AI for nonprofits: what you need to know
With the world around us forever modernising and taking on a digital approach, artificial intelligence (AI) is being embraced by a number of sectors. But what does AI for nonprofits look like?
For many charities, this may seem like an alien concept to grasp, especially for those who opt for a more traditional form of managing their processes. But what if AI could play a fundamental role in the future of the not for profit sector? In this article, we outline what you need to know about AI for nonprofits by covering:
- What is meant by ‘AI for nonprofits’
- How it can help shape the sector
- What you can do to accommodate it
What is AI for nonprofits?
AI for nonprofits refers to the use of artificial intelligence to enhance charity organisation operations, improve efficiency, and maximise social impact. AI helps automate tasks, analyse data, and optimise engagement in areas such as fundraising, volunteer management, donor relations, and marketing. Where security is concerned, AI can also be applied to tighten up key areas to ensure third-party information isn’t breached.
A number of key benefits around AI for nonprofits include:
- Automating repetitive tasks like scheduling, data entry, and donor outreach
- Enhancing engagement through AI-powered chatbots, personalised messaging, and sentiment analysis
- Optimising fundraising with predictive analytics, donor segmentation, and AI-assisted grant writing
- Improving impact measurement through data-driven insights and real-time reporting
By leveraging AI, nonprofits can save time, reduce costs, and focus more on their mission-driven work.
How can AI for nonprofits shape the sector?
A common pain point for the not for profit sector is the limited funding that is associated. Quite often, this means that resources are minimal, making it challenging to bring your charity to the forefront and receive the valuable donations required. Instead, charities are learning to achieve more, with less to work with.
Enter AI. A game-changing tool that allows you to work smarter, not harder. With the support of powerful AI-powered software, your organisation can develop crucial areas of your charity’s processes, saving valuable time and resonating with your supporter’s in doing so.
Automate administration tasks
Administration tasks can take up a significant amount of time out of your managers’ day. Whether this is writing ‘thank you’ emails or updating your supporters’ details within a database, the time of these medial tasks soon add up.
Instead, AI can be applied in order to use this time to focus on more priority areas such as developing campaigns that your supporters are actively looking to engage with.
AI can therefore introduce a smarter approach to administration with:
- Chatbots that handle volunteer inquiries and FAQs
- Automated data entry and document processing that reduces manual workload
- Smart scheduling that optimises volunteer shifts and event planning
Enhance donor engagement & fundraising
Appealing to your supporters is essential to successful fundraising campaigns. However, consistently building campaigns that your supporters are interested in can be challenging as the goal posts surrounding donor behaviour and the trends that resonate with them can move quite frequently.
With the support of AI, you can gain a clearer insight into what your donors are looking for from your organisation, allowing you to adjust your messaging accordingly.
AI can be utilised for your donor engagement strategies by:
- Analysing donor behavior to tailor fundraising campaigns and personalise your outreach
- Acting as an assistant that handles FAQs, donations, and impact updates to support donor-related tasks
- Demonstrating predictive fundraising by forecasting donation trends, helping you to plan more efficiently
Improve data-driven decision making
Data should be at the heart of any charity organisation. Without key insights, you can’t expect to make informed decisions that will successfully position your charity in a fashion that will encourage supporters to get on board.
AI can therefore be the solution. With AI-powered software, you can further enhance your capability to plan ahead by looking at what could be happening in the sector, rather than predominantly focusing on the here and now.
AI for nonprofits can therefore be utilised to:
- Analyse trends and outcomes to guide strategic planning
- Provide real-time dashboards that support strategic decisions being made regarding program effectiveness
- Demonstrate predictive modelling, supporting you to allocate resources efficiently
Strengthen security
Although receiving donations is crucial for your charity, so too is receiving them safely and securely. In addition to this, it’s paramount that supporter information avoids the risk of being breached by adhering to data security laws such as GDPR.
With the assistance of AI, you can ensure the safety of third-party information, which would in turn maintain your charity’s positive reputation.
AI can support the safety of sensitive transactions and information by:
- Identifying suspicious transactions in donations and grant management
- Implementing automated monitoring to detect cybersecurity threats
- Ensuring compliance with nonprofit regulations
7 steps to accommodating AI for nonprofits
Before embedding AI as a key part of your charity’s infrastructure, it’s essential that you make all the required adjustments in order to successfully accommodate this exciting step into the future.
Accommodating AI for nonprofits requires a strategic approach to ensure smooth integration, ethical use, and maximum impact. Below, we provide our step-by-step guide:
1. Identify your pain points
Before you even think about AI software, you should first take a step back and critique your organisation. An effective approach is to make the rest of the team your eyes and ears – they know their respective area better than anyone else!
Ask the important questions such as:
- Which processes take up too much time?
- What would improve these processes?
- What could the end result look like with AI support?
Once you get a clear insight into the pain points of the key areas of your organisation, you can then gain a better understanding of what exactly is required.
2. Consider suitable AI software
Now that you understand the areas for improvement, you can feasibly look into the types of AI software that can develop your processes. For example, you may consider AI software that accommodates:
- Content creation
- Fundraising & donor engagement
- Analytics & reporting
- Direct Debit processing
- Event management
- Volunteer management
Once you identify these key areas, you can then draw up a list of potential AI software solutions and begin to approach the respective software providers.
3. Train staff and volunteers
You’re now at a point where your charity is AI savvy. Exciting times! But does everyone know how to use this software in-line with your requirements? The short answer will be: no.
But don’t worry, this is easily solved by encouraging a culture of learning and adaptation, providing training via:
- Face-to-face workshops
- Tutorial webinars
- Online training
Once you successfully address any gaps in AI knowledge, you can then begin to use your sparkly new software to transcend your day-to-day processes!
4. Ensure ethical AI use
As you increasingly adopt AI to enhance operations, fundraising, and supporter engagement, it's crucial to ensure its use aligns with ethical standards and values. We therefore advise that you take ethical principles surrounding AI for nonprofits by:
- Being transparent about when and how AI is being used, especially in donor interactions or decision-making processes
- Safeguarding personal data and ensure GDPR compliance by collecting informed consent and using data responsibly
- Ensuring fairness by regularly reviewing AI systems to prevent discrimination or bias
- Promoting accountability by assigning human oversight to AI-driven decisions and maintain clear responsibility for outcomes
5. Automate admin processes
A key benefit of implementing AI support is that it can free up valuable time for your team which allows them to focus on priority areas surrounding fundraising. An effective approach to achieving this is by automating admin processes that take these tasks away from your team. This automation can include:
- Chatbots that answer questions
- ‘Thank you’ emails in response to event sign-ups and donations
- Direct Debit processing
- Gift Aid claims
- Updating donor data
6. Measure AI’s impact
Post implementation of AI software, it’s paramount that you take the time to measure it’s impact. You can achieve this by:
- Regularly tracking efficiency and engagement metrics
- Gathering feedback from staff, volunteers, and donors to refine AI strategies
Based on these findings, you can continue to refine your AI strategy in order to make the most out of the software in-line with your organisation’s requirements.
7. Stay updated on AI trends
AI is always changing. Forever evolving. With this being the case, the goalposts for AI capability will undoubtedly move as the technology continues to develop. It would therefore be wise to take a reactive approach by learning as much about these developments as possible by:
- Following AI advancements relevant to the nonprofit sector
- Joining nonprofit tech communities or attend webinars to stay informed
Speak to our experts about AI for nonprofits
AI for nonprofits will inevitably redefine how charity’s operate within the not for profit sector. With AI technology seemingly moving swiftly, now is the time to gain an understanding of what AI is and how you can begin to accommodate it.
Get ahead of the curve and speak to a member of our team, who will be happy to discuss AI capability with you further.