AI as an Equalizer: Giving Small Nonprofits a Competitive Edge

Small nonprofits often face a daunting challenge: maximizing impact with limited resources.

Without the brand recognition or staff of larger organizations, fundraisers at small nonprofits must wear multiple hats and juggle a variety of priorities. Spending extra time on building donor relationships or digging into donor analytics can feel like a luxury you just don’t have time for.

This is why more and more small organizations are turning to AI-powered tools.

AI is leveling the playing field by helping small organizations streamline their workflows, analyze data, and regularly connect with more donors. And when thoughtfully implemented, AI can act as the extra hand you need to conquer your to-do list and foster deeper relationships with donors.

AI as an amplifier, not a replacement

Leading with your heart, meeting face-to-face, and building lifelong relationships for your nonprofit community are all uniquely human.

So, before I dive into AI-powered strategies to help you focus on the projects that move the needle, I want to clarify AI is not a replacement for your job. I see AI as a helper, something that can make your day-to-day easier so you can focus on higher priority, more strategic initiatives. It doesn’t have the expertise or the nuanced knowledge to make decisions for you, but it can help you gather data, draft communications, and raise more for your cause.

So instead of thinking of AI as your dreaded replacement, picture it as a helpful tool that supercharges your workflow.

By removing tedious, manual tasks on your plate and giving you more insight into your donor relationships, you are empowered to focus on strategies that significantly advance your mission. Just don’t expect it to take calls, attend meetings, or fetch you coffee anytime soon.

How AI can give small organizations a competitive edge

For smaller organizations, AI can bridge the gap in staff or resources, and help you reach donors slipping under your radar. Here are six ways you can incorporate AI to give your small nonprofit a leg up.

1. Identifying donors

One of the benefits of AI is its ability to process and analyze large quantities of data very quickly. Using data like wealth screening, giving history, demographics, and engagement history, AI can analyze a donor’s affinity to a cause and the likelihood of becoming a mid-level or major donor.

NOTE: Whether you’re taking a fresh look at the donors currently in your donor base, or analyzing a new donor’s potential, AI can point out areas of opportunity for your small nonprofit to further nurture relationships.

2. Developing and managing donor plans

Creating a plan for each major donor in your portfolio can lead to higher engagement and larger donations, but developing personalized donor stewardship plans is incredibly time-consuming. If you’re a small organization, crafting individual donor plans for everyone in your portfolio likely isn’t in the cards.

With AI-powered tools, like a donor engagement platform, the system automatically develops individualized donor plans for every donor in your portfolio. Using relevant information about your donor, such as previous communications, time zones, or engagement via different communication channels, AI can craft personalized donor plans.

NOTE: any time you send a communication through the platform, it can automatically update your donor’s plan so you don’t have to manually input the correspondence.

3. Prioritizing outreach

Part of the challenge of developing donor plans is knowing who to send what message to, and when. Do you space out your communications every few days, week, or two weeks? Do you check back in every month? How long do you wait until you make an ask?

If you work in a small to medium-sized shop, you don’t have the time to sit and think about who to contact—you need to execute!

NOTE: AI can remove the guesswork by helping you prioritize the most important donors to target, and suggesting outreach strategies and intervals. The AI-powered donor engagement platform Momentum sends a daily email to fundraisers’ inboxes with current top outreach recommendations, enabling you to consistently connect with more donors in your portfolio without feeling overwhelmed.

4. Drafting communications at scale

If you’ve ever stared at a blank page and wondered how to begin your email or thank you letter, this tip on drafting content is for you!

With 41% of fundraisers spending 15 to 30 minutes per email and 31% spending between 30 to 60 minutes per email sent, it’s safe to say a lot of your precious, limited time is spent drafting the perfect email. AI can help fundraisers reduce the amount of time it takes to draft email content, thank you letters, event invites, etc., opening up your days to focus on higher-priority projects.

If the AI-generated content isn’t up to your standards after the first try, don’t be disheartened. It takes time to train models and to improve the prompts you’re providing the AI. The better the AI prompt, the better the output. Plus, the more you use the AI tool, the more it learns how to personalize its results to suit your needs.

NOTE: This free Major Gifts ChatGPT is trained on fundraising best practices and can help you draft content and brainstorm fundraising ideas. If you’d like to test the waters with AI, give Momentum’s GPT a whirl. ‍

5. Automating engagement

As a fundraiser at a small organization, you need ways to regularly connect with your donors that don’t involve you drafting a new communication every day. With AI, you can develop cadences to send your donors, so when a donor takes a specific action you can send a pre-vetted communication.

Let’s say a donor registers for an event. In Momentum, you can set up a Cadence with AI-powered templates that let you trigger a series of pre-event communications when someone registers. This could confirm the donor’s attendance, provide more information about day-of-event activities, or send a reminder the week before the event.

Or, if a first-time donor gives to your organization, you can set up a series of acknowledgment emails. The first could thank the donor, the second could provide more information about the organization, etc.

NOTE: By setting up these Cadences ahead of time, you can ensure you are regularly touching base with your donors without spending time each day on outreach.

6. Avoid updating multiple systems

One of the biggest nuisances in any job is manually updating multiple systems with the same information. If you’re spending time and energy copying and pasting from your CRM to your donor engagement tool, that is absolutely something that can be automated with AI.

NOTE: Momentum’s platform, for example, integrates with Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT so that all information you input into Momentum is synced to Blackbaud in real-time. This makes your day-to-day easier and keeps data up-to-date within your CRM — it’s a win-win. See other platform integrations here.

3 tips for choosing the best AI tool

There are a number of nonprofit AI tools out there and while I’m biased as to the best one in the market, I do want to share a few tips to help you navigate your search for the best AI tool for your needs.

1. Determine what you’re trying to solve. There are many use cases for AI, so knowing your top priorities for your nonprofit’s AI usage will help you narrow down the possible vendors in the tool selection process.
2. Be sure the tool integrates with your current systems and workflows. If a tool doesn’t seamlessly fit within your workflow, you probably won’t use it. Check out your CRM’s partner page for information on the best integrations to guide your search.
3. Understand the tool’s data privacy policies. Learn how your data and your donor’s data are being used. Many AI models use your donor data, so it’s important to understand how it’s being leveraged. Look for companies that are transparent in their data usage, with documented policies.

NOTE: To further guide your search, here are 10 questions to ask AI vendors during the tool selection process.

Empower your small nonprofit with AI 

With AI tools by your side, you can enhance your nonprofit’s reach. AI enables teams of all sizes, including small and medium-sized organizations, to get in front of more donors. Even more important, AI-enabled tools can help you, connect with those donors in a way that builds long-lasting relationships.

While AI isn’t a replacement for a fundraiser, it can remove obstacles like manual tasks, blank page syndrome, and ultimately, help you raise more for your mission.

This article by Griff Bohm, co-founder of Momentum, was originally published on the Momentum blog. If you’re interested in using Momentum to bolster your nonprofit’s fundraising initiatives, simply fill out this Get Started form and someone from the Momentum team will be in touch. There is absolutely no obligation. It’s just a great opportunity to learn what’s possible!