The AI of Major Gifts: Something Other than Artificial Intelligence
Way back in 2021, Kevin wrote about AI and fundraising. Since then, AI has exploded in our world as fundraising professionals and as common citizens. Many of us have tried using it to draft letters or edit reports. Maybe we’ve asked it to solve some problem or plan a trip for us. My husband had it compose a beautiful Valentine’s Day poem to me. Although I knew instantly a computer had written it, he did have to feed it everything he knew and loved about me, so there was effort on his part. Some of us use AI every day. And every day we learn of another new AI advance that claims it will revolutionize our work.
However, I think Kevin’s thoughts from back in 2021 still ring true. And maybe are even more relevant now that we all have an AI helper at our fingertips. Little did he know that we’d actually be getting marketing emails making claims that feel like they come close to his tongue-in-cheek one. Read on and see if you agree.
CampaignCounsel.org’s IT department is Beta testing a new software program that it promises will revolutionize fundraising.
“The calculus is quite complex,” says the company’s President Kevin Wallace. “But to put it in its simplest terms, we’ve figured out how to combine 77 different data points into an algorithm that when combined with artificial intelligence, will allow our clients to telepathically convince donors to write enormous checks.”
How long did I have you going? For some of us, each time we see the phrase “revolutionize fundraising” we become skeptical. Others of us might have hoped this was a legitimate announcement up to the algorithm or artificial intelligence parts. Certainly, we all knew it was a joke when I mentioned telepathy. If I had you going the entire time, then keep fundraising for a few more years and you’ll learn that there is no way to simplify our jobs into an easy, hands-off calculation.
There’s No Replacing a Competent Fundraiser
We should all celebrate this; our jobs are safe! There is no replacing a competent fundraiser. The only thing that has revolutionized our industry is the speed, comfort and accuracy with which we can do our jobs.
For example, we had a great client in Kansas several years ago running a Continuous Care Retirement Community (CCRC). If you’re not familiar with the term, you’re surely familiar with the concept. It’s a campus with every level of retirement living: from no care for independent living to 24/7 care for dementia. This CCRC opened in the 1920s. Back then it was just one building and was called a Home for the Elderly. Its founder Rev. Paul rode his horse throughout central Kansas asking for donations. It took him seven years to raise the money. After thinking about that for a while, I estimated that, on a good day, the reverend could make five asks, but keep in mind that a “good day” still subjected him and his horse to wind, rain, snow and sun. And if you’re from Kansas, you know that all these conditions can occur at once!
My conservative guess of how many asks Rev. Paul made over seven years is 2,000. That’s a lot, and while modern-day fundraisers like our team can lay claim to capital campaigns with that many donors, we worked at three- or four-times the speed, we’re significantly more comfortable, and we didn’t have to guess at a prospect’s giving capacity based on the amount of paint chipping off their family barn.
A New Definition of AI
So, while Rev. Paul’s capital campaign back in the 1920s was more demanding than what we’re doing 100-years later, the “AI” hasn’t changed. For the successful fundraiser, AI doesn’t stand for “artificial intelligence.” It stands for “anatomical influence.” Which means for him, there were no electronic vices separating him from his prospects. He had to shake their hand, build their trust, ask for and collect their donations. He had to use his anatomy — his physical presence — to influence them.
There’s a small picture of Rev. Paul hanging in the dining room at this CCRC. He wasn’t a handsome man. But I could tell from the photo that he was a committed man; he wasn’t going to make excuses… period.
The reason I led this article with an empty promise is because I want to reinforce a simple message. What we do as fundraisers is personal. All the data points in the world are no substitute for saddling up and perfecting our “anatomical influence” and being physically present to our donors.
I think Kevin and Rev. Paul got it right. Our physical presence and human connection is important to our work in major gift and capital campaign fundraising. As always with major gifts, people give to people and people give to people who care. We can’t replace ourselves with a chatbot.
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