Not-for-profits often work with limited resources, making efficient operations critical. Artificial intelligence (AI) and other forms of automating repetitive tasks can improve donor engagement, optimize fundraising and expand outreach.
Human touch
Nonprofits understandably might fear that automation will remove the human touch valued by everyone from founders to constituents, but they have plenty of reasons to embrace the technology. For example, automation removes the risk of human errors that can create more work for staffers.
Moreover, automating mundane tasks frees up time so employees can focus on more fulfilling efforts, from nurturing donor relationships to mission-oriented work. Technology investments, such as new AI software, might seem like an unaffordable luxury when your resources are limited. But improving operational efficiencies can ultimately position you to boost your impact.
Important functions
The most obvious targets for automation are time-consuming and tedious — yet essential — tasks. For example, big fundraising events generally require hundreds of staff hours to plan, promote, execute and follow up. Automation can make it easier to track workflow and handle tasks like registration, mailings and ticket distribution. It can also simplify event budgeting and financial reporting.
Automation can support other important functions, including:
Marketing and communications. AI can help you determine the most effective marketing strategies and channels and efficiently produce content. AI apps, for instance, can generate, edit and proofread tailored, even personalized, messaging to different audience segments. This, in turn, can facilitate more efficient social media posting and distribution of newsletters.
Fundraising and development. You can issue receipts automatically and schedule follow-up contacts. AI might be able to analyze donation and other data, detect patterns and suggest when previous donors might be ready to contribute again — and in what amounts. You can deploy automation to perform prospect research, too. Bots can crawl the internet much more effectively and quickly than even the most online-proficient human could ever hope to do.
Financial reporting. Whether required for grantors, lenders or internal purposes, you can easily produce regular reports to monitor and analyze your key performance indicators and metrics. When such metrics are updated on a real-time basis, you can track them on a dashboard and take quick action when needed. For example, you can make adjustments to campaigns and budgets while you still have time to head off or mitigate adverse consequences.
AI plugins
Your nonprofit already likely uses some form of accounting software. Software with AI plugins can boost effectiveness in categorizing expenses, tracking inventory, accelerating reimbursements and detecting fraud. Contact us for software recommendations and suggestions for automating tasks.
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