Enhancing Efficiency with AI and Automation in Nonprofits

Not-for-profits often work with limited resources, making efficient operations critical. Artificial intelligence (AI) and other forms of automating repetitive tasks can improve donor engagement, optimize fundraising, and expand outreach.

Human Touch

Nonprofits understandably might fear automation will remove the human touch valued by everyone from donors to stakeholders, but they have plenty of reasons to embrace the technology.

Moreover, automating mundane tasks frees up time so employees can focus on more fulfilling efforts, from nurturing donor relationships to mission-oriented work. Technology investments, such as new AI software, might seem like an unaffordable luxury when your resources are limited. But improving operational efficiencies can ultimately boost your impact.

Important Functions

The most obvious targets for automation are time-consuming and tedious — yet essential — tasks. For example, large fundraising events may require hundreds of staff hours to plan, promote, execute, and follow up. Automation can make it easier to track workflow and handle tasks like registration, mailings, and ticket distribution. It can also simplify event budgeting and reporting.

Automation can support other important functions, including:

Marketing and communications: AI can help you determine the most effective marketing strategies and channels and efficiently produce content. AI apps, for instance, can generate, edit, and proofread tailored, even personalized, messaging to different audience segments. This, in turn, can facilitate more efficient social media posting and distribution of newsletters.

Fundraising and development: You can issue receipts automatically and schedule follow-up contacts. AI might be able to analyze donation and other data, detect patterns, and suggest when previous donors might be ready to contribute again — and in what amounts. You can deploy automation to perform prospect research, too. Bots can crawl the internet much more effectively and quickly than even the most online-proficient human could ever hope to do.

Reporting: Whether required for grantors, lenders, or internal purposes, you can easily produce regular reports to monitor and analyze your key performance indicators and metrics. When such metrics are updated on a real-time basis, you can track them on a dashboard and take quick action when needed. For example, you can adjust campaigns and budgets while you still have time to head off or mitigate adverse consequences.

AI plugins

Your nonprofit already likely uses some form of accounting software. Software with AI plugins can boost effectiveness in categorizing expenses, tracking inventory, accelerating reimbursements, and detecting fraud. Contact software vendors for recommendations and suggestions for automating tasks.