Fundraising and AI: A Better Starting Point
By Ryan Clement | Ryan Clement Consulting · Published
Giving AI a role is a useful place to start. “You are a senior prospect researcher at our organization” tells it the perspective I want. Then I give it the task and explain who will use the result.
A repeatable process takes more work. It needs instructions about which records to use, what to do when information is missing, and how to present the findings so a colleague can act on them. Ready-made skills give fundraising teams a starting point they can test and adapt.
A skill packages instructions and supporting material for a recurring job. For someone covering prospect research, grants, and donor relations in the same week, that can reduce the work of designing each process.
Use the fundraising support already available
Claude for Nonprofits offers a plugin with ready-made skills for funder research, grant proposals, reporting, and donor relations. Its fundraising tutorial explains which materials to provide, what to review, and how to get started if the plugin needs administrator setup.
For a donor visit, you can describe the meeting objective and supply the records your organization permits you to use. The donor and funder relations skill can prepare a briefing, identify missing information, and help draft the follow-up from your notes after the meeting.
Claude for Nonprofits · Fundraising tutorial
I use ChatGPT Business in my advancement work. Eligible ChatGPT workspaces support creating, importing, and sharing skills. OpenAI lists Skill Creator as the default skill, and OpenAI for Nonprofits provides discounted access to eligible plans.
A team can import an existing skill through Plugins, then Skills, Create, and Upload from your computer, where those options are enabled. That gives you a way to adapt someone else’s starting point to your organization’s process.
Bring in a workflow someone has already written
The independent Nonprofit AI Skills library publishes free, downloadable workflow instructions. Donor Pipeline includes steps for reviewing prospects, identifying stalled relationships, and developing next moves. Grant Research covers funder fit, eligibility, and deadlines. Each page lets you read the instructions before downloading.
Read the proposed rules as closely as you would a new procedure someone handed your team. A skill’s definition of a stalled prospect, for example, needs to fit your qualification process and the way your officers document their work.
Test it on work your team knows
I’d begin with a small, fictional portfolio and a question I already know how to answer. The role still matters, and the existing skill gives me a process to refine.
You are a senior prospect researcher at [organization], a nonprofit serving [community]. Use the Donor Pipeline workflow to review these records as of [date]. Apply our attached stage definitions and follow-up rules. Identify prospects needing attention, explain why, and suggest a specific next action. Cite the record behind each finding and flag missing information.
Suppose a prospect’s last contact was more than 90 days ago, but a visit is scheduled for next week. I want the review to recognize the planned visit. If it flags the person for a new outreach attempt, I’d revise the instructions and test that case again.
For grant research, I’d compare a funder’s requirements with an approved program description. If the funder requires participants to live in a county and our records show where they attend school, the review should surface that gap. The next action is to check eligibility before asking a colleague to spend a day writing.
Build on a stewardship template
For a copy-and-run starting point, OpenAI Academy links to the Decoded Futures Nonprofit Prompt Cookbook. Its donor stewardship template already includes a role, a review of giving and engagement, and a six-month contact schedule. Use Copy Template, add the approved information it asks for, and review the proposed plan.
I’d check whether the suggested contacts fit the donor’s preferences and what our staff can carry out. A stewardship plan has to fit the people who will deliver it.
OpenAI Academy nonprofit resources · Copy the donor stewardship template
Once a workflow works on a known example, save the instructions and a sample of the result you expect. That gives the next colleague a useful place to begin and gives the team a shared basis for reviewing the work.