professional’s Guide to Incorporating AI, to get a deeper look into AI basics and overcoming the uncertainty of adopting AI. 

Use cases for AI tools in fundraising

Ready to dive into how AI can help you raise more? We’ve outlined ten of the best use cases for AI for nonprofit fundraising below: 

1. Screen donors & research prospects 

Predictive AI modelling helps you make smart choices when it comes to prospect outreach. It can identify lapsed donors, analyze giving history, and create targeted donor lists for outreach. 

Using past donor data, AI can predict future behavior, so you can work on strengthening connections with those most likely to give. 

• Kindsight’s Look-alike Search (within iWave): Finds mid-level donors whose giving habits and backgrounds mirror your top donors. From here, you can easily export their contact information and focus outreach efforts on this group.  

2. Use an AI assistant

From quickly generating PowerPoint to crafting a meeting summary for your board, an AI assistant helps you quickly tick off your to-dos. Think of it as your personal helper—just like the name suggests. 

• Microsoft Copilot: Let’s you easily draft concise updates. For example, you can update your board members on a new team development in just minutes. 
• Gemini for Google Workspace: Lets you easily generate materials from existing information. For example, you could create an eye-catching presentation from a PDF version of last quarter’s impact report.

3. Generate content

Generating content is one of AI’s most common use cases in the nonprofit sector and beyond. Tools like ChatGPT and Claude can quickly generate content—including blogs, social media posts, and promotional videos. The drawback is that since they are not created specifically for nonprofits, there is a risk that they will not follow industry best practices in the content they generate.

• Kindsight Engage: Comes with predesigned content creation prompts designed for nonprofits, including monthly and planned giving. It can draft out an entire fundraising campaign in just a few clicks. 
• Canva Magic Write: When paired with Claude, Canva Magic can generate ready-to-go Instagram posts with custom text and bespoke background art. 

Remember, AI can make mistakes. Treat AI-generated content as a first draft, not a finished product. Always review all content for accuracy and brand alignment. 

4. Segment donors

Segmenting donors (grouping them based on shared characteristics) makes it easy to send more intentional, relevant messages to certain groups. This way, you can save time and send out messages more likely to resonate. 

While many CRM platforms have donor segmentation tools built in, AI segmentation takes things a step further—it automatically groups donors based on their actions. From here, you can focus your messaging and outreach efforts on the people most likely to convert. 

• Kindsight’s Persona Builder (within Engage): This tool uses wealth data and behaviour scores (determined by a donor’s inclination, capacity, and affinity to give) to generate donor clusters—like your “next generation of givers.” 
• Momentum: Automatically groups supporters based on real-time engagement. If a supporter clicks on an email and RSVP’s for an event within 7 days, for example, Momentum automatically segments the donor as “high intent.” 

5. Automate workflows

With AI, you can automate routine tasks, like data collection, database management, or note-taking during meetings. This way, your time will be free for those all-important tasks that require human intelligence. 

There’s no shortage of workflow automation tools in the AI world: 

• Zapier + OpenAI: Use Zapier’s CRM integration to send donor thank you’s or add new supporters to a call list. When you receive a donation, Zapier sends the data to ChatGPT or OpenAI,  which in turn generates the action—such as drafting a note, or adding the supporter to a new database. 
• Make.com: If you log a supporter visit in your Google Calendar, Make.com pulls notes from your phone memos and summarizes them using Claude. From here, you receive a donor stewardship task notification. 
• N8N: Offers advanced AI tools for tech-savvy nonprofits (think, custom-coding). For example, during an auction, N8N can notify high-value bidders they’re still in line every time a new bid is made—working to encourage higher bidding and more lucrative fundraising. 

6. Add a chatbot

Integrate a chatbot into your nonprofit website, donation form, or training website to save time and iron out friction points in online giving. Chatbots can also be invaluable for training your team on best fundraising practices. 

• Donor-facing chatbots: When integrated into your donation form or website, donor-facing chatbots can deliver quick answers to frequently asked questions, like “Can I donate stocks?” and “What does my gift support?” 
• Internal-facing chatbots: Can answer commonly-asked questions from team members and volunteers about your organization. For example, how to use certain tools or where to find certain resources. 
• Preactivated: Train your team members on best fundraising practices by prompting Predactiv to “act as” certain types of donors. Your staff can practice interacting with this simulated donor and get real-time feedback. 

7. Optimize donation forms

Keeping your supporters on your site long enough to give can be tricky. To increase conversion, you’ll need to eliminate friction points and simplify giving. AI tools offer sophisticated solutions to this problem: 

• Fundraise Up: Uses real-time behavioral data to show data amounts that align with someone’s giving habits. This helps make giving more approachable based on the individual. 
• GoFundMe Pro Intelligent Ask: Adjusts the default giving amount down by 10% for donors who arrive via Facebook ad to reduce friction. It then upsells by offering recurring donations on the following screen, so nonprofits don’t lose out. 

8. Automate the donor journey

With AI, action triggers can help you automate entire aspects of the donor journey—not just your administrative processes. 

Just like you’d assume someone who bought 3 football tickets will buy a season ticket, AI tools can analyze multiple donor actions at once to determine who’s most likely to give. 

• Salesforce Flow: Flags supporters who have given for over 7 years and updates their contact information unprompted as potential givers. From here, it automatically sends out a newsletter to help deepen their engagement. 
• DonorPerfect: Offers predictive modelling tools that flag likely-to-lapse donors and auto-enroll them in a three-touch win-back sequence. 

9. Conduct sentiment analysis

AI Sentiment analysis (also known as opinion mining) helps you understand the impression of your online engagement—positive, negative, or neutral. If you’re curious about how a social media post is being received, for example, you can simply copy and paste the comments into ChatGPT and ask for a sentiment analysis.

From here, you can reverse engineer the prompt: If your sentiment is negative, AI can advise how to resolve this based on the comments. If the sentiment is positive, it can suggest strategies for continuing this sentiment. 

• Hootsuite Insights: Flags positive and negative sentiment in your fundraising campaign—in just one hour after launch. 
• Qualtrics XM: Offers robust sentiment analysis, including automatic alerts if the sentiment score drops below 70%. 

10. Identify and apply for grants

AI can help you search for grants that fit with your mission and workflow, eliminating the more labor-intensive aspect of grant-seeking. It can also help you craft your grant applications. 

• Kindsight’s Grant Writer (within Engage): Pairs generative AI tools with your nonprofit’s fundraising insights to craft high-quality grant proposals in minutes. 
• Instrumentl: Offers AI-Powered grantprospecting tools, including matching your organization with the best grant opportunities, providing valuable insights into funders, and a large Request for Proposal (RFP)  database. 

Artificial Intelligence for fundraising: Ethical considerations

AI for fundraising is still relatively new. There’s a lot we still don’t know—like how AI tools might adversely affect security data, or if they lead to unintentional bias and discrimination.

Before diving in, every nonprofit should lay the groundwork for its AI policy based on its own core values. 

Not sure where to start? Fundraising.AI Collaborative offers a helpful framework for ethical nonprofit AI usage. We’ve outlined some of its core pillars below: 

• Privacy and security: Protect sensitive data by following proper security standards. For example, if you’re a healthcare nonprofit, make sure your AI data usage is HIPAA compliant. 
• Data ethics and inclusiveness: Ensure all inputted data is accurate, inclusive, and collected with consent. 
• Accountability and transparency: Be transparent with your stakeholders about how you’re using AI, and give them a chance to opt out. Stay accountable to your own code of ethics, and check in with yourself and your organization as your AI usage evolves. 

Ultimately, nonprofits should approach AI usage with a continuous learning mindset. Train your team, develop your knowledge, and stay on top of best practices as they evolve. 

Once you’ve cleared the busywork, you can pour your reclaimed time into doing what humans do best: Building trust, listening to supporters, and crafting memorable moments your donors will remember forever. 

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