Many nonprofits proclaim their love of humanity but behave as though they can’t stand people.

You need only look at their basic fundraising practices:  like failure to properly thank donors…failure to seek or abide by donor preferences….failure to provide feedback mechanisms…failure to treat donors as anything other a bucket in the l RFM Sea of  Impersonal Segmentation.

The result? Poor donor loyalty and retention rates. Low lifetime values.  Substantially reduced income.

Of course, it doesn’t –and shouldn’t—be that way. 40 years ago, Botton Village, a UK charity introduced a “donor choice” model allowing donors to control how, when and what communications they received.

You’ll find a case history of how this then-revolutionary model led to stronger relationships and far greater long-term support for charitable causes in the recently published Third Edition of Ken Burnett’s Relationship Fundraising reviewed last month in the Agitator.

Unfortunately, 35 years after publication of Ken’s First Edition too few fundraisers and their organizations have seriously committed to the practice of developing—and benefitting from—strong donor relationships through the simple process of determining donors’ preferences and honoring the donors’ choice in the way the organization deals with them.

There are many reasons for this failure.  Lack of staffing.  Lack of budget.  Lack of skill. You name it.

Can AI Provide an Answer to Donor Neglect?

I sure hope so.  And, in fact, my hopes were boosted with the arrival of the press release at Agitator HQ announcing  Version2.

Version2, launched by Adam Martel and his firm Givezly,   is the first AI research and design lab specifically focused on advancing fundraising in the nonprofit sector.

Specifically, Version2’s goal is to have their AI  process both successfully and autonomously manage a portfolio of donors, like the way a knowledgeable, experienced fundraiser would.

I took this announcement more seriously than I do most claims involving AI because Adam is not a techie, he’s an experienced fundraiser who understands in practical ways the application of technology to our trade.  He proved this with the success of his earlier firm Gravty.

What’s Adam Up To?

So, I picked up the phone asked Adam for both a demo and a detailed conversation about his plans. Here, in a nutshell, is what the Version2 team and a group of 10 nonprofit organizations are testing.

• Take a set of 1,000 prospects and narrow it down to 200 through a permission-based, opt-in discovery process conducted entirely by the AI-driven Autonomous Fundraiser.
• Once the donor has opted in (and been clearly informed he/she is dealing with a non-human fundraiser, begin the process of building a relationship with the donor.
• Through a series of entirely voluntary set of questions and a thoughtful “tree” of answers and examples the donor’s interests and preferences are determined.
• From there the cadence for engagement touch points,(and they can be both autonomous and personal) is established.
• Then, based on what Adam calls “perception enabled technology” the system goes on to make a solicitation, close on a gift, and execute a two to three stewardship activities with the donor.

Version2 Test Objectives

The current testing phase is designed to determine such factors as Opt-in results (20%-40%) to be able to extrapolate opt-in rates on larger donor pools… Donation increase/decrease to determine whether there’s a substantial revenue increase from this form of donor engagement  (so far there’s a substantial increase)….andScalability with the goal of showing that the autonomous fundraiser can effectively act as a staff member without the need for proportional increases in human resources… and finally Transparency and Trust.   Ensuring that donors are fully aware and consenting to interact with AI is a critical component of this test. The system gives donors the ability to opt-in or out freely; a feature designed to build trust in the technology and its application in fundraising.

Clearly, the successful execution and positive results from these tests could lead to a significant shift in fundraising practices by enhancing donor relationships, increasing donations and optimizing operational efficiency.

I can’t wait to watch this evolve to the point where we can more easily and efficiently  identify and segment donors based on what they care about, rather than the number, size and recency of gifts given.

The ability for an autonomous fundraiser to ask the donor point blank, “What do you care about, and have him/her give a direct response is fundraising gold in and of itself and sets the stage for meeting those needs and motivations on a scale never before imagined.

Roger

P.S.  And yes, the autonomous fundraiser produces written, postal-ready Thank You notes, birthday cards and stewardship notes  and letters thanks to a partnership Adam and his team have formed with IgnitePOST

.