4 Ways to Use AI to Thank Your Organization’s Donors

As your nonprofit scales up, staying on top of expressing appreciation to donors can become increasingly challenging. The days of hand-writing thank-you notes to all supporters may be long gone. However, that doesn’t mean your gratitude efforts have to be less personalized or meaningful.

Enter AI! Your organization can use AI solutions to grow its appreciation efforts without losing that personal touch donors are looking for. This guide explores the following ways you can use AI to thank your nonprofit’s donors: 

1. Automatically personalize your thank-you notes.
2. Determine donors’ communication preferences. 
3. Use generative AI to craft compelling gratitude messages. 
4. Brainstorm donor survey questions. 

You can use these tips for all fundraising initiatives and appreciation efforts, including events, general online fundraising, annual giving, and major giving. 

1. Automatically personalize your thank-you notes.

Automation is one of the most common AI fundraising use cases for nonprofits. Automation is the key to your ability to thank all donors promptly and personally. 

You can use automated AI marketing tools that pull data from your nonprofit’s CRM to populate your thank-you notes with personalized donor details. With this type of integration, your nonprofit can: 

• Add donors’ names to the greeting. Using the contact information in your CRM, you can automatically plug donors’ names into the subject line and greeting of your thank-you emails and letters. A personalized greeting like “Thanks for your support, Christian,” or “We couldn’t have done it without you, Melissa” makes a much more meaningful impact than a generic “Dear Donor” greeting. 
• Include donors’ specific gift amounts. With the support of AI tools, you can incorporate donors’ unique donation amounts into your thank-you message. Donors will feel assured that you received their gift and that you recognize the impact of their individual contribution. Provide impact information relevant to each donor’s gift amount. For example, perhaps all donors who give between $100-$300 receive a message saying, “Your gift allowed us to purchase necessary food and supplies for new shelter puppies.” 
• Reference donors’ past involvement. Automation tools allow you to incorporate additional information about donors to show them that you see them as individuals. For example, you could highlight upcoming volunteer opportunities for donors who also volunteer or advocacy events for donors who actively promote your mission on social media. 

Automation tools also let you send thank-you emails immediately after donors give so no one falls through the cracks. This could look like an immediate thank-you text and receipt after a donor contributes in person at a fundraising event or an automated email after an online gift. 

2. Determine donors’ communication preferences.

Predictive AI solutions are powerful tools that can help your nonprofit better understand and incorporate donors’ preferences into your appreciation outreach. 

According to BWF’s guide to predictive AI, these solutions are a “type of artificial intelligence that uses data, statistical algorithms, and machine learning to anticipate future outcomes based on past data trends.” 

Follow these steps to use predictive analytics to appeal to donors’ communication preferences: 

1. Create a predictive model using the data in your CRM. Work with an AI fundraising consultant who can help you create a tailored predictive model based on your appreciation strategy goals. Your fundraising partner will create a model that pulls data from your nonprofit’s CRM about supporters’ communication preferences, including preferred marketing and donation platforms and their level of engagement with your organization’s communications. 
2. Segment donors based on their communication preferences. Group donors who share the same communication preferences and patterns. For example, you could create segments for donors who prefer email, text, phone calls, and direct mail. Or, you could develop groups for donors who engage with your marketing outreach more actively and those who interact less frequently. 
3. Send thank-yous that align with donors’ preferences. Leverage your donor segments to create tailored appreciation messages for each group. Adjust your message based on the platform; for example, texts should be short and sweet, while emails or direct mail letters can be slightly longer. Donors will appreciate your efforts to speak to them using platforms and styles that appeal to them. 

Review and update your predictive models regularly, such as every six months, to incorporate changes in donors’ preferences. 

3. Use generative AI to craft compelling gratitude messages. 

Generative AI solutions like ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot can help mitigate a common issue every nonprofit communications professional faces from time to time: writer’s block. These solutions help kickstart the brainstorming process with ideas, templates, and outlines you can use to craft your donor thank-you messages.

Using generative AI, your nonprofit can develop: 

• Templates for donor thank-you letters.
• Talking points for thank-you phone calls. 
• Outlines for donor appreciation blog posts. 
• Formatting and content ideas for thank-you emails.
• Content ideas for gratitude social media posts. 
• Ideas and scripts for donor appreciation videos. 

For example, let’s say you want to create an appreciation strategy to show gratitude to attendees and donors who participated in your charity golf tournament. With the help of generative AI, you could make a general thank-you email template and customize it based on whether someone participated in the tournament, sponsored the event, or both. 

You could also draft an outline for an event recap blog post and develop a few social media post ideas to promote your blog article. At the end of the process, you’ll have a multimedia, multichannel gratitude strategy that will help you reach a wider audience than you could by using just one platform to thank supporters. 

4. Brainstorm donor survey questions. 

Donor surveys are classic donor engagement and retention tools because they allow donors to express their preferences and needs to your organization. If you don’t know exactly what to ask to get the most value from these surveys, generative AI tools can help fill in the gaps to ensure your surveys get to the heart of what donors want from your organization. 

Here are a few examples of prompts you can use to generate valuable survey questions: 

• Generate five open-ended questions for a donor satisfaction survey that will help determine whether donors enjoyed the online giving process.
• Come up with five scale-based questions asking donors to provide feedback about their preferred communication channels. 
• Create a short survey of questions I can ask donors about how they want to stay connected with my nonprofit. 
• Develop a survey of three to six questions I can ask donors about how they felt about their recent event experience so I can maximize attendance next time. 

Tweak the questions to match your nonprofit’s specific needs. For example, you may add one or two questions about new event engagement strategies you tried or impact reports you created for donors. 

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Remember that AI tools should supplement your organization’s appreciation strategies, not entirely replace them. Maintain a personal touch by incorporating your nonprofit’s unique voice and sprinkling in highly personalized touchpoints like phone calls or handwritten cards when possible, especially for major and highly engaged donors. 

With the right balance between automation and personalization, your organization can leverage AI to help donors feel appreciated, seen, and ready to continue supporting your cause long-term.