AI in Fundraising: the engine, not the driver
Most fundraising teams are being asked to do more with less. Meanwhile, much of the conversation about AI for fundraisers tends toward either hype or fear. This working session takes a more practical question: what can AI actually do inside a fundraising workflow, and where doesn't it belong?
The premise is simple: AI is the engine, not the driver. Strategy, relationships, and human judgment stay on top, supported by workflow and data underneath. Get that order wrong, and greater efficiency can come at the expense of better fundraising.
Rather than talking about AI in the abstract, the session will work through one complete funder engagement built entirely from public information. From prospect research and briefing to preparing a predisposition one-pager, creating a conversation tool for the visit itself, and handling follow-up, participants will see where AI can save time and where human judgment still needs to lead.
The conversation will also examine the boundaries of automation. At what point does efficiency start costing you the relationship? What are lean, two-person development teams actually doing with these tools? Where are the risks around accuracy, privacy, judgment, and over-reliance that fundraising teams need to consider before building AI into their everyday work?
The goal is not to persuade participants to use more AI. It is to help them make better choices about where AI genuinely creates more time for the human side of fundraising, and where it may be better left out of the workflow entirely.
What to expect
A hands-on working session built around a live fundraising workflow. Participants will see AI used at each stage of a funder engagement and receive the prompts behind the process so they can experiment with the same tools in their own work.
The session will close with an open conversation involving people already using AI in their everyday fundraising workflows, creating space to compare practices, surface risks, and discuss what is actually proving useful.
Who this is for
This session is for development leads, executive directors, fundraising teams, and others at mission-driven organizations who are exploring how to incorporate AI into their workflows while protecting the strategy, judgment, and relationships at the heart of effective fundraising.
What you will get out of it
A complete example of how AI can support a funder engagement from research through follow-up
Practical prompts you can adapt and use in your own fundraising workflow
A clearer sense of which fundraising tasks are well suited to AI and which should remain human-led
Perspectives from practitioners already integrating AI into lean fundraising teams
Space to examine the relationship, judgment, privacy, and accuracy risks that come with greater automation
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For Impact