The future of fundraising with AI (GPT, machine learning, AI assistants)

Chris Paver – 17 May 2023

Throughout my experience as a data scientist and as Dataro’s CEO, I’ve witnessed first hand the undeniable impact of technology on our lives. AI, in particular, has made remarkable progress since its conception and has found its way into various applications. Driverless cars, automated data analysis, content recommendation systems, manufacturing, and medical image analysis are just a few examples of how AI has permeated our world.

In the realm of fundraising, I’ve discovered that AI can be an incredibly powerful tool.

It’s not about creating robots that can replace humans entirely; rather, it’s about harnessing the capabilities of AI to perform specific tasks to free up fundraisers to do more of what they do best – fundraising!

It’s also about optimizing processes that humans simply aren’t good at, like crunching vast amounts of data and pattern recognition.

We’ve seen those organizations who have adopted AI in their fundraising practices early have improved their fundraising efficiency and ROI and are having a greater impact for their beneficiaries.

But most recently, there’s been a tremendous surge of interest surrounding AI technology, especially since the release of ChatGPT by OpenAI late last year. And rightly so – the opportunity that AI, and in particular GPT, represents to improve our world and make our personal and professional lives easier is extremely exciting. And fundraisers have been quick to jump on this tool as a way of getting more done in less time – see how fundraisers are using GPT here.

But this tipping point in mass-awareness and excitement for AI has been extra sweet for me and my team at Dataro.

That’s because we’ve been working in this space since 2017, helping nonprofits to harness the power of AI in their fundraising work to improve efficiency and drive impact. We’ve spent the past 6 years educating fundraisers about AI and developing Machine Learning modules that can predict which donors are most likely to give (and who isn’t). Through better campaign targeting with AI, nonprofits are raising more funds, more efficiently and building better relationships with their donors.

I truly believe AI and state-of-the-art innovation should serve the greater good. And as a company, we’re really passionate about building cutting-edge technology specifically designed for the nonprofit sector with a profound purpose; to change the world.

Our team has had the privilege of making a significant impact on countless fundraising campaigns for nonprofits across the UK, Australia and now in the US. For us, it’s about empowering for-purpose organizations to do even more good in the world.

Having worked with thousands of fundraisers, we understand their pain points when it comes to fundraising and appreciate the immense time and resource constraints they face in their work. One of the reasons why Dataro’s AI solutions deliver such exceptional results is because we’ve co-designed our products with fundraisers. That’s what makes our approach at Dataro different to other big nonprofit tech companies.

And now, with the release of GPT4 we’re working with a global group of fundraisers to develop a new AI Assist fundraising tool that can support fundraisers with their copywriting, campaign generation and data analysis – so they can achieve even more, with less effort and resources.

Now is an incredibly exciting time to be involved in the AI space, which is evolving at lightning speed. The release of GPT will change the world in a way similar to the birth of the internet – and I don’t think anyone can truly predict the benefits or direction of where this new technology will take us in the near future. And that’s what makes my work so exciting!

My advice to nonprofits and fundraisers today is to take the time to learn and invest in leveraging AI technologies now.

It’s not too late and you’ll only improve efficiency and deliver more impact for your cause. Because working with more than 200 global nonprofits we know that leveraging AI technologies can help optimize fundraising strategies, improve donor engagement, and drive greater impact.

If you’re ready to get started or want to learn more I invite you to take advantage of these free resources and get in touch if you have any questions:

In my opinion, AI is a powerful tool that empowers nonprofits and fundraisers to make a lasting impact and create positive change in the world. And that can only be a good thing.

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