The best AI tools to boost audience engagement and digital fundraising

Charities are using artificial intelligence in lots of clever ways to improve the impact of their fundraising efforts. More often than not, the overwhelming focus is going on the lower-end of the marketing funnel, where ROI is easiest to track.

This is a huge oversight in any digital fundraising strategy.

On average, it takes a supporter eight touchpoints before they convert. And most of these are taking place in the middle of the funnel. In order to nurture these users, from consideration to conversion, nonprofits need to give mid-funnel marketing more focus.

Luckily, there are plenty of AI tools out there that can help — from automating the lead generation funnel to nudging site explorers to take the next step in their journey. Here’s my roundup of AI techniques and solutions nonprofits are using, right now, to get results.

Create an AI chatbot to nurture donors along their journey

UNICEF is utilising AI-powered chatbots on their website, to provide instant support and information to potential donors. Their 24:7 chatbot contains a repository of insight for the most common questions supporters might have, from how to set up a monthly donation to how to volunteer.

And they’re not alone. Mencap, WaterAid and Shelter are just some of the charities who are using chatbots to streamline the user experience. Not only can they be fantastic ways to help users find the information they need, they can also convey a breadth of insight: from impact statistics to guidance on setting up a Justgiving page.

Creating a chatbot might sound complex, but they’re really quite simple to set up with the right out-of-the-box technology. I launched my first one, over a decade ago! They can be an effective AI lead generation software solution and an effective route to guiding your users.

To unravel the process: most of the work takes place behind the scenes, by building something called a ‘knowledge base’. This is a technical term for what is effectively a database of questions and answers. These FAQs can either be triggered to the user through Natural Language Processing (NLP) through the keywords they enter in an open search box — or through predefined journeys, which is how UNICEF uses their chatbot at the moment.

While UNICEF uses a solution called RapdidPro, there are plenty of chatbot AI tools charities can use: from Synthetix to ChatFuel.

Nurture your leads through the funnel with the help of machine learning and AI lead generation

Engaging Networks might not be the first tool you think of when you think of AI. But is the first eCRM platform in the industry to have fully integrated machine learning tools embedded in its software to enhance campaigning and fundraising. 

I am, personally, a huge fan. I rolled out Engaging Networks at Comic Relief: a move that increased our monthly giving rates by 81% during Red Nose Day and our average gifts astronomically. 

The real beauty of Engaging Networks doesn’t just lie in its intuitive forms or simple eCRM integration. It’s the powerful logic it employs, to nurture users to take a specific action. At Comic Relief, we used the system to segment our audiences into clear profiles based on the recency, frequency and monetary value of their historic donations — personalising the gift types and ask amounts that cohorts received, to nudge them to take valuable action. 

Rainforest Action Network was among the first charities to pilot Engaging Networks’ AI-powered marketing automation technology. Through the tool, they increased conversion of one-time donors to monthly donors by almost 900%. And they’re not alone: Refuge, St Mungo's and Refugee Action and some of the other many charities that are using Engaging Networks on a daily basis to deepen audience engagement.

Predict the impact of your lead generation funnel and audience profiles with predictive analytics

While predictive analytics should be taken with a pinch of salt, it can be used in lots of ways for high-level hypotheses. While Google Ads can be used to predict search patterns and estimated outcomes, Google Analytics can forecast future trends to help marketers prepare — from calculating purchase and churn probability to estimated revenue over a 28-day period. This is an invaluable tool, to predict the value of leads, which so often can yield low direct ROI.

If you’re using Salesforce, Einstein Analytics is a particularly powerful platform that can be used: its features include predictive lead scoring, segmentation and AI-powered recommendations to improve lead generation funnel nurturing. And it’s not the only tool capable of predictive lead scoring, with HubSpot also capable of using AI to calculate likely actions of mid-funnel users.

While there are many use cases in digital fundraising, the impact of predictive analytics goes much further — into the very heart of charity operations. The American Red Cross is one of many charities that are using predictive analytics to inform their work, more broadly. 

By analysing historical data on natural disasters, weather patterns and population demographics, they were able to predict when emergencies were likely to occur — allowing them to preposition supplies and personnel. Not only did this proactive approach save lives and reduce suffering, it undoubtedly aided digital campaign planning.

Create engaging test and learn content using generative AI

Charity:water has successfully used GenAI to craft content to fuel their digital engagement campaigns. In 2019, they used Persado’s Message Machine to create 16 Meta ads across 1,024 permutations — spanning different emotional sentiments, imagery, and narratives. The solution was able to predict which audiences would engage with which content — and it worked, surprisingly well: the activation led to a 32% uplift in conversions to The Spring eNewsletter, compared to its previous campaigns. 

It’s needless to say, I wish I had access to a tool such as this when I ran the Movember campaign in 2017, for which I launched around 10,000 ad variants! 

But while generative AI can be a useful creative partner for charities, it shouldn’t ever replace creatives or be autonomous: with bias inherent in AI, any outputs should always be reviewed and amended to avoid any damage to communities or the brand.

Fundraise with AI using an out-of-the-box conversion forms

I know I started this blog with a focus on mid-funnel marketing, but it would be remiss for me not to include at least one way to supercharge direct fundraising, too. 

If you’re working at a large charity, the chances are, your team has potentially built a bespoke donate form — and if you’re in the digital marketing team, you probably find yourself struggling for weeks at a time to make a simple tweak to a button or CTA for your wider testing roadmap.

If this sounds familiar, my advice to you would be: explore an out-of-the-box AI donate form. Charities are adopting them at scale, and there are plenty to choose from — but one that I’d call out is Fundraise Up. The donate form optimizes the donor experience using AI — nudging donors to give more, or even nurturing them to become regular donors. It is, perhaps, through the widespread adoption of these forms that we’ve seen regular giving rates rise in recent years.

The simple truth is, the people at companies like Fundraise Up spend 100% of their time doing one simple thing: making the very best donate form. If yours is bespoke and centrally managed, the donate form is lucky to get just 10% of web development focus every month. And it’s very unlikely to have AI baked into its logic.

Quite simply, a centrally controlled donate form is unlikely to get the same level of attention as an out-of-the-box solution that’s always evolving with cross-client data and insight. And the impacts are huge. Through the tool, The Salvation Army achieved an impressive 49% conversion rate — while World Hope International increased their online donation revenue by 200%.

In conclusion

There’s a plethora of AI tools out there to help modern day marketers, to inform web optimizations, donor segmentation or content creation. With so many challenger brands coming to market, every single day, the real challenge is learning which ones to trust. By doing some of the legwork for you, and showcasing the tools that charities are using right now, it’s my hope that perhaps some of the discovery process has been done for you — and now, you can move forward and implement cutting-edge solutions to supercharge your fundraising.