Stop Wrestling with Technology and Start Connecting with Donors

But as I started walking through the steps real doable steps you can actually take I watched the room shift . Eyes lit up , folks leaned in . You could see the light bulbs going off and it wasn't because I showed off some wild tech demo .

It was because people saw that an AI tool as simple as ChatGPT could help them get their time back , that it could actually fit into their day-to-day work and not add more stress to their plate . One fundraiser came up to me afterward and said Keith , I always thought this stuff was for the tech team . I had no idea I could do it myself , like today .

And that stuck with me because that's the moment where AI stops being this abstract , futuristic thing and it starts being a tool you use at your desk tomorrow . So here's what we're doing today we're going to explore one small shift , one prompt that could change the way you capture donor visit notes .

By the end of this episode , you'll see how you can take a rough voice note after a donor meeting and turn it into a polished contact report with just a few words . Sound good , let's get into it . You've heard the buzz AI is everywhere Conferences , newsletters , webinars it's all over your feed .

How it's going to transform fundraising , revolutionize stewardship , make your job easier . But when you actually sit down to try it , it feels like you've been dropped into a foreign country , with no map , no translator and a deadline breathing down your neck . You open up ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot and think , okay , now what ?

You ask it to write an email and it gives you something that sounds like it came out of a corporate HR handbook from 2008 . Not exactly the warm , donor-centered tone you were hoping for , right ? And then there's the overwhelm so many tools , so many platforms . There's Jasper and Claude and Notion AI , zapier Otter .

You don't have time to vet 15 platforms just to find out that 12 of them don't actually solve your problem . I've had fundraisers tell me things like I know ChatGPT can do this , but I don't know how to do it myself .

Or this one which really stuck with me I tried automating thank you emails and I ended up spending more time fixing the tone than if I'd just written them myself , and it's frustrating , right ?

Because you're not afraid of technology , you're smart , you're capable and you're constantly juggling a hundred things . What you don't have extra time is to waste on trial and error , and that's the heart of it .

Every minute you spend wrestling with AI is a minute you're not spending with your donors , a minute you're not deepening relationships , a minute you're not doing the real human-centered work that only you can do . So let's name the struggle for what it is Only you can do . So let's name the struggle for what it is . It's not that AI isn't powerful .

It's that it hasn't been made useful for you yet , not in a way that fits your voice , your workflow , your real day-to-day . But that's about to change . So here's the good news there's a way to make AI actually useful for you as a major gift fundraiser , not in some abstract , theoretical way , in a practical .

This saved me an hour before lunch , kind of a way , and we're going to start with something called ethical AI , and for me that means tools that respect your voice , your relationships , your donors' , privacy and security and your time . This isn't about replacing you . It's about amplifying you and to be safe .

Before you put anything into AI , always make sure your organization is on a plan that doesn't allow the AI to use your information to train its future models . So let me walk you through a few tactics I've been testing that are already helping me reclaim hours every week . So first up is persona prompting .

One of the biggest misses I see with AI-generated content is tone . You ask ChatGPT to draft an email and it gives you something that starts with Dear esteemed benefactor , or I hope this message finds you well . Nope , that's not how you talk and that's not how you would talk to a donor you just met , let alone one you have a years-long

relationship with . So here's a quick fix Tell the AI who it is before you ask it to write anything . Start with something like you are a warm , donor-centered major gift fundraiser . Your emails are professional but personal , with a natural tone .

Here's how you open your emails hey Julia , thanks for that note , or whatever it is , and then give it one or two examples of your real voice . Suddenly , the email it drafts doesn't sound like a robot . It sounds like you , but so much faster .

Second , you can turn your voice notes into summaries , and this one is a game changer for those of you who dread writing your contact reports and remember . Make sure your organization is on a plan and has the security features enabled to not let what you put into the ai become

part of the training data for that ai . But next time you leave a donor visit , just open your phone , hit record in that notes app and say what happened . Don't script it , just talk . I met with Dan . He's excited about the scholarship update he mentioned his daughter is starting college this fall , or whatever else happened in that visit .

Then take that raw voice-to-text into ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot with a prompt like summarize this in a polished professional contact report for our CRM . I've seen this . Take 30 seconds of that audio text and turn it into a report that's ready to paste into your CRM . No plugins , no extra apps , just you , your notes and a little help cleaning it up .

Third , building dashboards yes , even in Excel and I know I know Excel can feel like that drawer in your kitchen filled with the random cables and chargers that you last used in 2009 . Donor visits , giving totals or proposal stages , without any add-ons or subscriptions . You can use AI to walk you through formulas step-by-step .

Whether you need a pivot table that groups donors by status , just ask . Want conditional formatting that highlights lapsed donors Done . The goal isn't to turn every fundraiser into a tech wizard . It's to help you make this AI tool work for you .

No more tech for tech's sake , just useful , ethical , human-centered tools that let you spend less time doing administrative work and wrestling spreadsheets and more time connecting with people . So let's zoom out for a second .

Imagine saving eight hours this week , not because you skipped a meeting or you worked through lunch , but because the tools you use every day actually worked for you .

Imagine finishing your donor reports in minutes and not hours , prepping for your next visit with your CEO in one clean dashboard , not seven open tabs , writing emails that sound like you , without having to rewrite them five times . What would you do with that extra time ?

Maybe you'd finally call that lapsed donor you've been meaning to re-engage , or walk into your next one-to-one with your VP , feeling calm , confident and prepared . Or maybe you'd just take a breather . You'd go home on time , be fully present with your family at dinner . That's the future I want to build with you , and here's how .

This week , I'm opening up a small group , hands-on mini course . It's just going to be four weeks , one hour a week . Live with me . We'll build these exact tools together , step by step , so you're not figuring it out alone and , as a listener of this podcast , you're getting the first heads up .

You'll have first dibs on pre-launch pricing and you'll actually help shape the modules with your feedback . I want to build this with you and not just for you . So if you're curious or even just thinking ,

hmm , maybe this could finally help me get ahead of my work , here's what to do next Check the link in the show notes or , if you get my emails , hit reply to the email you got from me and say I'm in . That's it . I'll send you everything you need to get started . So let's make this the season where AI stops being intimidating and starts being empowering .