Are you considering integrating AI into your annual fundraising program for 2026. Across the sector, AI fundraising tools are emerging quickly. But for annual fundraising, most innovation is being focused on fundraising campaigns, and no necessarily the overall donor experience. 

AI for multi-channel annual fundraising campaigns 

There are emerging tools that can identify audiences and segments for multi-channel fundraising campaigns and then automatically craft content that go to those audiences for each channel (mail, email, SMS). Some solutions focus just on list building and segmentation (ex. Dataro), some focus just on content creation, while some focus on both. These tools can integrate with your CRM and email platform, but soon CRM’s and fundraising platforms like RE NXT will have this capability built in. 

We’re excited for the innovation to keep coming because it will make our annual fundraising campaigns more effective and way more efficient for our clients.  

AI for the Donor Journey 

But what we haven’t seen yet is a solution focused on the donor journey, especially for large complex fundraising files on enterprise marketing solutions like Engaging Networks, Salesforce Marketing Cloud or Blackbaud Luminate Online. 

Due to the sheer size and fragmentation of large organizations, it’s difficult to have a cohesive donor journey and communication strategy as constituents often overlap departments and portfolios. For example, how do you message the donor who participates in a P2P event, donates $500 at EOY, and is an ideal Planned Giving Prospect?

That’s why we partnered with Dataro to develop AI Donor Journeys for Enterprise Nonprofits. We wanted to create a solution that 1) created a cohesive donor journey for constituents and 2) allowed nonprofits to have complete editorial control of the content.  

We are not advocating that our solutions replace your fundraising campaigns or any of the processes you may have in place to create and execute your campaigns. This should be layered on top to smooth out the donor experience and journey.

Here’s how it works:

1. Emails are pre-written and pre-approved, and can be updated at any time. Email content could include monthly donor upgrades, planned giving upgrades, interest-specific stewardship touches, or re-engagement efforts. 
2. All emails are created in Engaging Networks, Luminate Online or Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
3. Through our partnership with Dataro, each day or week, their platform analyzes digital and giving interactions to develop audiences for email journeys like mid level upgrade, stop lapse, monthly upgrade, or simply a stewardship touch.
4. Dataro triggers the automation in Engaging Networks, Luminate Online, or Salesforce Marketing Cloud. The automation can be an email, an email series, or just a content block in an upcoming eNews. Optional to include SMS or Direct Mail in the strategy.

We partnered with Dataro because their platform can identify real time audiences daily or weekly, leveraging data from your CRM and your email platform. It’s also HIPAA compliant, and we are excited to start exploring how patient data can be incorporated. 

As a side note, Dataro can also improve your list building and segmentation for direct mail and email campaigns, making it a worthwhile investment on its own.

If you are ready to chat about this new evolution of the donor journey, please give us a call!