This article is an excerpt from the CharityVillage x Keela webinar, The AI Advantage: How Nonprofits Can Rise to the Top Using AI. View the full video recording here, or scroll to the end of the article to watch the video.

Artificial intelligence, or AI as we commonly know it, is the ability for a computer to perform tasks that would typically require human intelligence and cognition. It is the process of using a computer to automate tasks previously only done by human beings. While AI is a broad term to describe the computer algorithms automating all this stuff, these functions, the underlying process that we use in our work at Keela for predictions and insights is called machine learning. 

Machine learning is a subfield of artificial intelligence and is defined as the capability of a machine to imitate intelligent human behaviour. Machine learning enables AI-powered systems to perform complex tasks in a way to help humans solve problems. Through machine learning, computers can find trends that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. But the interesting thing is, as they find more trends, as they process more data, these machine learning algorithms learn. They’re a machine that learns and gets better at making these predictions with every single interaction. So how do AI-powered systems work? And what exactly do they mean for fundraising? Well, I like to use this example: When you look at a single donor profile in whatever CRM you’re using, and for the sake of this example, we used Keela, you, as a human, can probably make a pretty quick decision on what to do with that individual donor. I know where they’re from, I know which campaigns they’ve partaken in the past, I know their donation history if I can find it quickly, and by looking at that one record, you can probably determine what you should say, maybe what amount you could ask for, or what campaigns you might invite them to participate in. 

Machine learning emulates this ability to do this on a much larger scale with data points at a magnitude we simply cannot imagine. It takes what you as a human interpret from that one record and presents that information to you for every single donor in your database within seconds or maybe minutes. The machine is able to make predictions for thousands of donors while analyzing millions of data points in the process. With this, for example, it can predict donor behaviour and even how they may respond to your appeals. 

Like I said, machine learning models get smarter over time, both by making predictions and learning simultaneously. Meaning the more information that you use as inputs, the more accurate the outputs of machine learning, and they’ll get more and more accurate over time. Now some of you might be thinking, I don’t have millions of data points, but the truth is you actually probably do, because every time somebody clicks on an email, the newsletter, that’s a piece of data. Every date they make a donation, every campaign, every fund or impact area, every piece of demographic information – their address, each of these is a single data point. And on aggregate for a donation database of one or five or 10,000 different donors, you’re going to have hundreds of thousands or even millions of data points.

And this is why this kind of technology is so powerful. Now, you’ve got a bit more understanding of how AI and machine learning work.

The benefits AI brings to fundraisers

Let’s dive into some benefits for all of us as fundraisers. First, as we mentioned, AI systems predict donor behaviour. They do this by analyzing all your historical data to find giving patterns and trends among common donor types, such as recurring donors, major donors, or even the golden ticket in my opinion, lapsed donors. 

Once an AI-powered model has determined what similarities these donor groups share, it can analyze your entire donor database to uncover donors or prospects with similar patterns or trends in their donations and interactions history. By doing this, these models can surface opportunities you may never knew existed within your data and show you, for example, who you should be focusing your appeals on, who has the highest potential to become a recurring donor or who is in danger of lapsing, so you can intervene and add that powerful and personal touch to change the course of their donor history. 

Second, AI-powered systems can increase efficiency and streamline processes. These tools can almost be seen as assistants, a partner, not here to take over your work, but support, empower, assist, and make you feel a little less stressed out. These assistants can be trained to automate everyday tasks that normally take fundraisers hours or even days to complete.

Through this automation, repetitive tasks like data collection, donor analysis, prospect research, or even personalized drafts of donor communications can be completed in a matter of seconds. While not only saving time for your team, this can also vastly reduce the human error associated with some of these repetitive tasks. And it standardizes the format in which an organization’s data is analyzed and articulated within its systems. 

And of course, personalized communication is where tools like Chat GPT can come in. If you haven’t used Chat GPT, you have likely heard of it. We’re going to dive into it a little bit deeper later in this webinar.

Want to learn more? Watch the full recorded webinar below!

Access the webinar resources and slide deck here.

Webinar Presenter

Nejeed Kassam has spent 30 years working in the nonprofit sector and is proud to work every day to build stronger communities. Currently, Nejeed is the CEO and founder of Keela – an impact technology company dedicated to empowering nonprofits with accessible, powerful software. He is also the co-founder of Fundraising KIT, the world’s leading AI-powered predictive analytics tool, built exclusively for nonprofit fundraisers. He is the former executive director of End Poverty Now and Conversations for Change. Nejeed sits on a number of corporate and nonprofit boards and has spoken at many international conferences. Nejeed is a global innovator with experience working for the United Nations and the Senate of Canada. He is the author of the book ‘High on Life’ (foreword written by former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien) and the co-producer of the documentary, ‘Conversations for Change’. Nejeed sits on a number of corporate and non-profit boards, has spoken at conferences around the world, and is an alumnus of the Global Shapers Community (World Economic Forum) and a former fellow at the Royal Society of the Arts in the UK.