Face-to-face engagement matters, but Greenpeace Canada is also using tech platforms to shape donation asks.Supplied
The Carlington Community Health Centre offers primary care, housing and community programs, including mental health and addiction support. The Ottawa non-profit is taking the pulse of its donor base and breathing life into its messaging with artificial intelligence (AI).
The centre is using AI tools to analyze donor data more efficiently, to dive deeper into who’s been giving what, and for how long. “We can focus on the biggest bang for the money,” says Dr. Yacouba Traoré, the centre’s executive director.
The centre has also introduced a chatbot on its website that offers service information and donation opportunities, and it uses generative AI to create social-media content. “That’s difficult without people dedicated to pushing those stories out. With AI, we’re able to do that more often.”
Charitable organizations are increasingly leveraging technologies such as AI to deepen their understanding of donors, to optimize fundraising, and to free up the time of what are often lean teams. For resource-strapped non-profits, AI can help to “level the playing field,” Dr. Traoré says.
The need to do more with less is what motivated Deepa Chaudhary to build GrantOrb, an AI tool that helps non-profits write grant proposals. Ms. Chaudhary, based in Vancouver, is a former social worker who spent years fundraising for NGOs. She says she never had enough resources, and that discovering AI’s creative capabilities “was like going from a scarcity mindset to this abundance mindset.”
With the assistance of AI fundraising tools, she says non-profits can devote their human energy to bigger-picture strategy and relationship-building.
Yacouba Traoré, executive director of Ottawa’s Carlington Community Health Centre, is co-author of a book called Understanding and Using AI: A Resource for Nonprofit Leaders.Supplied
Dr. Traoré agrees. His health centre uses AI to realize other operational efficiencies, such as transcribing patient meetings. That, plus AI-enabled tasks for donor relations, can reduce the burden on his team. “Our staff gets some reprieve and can focus on the value-add of human connection.”
Grabbing donor attention is a rising challenge, says Miriam Wilson, head of marketing and donor growth at Greenpeace Canada. “Email is a really important channel for fundraising, but more email gets sent every year.”
To cut through inbox noise, Greenpeace has started using platforms such as Fundraise Up. It deploys machine learning and AI to determine the best donation amounts to ask for. The team is also testing email tools that predict the optimal send times for each recipient, fine-tuning exactly when to ask for donations.
Imagine Canada’s 2024 sector analysis notes that while only 7 per cent of non-profits currently use AI, with another 4 per cent planning to, 78 per cent see potential value, particularly for content creation.
More productive fundraising efforts are critical when fewer people are giving. According to a 2024 report from the Fraser Institute, the percentage of Canadian tax filers donating to charities fell to 17.1 per cent in 2022, from 22.4 per cent in 2012. The charitable sector is relying on a smaller group of wealthy, older donors.
Ms. Wilson says the basics still matter, such as asking for a donation after someone signs a petition. But she’s cautiously optimistic about the power of AI for fundraising. “There’s a certain amount of nervousness about the rapid pace of change. My hope is that we’ll continue to adapt, and to mobilize people to take action.”
Ms. Chaudhary encourages fundraising teams to embrace AI to both improve programs and services, and to improve their staff capacity.
“When non-profits raise more money, they can hire more people,” she says, which eases the strain on small teams. “If I’m burned out, then I can’t change the world.”