Autonomous fundraising: Adding trusted fundraiser capacity to every nonprofit organization

Can AI enhance fundraising without adding staff? Adam Martel of Givzey explores how AI-powered virtual engagement officers are transforming donor engagement.

Fundraising has always been the lifeblood of nonprofits, directly powering missions that tackle some of the world’s most pressing issues. Yet a serious and ongoing challenge is stifling these organizations’ impact: fundraiser capacity. For decades, nonprofits have struggled to engage their donor base adequately, and today this challenge has reached a critical point.

It’s well known in fundraising that the overwhelming majority of donors in most organizations—upward of 70%—are not managed personally in a fundraiser’s portfolio. If they could, nonprofits would assign a dedicated gift officer to every donor, creating a deeper, more engaged donor base. But in reality, most organizations struggle to afford even the small, skilled fundraising teams they have.

The hiring crisis in the nonprofit sector only adds to this challenge. Experienced fundraising talent is scarce, with organizations often competing for a small pool of qualified professionals. And yet, these talented gift officers are essential for driving any nonprofit’s mission forward. They’re the ones building relationships, engaging donors, and securing the funding that allows organizations to sustain and grow their impact. But as the donor base expands, the gap between the capacity of fundraising teams and the number of potential relationships they could build continues to widen.

If nonprofits could add 30%, 40%, or 50% more fundraising capacity, the benefits would be undeniable. The question is not “Why do we need this?” but “How can we make this a reality?” The answer lies in the invention of autonomous fundraising. Autonomous fundraising gives every nonprofit organization access to the world’s most experienced fundraiser through the use of autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) and offers the ability to add trusted fundraising capacity. Fully autonomous fundraising addresses the reality that even the most well-resourced organizations can’t scale their human fundraisers to engage with every donor. Instead, it uses a virtual engagement officer (VEO) to enable more personalized engagement and communication with donors who wouldn’t otherwise be managed in a one-to-one gift officer relationship.

Autonomous fundraisers distill patterns and use strategies just as traditional fundraisers do. The difference is they use pattern recognition and artificial general intelligence (AGI) rather than career experience. Because autonomous fundraisers use large datasets, advanced algorithms, and fundraising neural nets, they can onboard extremely fast and immediately engage multiple donors individually and simultaneously.

All autonomous AI follows a framework of “Sense, solve, and go.” Waymo illustrates this beautifully to educate consumers about the decision-making process used in their self-driving cars. Understanding this allows us to gain transparency where there’s traditionally a black box.

Traditional fundraisers excel at building relationships, interpreting nuances, and exercising empathy. Intuition, past experiences, and emotional intelligence help them navigate complex donor interactions. Here’s how our team breaks down the framework of autonomous AGI:

Sense: The autonomous fundraiser begins with processing data, including:

• Donor data: Giving patterns, preferences, and engagement history
• Organizational data: Campaigns, fiscal cycles, and specific organizational goals
• Environmental factors: Contextual elements such as the time of year, special events, or external socio-economic factors

Solve: The autonomous fundraiser then evaluates this data to identify the most suitable approach for donor engagement through:

• Donor evaluation: Understanding the unique characteristics and preferences of each donor based on their past interactions and giving behavior
• Organizational evaluation: Assessing the current state of fundraising campaigns and organizational priorities
• Environmental evaluation: Analyzing external factors that may influence donor behavior, such as holidays or economic conditions

Go: Finally, the autonomous fundraiser determines the best type of outreach and takes action. This involves:

• Choosing the right communication: Selecting the appropriate method for outreach (e.g., email, text, direct mail) and the nature of the message (cultivation, solicitation, or stewardship)
• Executing engagement: Engaging with the donor through the chosen channel, ensuring the message aligns with learned insights
• Responding: Responding to donor feedback and adjusting strategies in real time, fostering an ongoing relationship

Autonomous fundraising is in the research and development (R&D) phase, but early results from a cohort of 13 innovation partners are already demonstrating its impact. The VEO has successfully solicited and closed gifts, secured matching gifts, and made personal introductions to staff members. It has invited donors to events, stewarded gifts with handwritten notes powered by robotics, and sent happy birthday texts. It has also engaged in two-way text and email conversations, replying to donor requests and building its memory of each donor’s interests and preferences, giving it the ability to further personalize engagements to the individual.

Autonomous fundraising is proving that by addressing fundraising capacity with VEOs, we’re able to increase fundraising capacity significantly and facilitate relationships that bring donors closer to the nonprofits, causes, and missions they support.

This is the type of breakthrough that will change the world. As autonomous fundraising supplements traditional fundraisers, more donors will receive individual outreach from an experienced fundraiser, donors at all levels of giving will become closer to organizations, and giving will grow in impactful ways that empower the nonprofits on a mission to make our world better.

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