Written by Craig Linton, Director of Elevate AI
Why AI can help us transform supporter experience
This year marks two anniversaries in my career. 25 years since my first fundraising job. 10 years since becoming a consultant. There’s been lots of shiny new things and ‘game changing’ breakthroughs in that time. Few endure and prove their worth.
Here’s why I think AI is different and can help fundraisers provide better supporter experiences and raise more money.
My AI Journey
My first AI epiphany came at the Ask Direct Summer School conference in Dublin last year. A talk by Cherian Koshy brought to life the possibilities AI brings. I started playing about with Chat GPT. Both for content creation and to help with data analysis. Learning about prompting and how to make it genuinely helpful and not just a gimmicky meme-machine. It was great for my own work, but I wasn’t sure how it could scale to make a difference for fundraisers.
The second breakthrough moment was discovering a number of helpful tools and AI wrappers. These tools are often easy-to-use and affordable – democratising technology for even the smallest charity.
When you combine this with the rapid improvement in models, Chat-GPT 4.0, DeepSeek, Gemini etc. Plus the promise of true agentic AI (artificial intelligence that make decisions and act independently to achieve goals) in the next year or two.
Ultimately, my thinking and approach is not about using AI to replace fundraisers. It is about using it to free up fundraiser’s time to do the things that matter – speaking to supporters, being great at gratitude and deliver ‘wow’.
I’ll be sharing what I’ve learned so far. Tips to get your colleagues and management on-board. The tools that excite me and how they can help improve the supporter experience. Plus guidance on how you can use them in your own work.
There are three broad themes where I’ll share examples:
Automations – how can AI help free up your time by automating tasks and connecting systems?
Analysis – how can you use it to analyse your data and provide insight?
Action – what practical, supporter-focussed tools can you use to improve the experience? AI voice, Chatbots and personalised emails are now affordable and can improve experiences.
Of course, there are lots of valid concerns about AI and the implications it has for our lives. The environmental impact, issues around copyright and biases in models are just three. These should not be dismissed lightly. Our job as fundraisers is to find ethical and efficient ways to use it to help deliver the change we want to see in the world for the causes we care deeply about. I’m hoping you’ll come away less sceptical and brimming with the some of the possibilities that AI brings for fundraisers.
Free Resources
We’ll also be giving attendees the chance to create a free charity brand toolkit, persona profile and product playbook. You can then use this to tailor your comms and create great supporter journeys.
You can also check out our blog for more information on the automations and AI we’re using to help charities.
Want to tune in to Craig Linton’s talk at our Supporter Experience Conference on the 22nd May? Learn more here
