Nonprofit Fundraising: 7 Ways ChatGPT can help

Can ChatGPT be used for non-profit  fundraising? Most definitely! In this video I'm going to share seven ways  that ChatGPT - the increasingly popular art artificial intelligence chat bot - can help  boost your nonprofit fundraising goals. [Music] Welcome or welcome back! If we haven't met before  I'm Amber Melanie Smith and I'm a non-profit founder and social impact YouTuber who makes  these videos all about how to make an impact through different mechanisms, like starting  a non-profit or soci

ally conscious business, or social Enterprise, or being a leader in your  community and more. As always I hope that you find this video useful and helpful! Don't forget  to give it a like and subscribe to my channel for more content like this. Also if you are in the  process or thinking about starting a non-profit I have some online courses at my website  FounderToFullTime.com that you can check out to help guide you through the process. Okay so Chat  GPT has made big news recently for its incre

asing popularity and people thinking about how it can be  potentially applied to both business and personal uses. If you're not familiar your Chat GPT is an  artificial intelligence chat bot that was launched by OpenAI in November 2022, and since then just  that short period of time ago has already grown to over 100 million users worldwide. Social  impact experts have already started to speculate how might we use this new tool to amplify our  own goals whether that's you know increasing the reac

h of a message about a cause or growing a  subscriber base or in the particular case of this video with fundraising ever curious I wanted  to try out Chat GPT myself so um through some tinkering around ChatGPT and I teamed up to come  up with this following list of seven ways that it could potentially help with your fundraising  goals um I had a lot of fun with this there were some delightful surprises along the way and if  you haven't tried it out yet I recommend it just because it's uh it's pr

etty interesting so let's  get into these seven ways chat GPT can boost your non-profit fundraising okay way number one and  this one was recommended by chat GPT itself was that we could use chat GPT to create uh chat  bot for donor engagement so I haven't fully um explored the depths of how this would work so  if you have actually tried this out before comment in the video and um in the video comments and let  us know how this works and how you've been able to use it but basically the idea is y

ou think of your  donors like customers in a sense and sometimes they need some customer support some customer  service and maybe you're not always around to answer them quickly and maybe they'd be able to  find some quick answers through engaging with a chat bot on your site the idea is that you would  set this up and that it would be able to engage with your donors and help answer some of their  questions and even provide some personalized responses now I was curious what it would look  like u

m if I were a donor considering donating to a cause and I wanted to know why should I  donate to this cause what are some of the reasons so I actually asked Chatgpt to list off several  compelling reasons I should donate to a random non-profit that I picked off the internet um which  was one day's wages located in Seattle Washington um I wanted to see what are some reasons I  should donate to one day's wages so I asked chat gpt and within seconds chat gpt was giving  me some pretty compelling re

asons that I should consider making a donation to this organization  you can see here I'll show the results of the The Prompt that I input um but it gave me reasons like  well one day's wages is empowering communities by tackling the systemic issues that contribute to  Poverty it's also regarded as a very transparent organization and it showcases its impacts widely  all over the Internet and has been recognized for these impacts and transparency by um major name  sites like charity Navigator and

guide star so it basically scoured the internet and  compiled these compelling reasons and what I found very remarkable about  this was that it knew what compelling should feel like um it it almost humanized it in  the sense that um it kind of knew what I wanted right it knew that I wanted to hear about how  impactful it was so that was pretty cool so one tip I would have for you as a non-profit leader  or someone who's involved with the non-profit is I think that for a prompt like this to work

for chat  GPT um the information has to be available and um clear and inferable on the internet so if you  don't have an online presence as a non-profit chat GPT is not going to be able to scour the internet  to find and synthesize information like this for you so a tip as a non-profit leader is make  sure your information is out there and that it's out there widely and that you're constantly  updating the online World on all your wonderful impacts and work okay way number two that  chat GPT ca

n help with your fundraising is pretty exciting and it is that it can help you  with grant writing or donation letter writing um basically it can generate the whole letter for  you or a section of a grant proposal if you input some of the important variables or give it like  a website link for it to scour and comb through um I was really intrigued by this once I wanted  to just see what it would do if I gave it another random non-profit so I input um write me a grant  letter request for ten thou

sand dollars for the random nonprofit I chose was called uh Big Cat  Rescue Corp so I input this it's a real non-profit and I put this organization's website in there and  and I asked it to write me the letter requesting ten thousand dollars from a grant maker and the  results were pretty great I'm showing this uh Grant letter on screen here so you can take a look  at it um a couple things to observe here yes it is a short Grant letter so I would actually probably  call this more like a donation

request letter um not a full Grant proposal because it doesn't  include all of the things that you need for a full Grant proposal but it's pretty solid as a basic  donation request letter or as the foundation of a larger or longer Grant request some notable things  about it um it did some of the obvious things I expected like it pulled the mission of the  organization into the text here but a couple of other things that it did was it once again um made  an assumption about what the reader in th

is case a grant maker would want to see in this letter and  it made sure to pull in that information uh some things that I'm talking about include the values  of the organization so it says um you know we operate on the belief that big cats are entitled  to a life free of abuse neglect and exploitation that belief statement is a statement of the  organization's values and it's very powerful because when you include a belief statement  like that you're signaling to the grant maker that you want t

hem to believe the same thing as  you and if they do they should give you the money um they also are very clear about their what  they're asking for they say um you know we're writing to request a grant of ten thousand dollars  and they also say what they're going to spend the money on so it will include support to our animal  care costs like providing food shelter and medical care for the cats um they talk about some of the  recognition they've received as an organization so they're building th

eir credibility and Authority  here as an expert in their issue um pretty solid for a 10 second prompt that I put into the Chat  GPT. The Third Way that chat GPT can help with non-profit fundraising is through some degree of  Prospect research and if you don't know what that means that means finding potential donors out  there the right people who might be interested in your cause and have the capacity to make a  financial contribution I was really intrigued by this because [Music] um you know P

rospect research  is really hard and sometimes you have to be able to know a lot of personal details about people in  order to assess whether they might be a potential um donor of of some capacity um so I was  curious what chat GPT could do with this one um chat gbt actually came up with this idea when  I asked it how are how are some what are some ways that you might help me with fundraising and this  was one of the ideas that it came up with for me um it said that it could help gather  informa

tion on potential donors they're giving preferences their philanthropic history  um and I think to a degree that's true if you um know the name of someone who has a strong  online presence or it's kind of renowned in your community you might be able to give chat  GPT like a bio of that person or a website like a Wikipedia about that person and it could come back  and tell you some of the things they're likely to donate to that's true but I wasn't able to figure  out how I could use this um with

the free version that I was tinkering around with so if you have  a more advanced version or paid version of the chat jpt and you've been able to figure this one  out let me know that said I did wanted to kind of figure out what are the limits of what it could  do on the free version so I asked it to uh come up with a list of the types of businesses that  would be the most likely to sponsor a program um meant to combat human trafficking So based  on that issue area um it did come up with a list

of types of businesses like categories of  businesses or industry types that would be the most likely to donate to combat human trafficking  and from my own experience I took a look at it this list that it generated and I know that it  is a pretty solid list these are the ones that I would probably come up with too if you asked me  as a human to come up with such a list a couple notable ones that you'll see on here technology  companies um because technology can be used to track and identify hum

an trafficking patterns so  that was an interesting fit um yes I could see how they would have a stake in solving or addressing  human trafficking financial institutions Banks and other financial institutions may be interested in  this topic um because financial support is needed to assist with victim recovery so that was pretty  insightful of chat GPT um you know scrolling down the list I'm not going to read all of these but  law firms law firms might be interested because they often need to pr

ovide legal expertise and  support for victims so even though it's not going to literally spit out a list of people's names and  also I kind of feel like that'd be a little creepy um of people who might donate to your cause  you can use it to help you narrow down some of the potential supporters out there based on  similar interests so that is helpful the fourth way that chat GPT can help with fundraising is  by helping improve the content of your website and the fundraising web pages on your si

te so you  could input a donate web page and ask it what are three ways that you would specifically improve  this page in order to encourage more donations and you have to be clear about that goal because  if you just say how would you improve this webpage it might come up with some ways to make it  more aesthetically pleasing or user friendly but it's not going to be thinking of it in the  in the context of what does this webpage need to do in order to increase donations so that  additional com

mand is important now I tried this uh by inputting a couple of different donate  pages on a couple of different websites because I wanted to make sure that it was going to give  me specific customized tips for that web page instead of just generic advice about how to  create a good fundraising web page and to my delight it was specific so I'll show you this  organization that I um played around with here is the Detroit dog rescue um you know I actually  think this donate page is pretty decent it

's got an adorable picture of a dog on it which is  always great it's got some nice icons some nice coloring but I wanted to see how would chat  GPT recommend we improve this webpage even further so I asked it um what are three specific ways  that you would improve the Detroit dog rescue donation webpage to encourage people to  make a donation um so here's some of its recommendations I'll show these on screen one  it recommended using even more visual content it says that the text the web page i

s text heavy  and that is true if you scroll down on the webpage there is a lot of text below the top part so it  recommended more photos or videos of the dogs provide donation suggestions so offering suggested  donation amounts because Chad GPT has searched the internet and found that it is a common best  practice to do this to increase donations so good on it and then showcase the impact of the day  of the donations the web page should highlight the impact of donations and how they contribute

to the  mission so all sound advice that I might perhaps give myself okay so way number five is a Big Time  Saver in my opinion and it is that chat GPT can help you write email Communications and marketing  Communications for your fundraising events um I again wanted to test this out so I found  a random fundraising event happening it's the uh the city parks Foundation gala happening later  in 2023 in New York I found the web page for that event and I dropped it into chat GPT and I said  um writ

e me an email um inviting people to attend this event and here's what it came up with you  got your standard stuff up front it says right away what the email wants from the reader I'm  writing to invite you to join us at this event um it's an event that supports our mission but some  of the notable things about this email were that um it called upon the importance that Parks have  to human beings and I thought that was really cool uh it says I don't know if you can read this on  the screen but i

t says our Parks have always been a place where people can come together to enjoy  nature exercise and connect with their communities the pandemic has highlighted the importance of  our parks and the role they play in our physical and mental well-being um so as we recover and  rebuild your support is more important than ever um that's pretty cool uh I don't know if it took  this language and like synthesized it from another place on this organization's web page or if  it just inferred the import

ance of parks to people and wrote about it here but either way  that's pretty compelling and that's something um that I think would Inspire someone to  attend their event so pretty cool way number six uh that chat GPT can help is through  social media content creation and Outreach um similarly to the email language  development this can be a real Time Saver um and once again I tried it  out to see what it would say um about why people should donate to another  randomly chosen non-profit this one

is dwell with dignity located in Dallas Texas so I said  give me three social media posts that encourage people to donate to this organization and why it's  important here's what it here's what it said okay so Post Number One join us in supporting dwell  with dignity and help provide a comfortable and inspiring interesting choice of words there living  environment of families in need your donation can help us create a positive impact in the lives  of so many individuals and families in our comm

unity that's pretty good but I was actually  more impressed by post two and three post two every person deserves a home  that feels like a sanctuary I just want to pause and think about that for a  minute once again I don't know if chat GPT took the same language off of this organization's  website or somewhere else that it found it but if Chad GPT came up with this language  itself that is pretty uh intriguing because it's very emotional um and we know that the  research shows that people are m

ore likely to make a donation based on emotion than logic so telling  a story and invoking a feeling of sanctuary um and home that's that's like spot  on fundraising stuff of chat GPT um so anyway uh post number three similar  very emotional imagine the joy and relief a family feels when they finally have a  comfortable and inviting place to call home your donation will do this that that Etc  donate today and be a part of changing lives for the better so again pretty good  um pretty well written

in the sense that it just knows how to call upon the emotions of a  human to encourage the donations way number seven chat GPT can help with non-profit fundraising is  a little bit different it's more about the donor than the non-profit itself and it is that it  can provide personalized giving recommendations um so uh what this means is you could tell chat  GPT what you're interested in what your issues and causes that you care about are maybe even  the city that you live in or some things that

are important to you about what you might support  in an organization like um for example uh I only want to support organizations where at least  half of the board of directors is women or you know I'm just making something up um you could  give it parameters like that and it could come back with a list of actual organizations that you  might consider based on this publicly available information I tried this out again and uh what  I'll show you first is um that it I just asked it a broad questi

on I said I want to support  animals especially dogs and the environment and I came back with these five non-profits  that I might consider making a donation to um some of these you might have heard of now the downside is these suggestions are  pretty large well-known non-profits um which is fine there's nothing wrong with  supporting those larger organizations but let's say I really wanted to support something  that was specific to my local community or that I really wanted to support a smaller

organization  so I tried it one more time and I asked it okay I want to support animals and dogs but specifically  I want to focus on smaller non-profits with a budget of no more than five hundred thousand  dollars per year so here's what it came up with oh and I also specified that my local community  in this particular example was Denver Colorado so came back with these three organizations  pause Co the big bones Canine Rescue and Harley's dream ah um specific organizations with  this budget

size and you know your organization's financial and budget sizes are basically public  information because you're filing you know your annual tax forms with the IRS so people can find  that information if they want so that's how I was able to know what the budget sizes were it talks  about their mission it talked about um how funds could be used so again it's like responding to  what I want as a potential donor I want to know these things the mission the size the impact Etc  so pretty cool and f

or us as non-profit leaders this goes back to the importance of making sure  that your information is robustly on the internet and that it is accurate and thorough and regularly  updated I'd love to hear what you think now um do you think you're gonna try out Chad gbt and  use it for non-profit fundraising or something else or have you already tried it out share a  little bit more in the comments below about what you've been doing or what you think you might  do with this um as I mentioned befor

e if you are thinking of starting a non-profit and need a  little help to get started check out my website FounderToFulltime.com where I have those online  courses that you can take to guide you through the process of starting a non-profit and also  creating a sustainable fundraising plan um I also have a newsletter for change makers and non-profit  leaders you can get the link and subscribe to that below the video as well. And finally I have  a group on Facebook called change the world or bust

we've got 4,000 people in there from all  over the world making an impact come on and join us it's a great community and I hope that we'll  see you there I hope that this video was helpful or at least interesting and once again I'm Amber  Melanie Smith and I hope to see you next time bye!