While you may think of AI as being very futuristic, it’s been used by various industries for many years now, yes even fundraising! In this post we’re going into more detail about AI for fundraising and how Wisely’s AI fundraising software can support your team. 

But before we get started, here’s a quick refresher from last week’s post, Introduction to AI for Nonprofits. AI stands for artificial intelligence. AI is a computer or a machine that is capable of conducting tasks that require human intelligence. AI for nonprofits is a huge opportunity because of its efficiency and time saving capabilities.

How AI for Fundraising Works 

Fundraising, especially at the major gift level, is very people focused. So how can a computer help you fundraise better?

When looking at AI for fundraising it’s important to remember that introducing AI isn’t about changing what is done or why something is done, but changing how it’s done – and making that process more efficient and accurate. 

Fundraising is and always will be about people. Human fundraisers will always be needed to build donor relationships. Fundraising AI changes how you manage and optimize your fundraising to build better, stronger relationships and raise more money.

Here are a few ways that AI can support fundraising: 

• Saves time by looking after data and analysis while fundraisers spend their time on the most important tasks: strategy and spending time with donors.

• Increases accuracy because AI is really good at analyzing data and recognizing patterns. AI doesn’t get tired or make mistakes like a person so donors won’t fall through the cracks.

• Makes predictions based on donor behaviour, AI learns by looking at past results and behaviour to make future predictions. By analyzing the behaviour of donors before they give, or before they lapse, fundraising AI can predict those actions better in the future. 

Wisely’s Fundraising AI

We founded Wisely because we saw how powerful AI for fundraising could be! Our goal is to support amazing fundraising teams so they can raise even more money for great causes. 

Wisley is a fundraising software that helps you manage your portfolio and it has several fundraising AI features. Along with features for goal tracking and moves management strategies that are built right into Wisely fundraising software. 

Here are the fundraising AI features included with Wisely that will help your fundraising team achieve their goals! 

Predicts Your Next Gift 

Wouldn’t it be great to know when your prospects were going to give? Then you could prioritize your donor outreach accordingly. With Wisely fundraising software, you can! 

Wisely’s fundraising AI studies patterns in donor behaviour to predict when a prospect in your fundraising portfolio will make their next gift and how much it will be. This is a really powerful tool for fundraisers to help prioritize donor outreach. 

Flags At-risk Donors

Donor retention is a huge component of fundraising success. If you are constantly replacing lapsed donors then you’re never growing your fundraising portfolio and won’t be able to meaningfully increase revenue. 

But donor retention is easier said than done, especially when you can’t predict when a donor will lapse. Luckily, Wisely’s fundraising AI can do exactly this!

Wisely’s AI for fundraising will flag donors who are at-risk of becoming disengaged before it happens. Your fundraising team can get to work on re-engaging these people through donor outreach to ensure they continue donating to your nonprofit. 

Identifies Top Prospects

Thanks to its fundraising AI, Wisely fundraising software will identify the top prospects in your fundraising pipeline based on past donor behaviour. You can filter your pipeline by top prospects right on the Wisely dashboard. 

This makes it really easy to see your top prospects and prioritize donor outreach for the maximum revenue results! 

Finds New Prospects

The best way to grow your fundraising portfolio and your revenue is to continually add new, qualified, prospects to your fundraising pipeline. Wisely’s AI for fundraising can help you do just that.

One of the best places to look for great new prospects is within your donor CRM. Many of your loyal direct mail annual donors and mid-level donors can be excellent prospects for major gifts. 

You can sort through these new prospects in Wisely with the prospecting tool. Without AI it would take hours of reports and analysis to find these prospects – there are companies that offer this service, but this work can be expensive! Wisely does it easily as one of its many built in features to support your fundraising team. 

The benefits of Wisely’s fundraising AI for your team are two-fold. 

On the one hand, AI saves your team valuable time to meet with donors while it takes care of sifting through the numbers and looking for trends. And on the other hand Wisely’s fundraising AI finds your fundraisers the best prospects and helps to retain more donors. 

Both of these combined lead to greater revenues for your fundraising team and stronger relationships with your donors! 

We know that implementing a new tool like AI can be a big change for nonprofits, that’s why next week’s blog is all about how to implement AI at your nonprofit and manage that change. Stay tuned!