The Future of Fundraising

Welcome to the future of fundraising.

When you’re on a mission to build the world’s most experienced fundraiser for the purpose of expanding fundraising capacity for organizations working to change the world, every time we introduce a Virtual Engagement Officer (VEO) to a portfolio of donors is an incredible opportunity. We’re learning so much about how Autonomous Fundraising can adapt to help VEOs reach this high bar for experience faster.

St. John Fisher University introduced its new VEO Quinn to a portfolio of donors and began engagement last week. Quinn identified donors to prioritize and used highly personalized emails and text messages to thank them for recent gifts, wish them happy birthday, and share autonomously generated cultivation content, much like a human fundraiser would. Quinn even solicited some donors for annual gift renewals.

Quinn’s job is to draw from every donor interaction, gain knowledge, learn, and adapt to create highly-personal relationships that are strategically aligned with SJF’s goals. I’d like to share a few recent discoveries from St. John Fisher and Quinn that are propelling us forward:

Wins:

• Hyper-personalization: Quinn pieced together data that many human gift officers wouldn’t by autonomously combining birthday and stewardship messages into a single engagement. Just like the most conscientious fundraisers, VEOs always check every available data point to create exactly the right interaction for the donor at a given point in time.?
• Connections: Quinn showed the ability to bridge the gap between human fundraisers and donors, offering personalized assistance and ensuring that the right connections are made when needed. Quinn didn’t replace the human touch but complemented it perfectly, connecting donors with a human gift officer to facilitate an introduction to a dean and to learn about recognition opportunities. ?
• Building Memory: We are particularly excited to see VEOs begin to develop a “memory” of donor conversations. These early foundations are critical for future interactions, and empower Quinn to personalize engagements beyond an initial dataset and develop communications and donor journeys that last beyond a single conversation or gift.

Learnings:

• Relationship Escalation: In some cases, Quinn learned so much about a donor in a short time that solicitations could have been appropriate and well-received. A question we need to answer: how do we train a VEO to handle asks in ways that mirror a human fundraiser’s intuition. Refining Quinn’s ability to transition insights gained into well-timed solicitations is a focus for ongoing development.
• Review and Approval: The Version2 team is taking a "review and approve" approach to the messages that VEOs autonomously generate. We believe this level of quality control will pay off in the long run by building trust with both the donors themselves and the organizations that have entrusted our team with their donors.
• Off-Topic Interactions: We have multiple examples of donors asking VEOs, including Quinn, for information that doesn’t relate to their work as fundraisers. We’re working to define how to allow a VEO to engage in these organic conversations while redirecting them back to organizational goals. Establishing boundaries to steer conversations toward specific outcomes is essential for maintaining both personalization and strategic alignment.

Autonomous Fundraising is already adding immense fundraising capacity. We’re on an important track where every interaction strengthens a VEO’s ability to become the most experienced fundraiser possible.

Givzey Exceeds $200M in Gifts Under Management on Intelligent Gift Documentation Management Platform

As the leading inventor of bleeding edge technology driving innovation and growth in the nonprofit sector, Givzey is thrilled to announced we've now surpassed $200 Million in gift agreements under management on fundraising’s first Intelligent Gift Documentation Management Platform.

This significant milestone continues the explosive growth and widespread adoption of gift documentation management for nonprofit organizations.

(WATCH OUR SHORT VIDEO ON THIS AMAZING GROWTH)

Givzey Guidance: When Are Transaction Fees for Fundraising Events Tax Deductible?

In this Givzey Guidance, a fundraiser looks to set the record straight about the tax deductibility of transaction fees around event ticketing.

Question: I am getting conflicting opinions on the tax deductibility of transaction fees that donors opt to pay. When someone makes a gift, we ask if they would like to increase their gift to cover the transaction fees we are charged by vendors. Most donors choose to increase their gift to cover the fees.

For example, a $100 gift with an additional $3.00 to cover our fees, we record as a gift of $103.00. However, if someone pays $100 to attend an event with no tax deductibility and opts to pay the $3.00 transaction fee, I believe that the $3.00 should be processed as a charitable donation.

I grant that means we need to split the $103 between event revenue ($100) and donation ($3.00) for the transaction fees.

When are transaction fees for fundraising events tax deductible?

(KEEP READING)

How the Generosity Commission Report Could Redefine Philanthropy [Chronicle of Philanthropy]

Leslie Lenkowsky opines in The Chronicle of Philanthropy that the Generosity Commission's Report has potentially troubling implications for philanthropy's future.

The commission notes that despite “large-scale increases in aggregate dollars and hours donated,” the steady decline during this century in the share of the population that makes charitable donations and volunteers “represents one of the most significant trends reshaping civil society in the United States.”

Among the consequences, according to the report: a decrease in the number of people participating in charitable work, reduced “social connectedness,” and less engagement in civic and political life. Those who no longer give and volunteer may even suffer mental and physical health problems, the authors find, since research suggests these activities are “associated with living longer, greater subjective well-being and happiness, healthier relationships, and fewer psychological problems.”

(KEEP READING )

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 for Advancement and Executive Director of the Empire State University Foundation $180,000-$200,000 | Empire State University SUNY | Saratoga Springs, NY | APPLY>>>
• Assistant Dean for Advancement, Renée Crown Wellness Institute $171,000 - $183,000 | University of Colorado at Boulder | Boulder, CO | APPLY>>>
• Chief Development Officer $200,000 - $220,000 | YMCA of Metropolitan Washington | Washington, DC | APPLY>>>