The Future of Fundraising

Welcome to the Future of Fundraising.

I’ve talked extensively about the challenges fundraising organizations face not being able to personally engage with the majority of their donor base. One question my team and I still get asked regularly is “how is autonomous fundraising different from a segmented, multi-point marketing campaign?”

Email and text marketing are essential fundraising tools that allow organizations to quickly share updates with supporters and promote time-sensitive events or campaigns. These campaigns do have their place, but they lack the ability to adapt to the individual preferences needed to meaningfully engage a donor. While segmentation and automation tools that personalize names or donation amounts exist, they do little to mask the fact that the communication is, in fact, a mass broadcast.

In contrast, Autonomous Fundraising uses Virtual Engagement Officers (VEOs) to treat each donor communication as 1:1 and unique, the same way human relationship managers do. But unlike their human counterparts, VEOs are not challenged by scale because they tap into the power of Large Language Models (LLMs).

LLMs are advanced AI systems that understand and produce messaging that feels natural and conversational, much like how we communicate with one another. They power the VEO’s ability to understand the context of past interactions, giving history, and more to generate personalized content based on that data and circumstances. Whether it’s a birthday message, stewardship note, or tailored ask, LLMs craft messages that resonate with the donor on a personal level.

As a former major gift officer, I find what’s equally important about LLMs is that they "listen" and “remember” donor engagements over time. This creates a meaningful back-and-forth that builds stronger connections between donors and organizations. This extends all the way through to capabilities like multi-lingual communication, giving the VEO the ability to reach out and respond to donors in their preferred language, breaking down previous barriers to inclusion and participation.

When we first introduced fully autonomous fundraising, we were told that the opt-out rate would be extremely high, somewhere between 5-10% because donors would not want to interact with AI. However, in practice, we’ve found the complete opposite. In marketing, direct mail has a 0.5-2% response rate, SMS has a 1.5% opt-out, and email .25%. In comparison, of the 17,000+ communications the VEO has sent, there is just a .12% opt out. The truth is, people don’t opt out of personal communications.

This difference between marketing communications and Autonomous Fundraising is important for the industry. We know 1:1 engagement is the best way to bring donors closer to the missions of our organizations. Increasing donor retention by even a few percentage points can have an exponential impact on the lifetime value of an organization’s donor base, which translates to long-term sustainability of an organization and its ability to fulfill its mission. By leveraging Autonomous Fundraising, organizations can cultivate more meaningful relationships than ever before.

Unlike the limited technologies of the past, LLMs enable a future of fundraising that is no longer about choosing between technology and human connection. Autonomous Fundraising uses both to create something better than the sum of their parts and a reality where every donor can feel valued and connected.

Have a great week.

[Live Fireside Chat] Revolutionizing Advancement: The Impact of Autonomous Fundraising for Top Healthcare and Higher Ed Organizations

Tuesday, December 10 at 2:00 PM ET

Join me for a candid and informative fireside chat with two AI R&D Innovation Partners who have successfully deployed Autonomous Fundraisers and introduced their communities to Virtual Engagement Officers.

This is the first opportunity to hear from leadership about what matters most: the results of using Virtual Engagement Officers (VEOs) to revolutionize the Advancement landscape from two transformative sectors, Healthcare and Higher Education.

Daniel Sullivan, CFRE, Vice President & Chief Advancement Officer at Parkland Health, and Susan Lewers, Associate Vice President, Major and Planned Gifts at Illinois Institute of Technology join me to share their perspectives on the work of Autonomous AI Agents in philanthropy.

Together, we’ll dive into:

• The results of their autonomous fundraising programs
• Developing internal champions to navigate compliance and build trust and pride as innovators in advancement
• The benefits they're seeing from 1:1 personal engagement that is more similar to a human fundraiser than to marketing communications
• Re-engagement and new and increased giving from LYBUNT/SYBUNTs and long-lapsed constituents
• Reactions from the community – from donors externally, and stakeholders internally

Don’t miss hearing these thought leaders speak for the first time publicly about the results that are paving the way for a new era in donor engagement.

[SAVE YOUR SEAT]

Virtual Engagement Officer (VEO) Surpasses $100,000 in Giving

Autonomous Fundraising History: The Virtual Engagement Officer (VEO) has now secured $127,366 in gifts from donors.

This historic milestone was crossed in less than 8-weeks time, proving that one-to-one AI engagement leads to the natural outcome of giving.

[VIEW VIDEO]

While AI agents dominated the conversation in 2024, Konstantine Buhler of Sequoia Capital says "swarms" or networks of AI agents will be the theme come 2025. He joins Caroline Hyde to discuss on "Bloomberg Technology." (Source: Bloomberg)

[WATCH FULL INTERVIEW]

Fundraising Jobs

Our featured jobs always come from our amazing subscribers. If you have jobs you would like posted in the Future of Fundraising newsletter, please email [email protected] with your requests.

• Vice President of University Advancement $400,000 - $425,000 | American University | Washington, DC | APPLY>>>
• Vice President of Advancement $215,000 | San Francisco Bay University | San Francisco, CA | APPLY>>>
• Associate Dean for Advancement, Graduate School of Journalism $200,000 - $230,000 | Columbia University | New York City, NY | APPLY>>>