Fundraisers Say A.I. Will Help Address Pandemic Challenges

Eighty-two percent of fundraising leaders believe that artificial intelligence will be part of the solution for challenges facing their teams as a result of the pandemic, according to a new survey from the AI in Advancement Advisory Council.

The council, which was organized by the fundraising technology company Gravyty, polled 337 fundraisers from March 3 to July 29.

Fundraising budgets are stagnant or tightening, and new hires are on hold at 73 percent of organizations surveyed. With so many fundraisers expected to do more with less, the council suggests artificial intelligence can help lighten the load.

Eighty-two percent of respondents said artificial intelligence could help them identify and contact more potential donors.

New donors are key at a time when 81 percent of fundraisers say they’re worried their donors are pulling back on giving because they face tighter financial constraints. Another 55 percent said they were worried donors are flagging because they’re only communicating virtually with fundraisers.

Virtual communication with donors is nothing new. The change this year was that communication with donors at all levels moved online, the authors say. Before the pandemic, some development teams employed digital gift officers to engage and retain midlevel and small-dollar donors. Their digital expertise became critical once the pandemic hit, and some digital gift officers began communicating with major donors as well, according to the study.

And while there are still plenty of unknowns about how virtual communication will resonate with donors over the long haul, many fundraisers think it’s here to stay. Fundraisers say they expect digital gift officers will play a bigger role on development teams in the future. Sixty-two percent of respondents said they expect some personnel will shift to the digital gift-officer role.

Even before the pandemic, some fundraisers were already leaning on the technology to automate rote tasks, like registering new contributors in the donor database or remembering donors’ birthdays or gift anniversaries.

As fundraisers increasingly rely on technology to broaden their reach, the authors warn, they should also be mindful of donor data security and preventing “algorithm bias” — conscious or unconscious — in which questions they ask technology to answer and how technology is programed to compute data favors some people over others.