How to use AI for charity fundraising
Artificial intelligence (AI) stands at the forefront of innovation, offering endless opportunities to transform traditional practices.
AI has the ability to help organisations by offering advanced capabilities, such as analysing data and tailoring target audience communications. According to Civil Society Media, 57% of charity workers are currently using Artificial Intelligence, with some organisations still in the very early stages of integration. By utilising AI, charities have the opportunity to revolutionise their fundraising strategies, leading to the potential for increased donations, enhanced engagement, and more efficient operations.
Explore how AI can be leveraged for charity fundraising and the advanced benefits it poses.
Personalised communication
One of the most significant advantages of using AI within charity fundraising is the ability to personalise your engagement with donors. Through analysing donor data, such as their donation history, charitable preferences and behaviour, AI can help charities to create tailored content when communicating with existing donors, or potential audiences. AI applications which specialise in charity assistance are able to offer charities the ability to send personalised emails and messages to help their appeals resonate more with donors, increasing the likelihood of donations. For example, fundraising software, Zeffy, provides donor management tools which allow you to store and organise donor data so you are able to engage with the right supporters at the right time.
Social media insights
Social media platforms play an essential part in the world of modern fundraising. AI is able to utilise social media by analysing data retrieved from the platforms to gain insights into donor profiles. Their social media behaviour can help identify donor sentiment, preferences, and engagement, which can be used to influence what types of content a charity creates, ensuring any information shared is relevant to the target audience and resonates with them. The 2024 Status of UK Fundraising Benchmark Report revealed that 44% of charities are currently using AI to create social media content by utilising AI applications which use social media insights to advise organisations about what content their audiences are interacting with.
Visit our previous article to explore how social media is helping charities to encourage donations and volunteering from Generation Z.
Donor trends analysis
AI can be utilised as a tool for analysing donor data on a large scale to forecast future donation trends. Data sets exported from donor channels, fundraising campaigns and member communications are valuable tools for helping charities to learn more about donor donation behaviour. By analysing historical data, tools such as DonorSearch AI are able to identify patterns and predict when donors are most likely to gift. This information helps charities to plan their fundraising campaigns more effectively, allocate resources efficiently, and set realistic targets for their fundraising efforts. BWF shares how predictive analytics can also help identify many other patterns and trends, for example, donors’ preferred giving channels, likely next gift amount and how they engage with the charity.
Campaign streamlining
AI-driven automation applications can streamline fundraising campaigns, reducing the administrative time and effort required to manage them. By using a combination of automated tools, for example Mailchimp to send emails and Hootsuite to oversee social media, you are able to streamline campaign tasks, allowing charity staff and volunteers to focus on more strategic activities and set aside time to engage with donors on a more personal level.
Additionally, AI can monitor the performance of fundraising campaigns whilst they are live, providing insights and suggestions for optimisation. Visit our article to discover how small businesses are using AI to manage their social media activities.
Chatbot support
Chatbots powered by AI are able to provide instant support to donors, answering queries, guiding them through the donation process, and offering information about ongoing campaigns. Storly.ai shares how several organisations have successfully implemented chatbots, including American Red Cross who set up a chatbot on Facebook Messenger to answer queries surrounding blood donation and upcoming events, helping them to streamline their communications and increase donor participation. These virtual support lines can be set up to be available 24/7, ensuring that donors can receive assistance outside of traditional working hours, working towards enhancing their experience and encouraging them to support your charity.
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Please note: This article provides guidance for information purposes only. It should not be relied upon wholly when making or taking important business decisions – always seek the services of an appropriately qualified professional. The views expressed by websites referenced to are limited to those of the websites, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Markel Direct.