Fundraising gets AI boost

Canberra-based digital communications agency Chilli Bean Media has developed fundraiz.Ai, which uses AI to power behavioural analytics and automated content generation to streamline fundraising.

The platform allows not-for-profit (NFP) organisations to manage supporter communications, identify likely donors, and automate aspects of their fundraising operations to reduce costs and administrative workloads.

In an interview with online news outlet IT Brief, Chilli Bean Media CEO Carlos Aguilera explained why the sector is increasingly warming to the potential of AI.

“The fundraising landscape is tough right now for many charities and not-for-profits — donor retention is down, expenses are up, and organisations are being asked to do more with less," he said.

Aguilera said fundraiz.Ai was developed to help NFPs operate more effectively despite these increasing difficulties.

A key feature of the new platform is its ability to analyse donor behaviour.

The company said the software can identify individuals who are most likely to donate and assess potential donation amounts.

The data-driven approach is designed to help organisations target their fundraising efforts where they can be most effective.

"What we've developed isn't just a tool — it's a digital ally for fundraisers," said Aguilera.

Streamlining the fundraising experience is also a high priority at Melbourne-based social enterprise Our Community, which operates the Funding Centre grant database and capacity building website.

The organisation’s data science team is currently testing a new in-house AI-powered grant-writing tool, called Drafter.

Drafter is designed to integrate with the wider set of existing Funding Centre grantseeking tools, including a searchable grants database, tailored email alerts, and project management tools, which help users join the dots between sourcing a grant to applying.

Funding Centre Manager Stef Ball said the driving force behind the development of Drafter was to save busy grantseekers time when writing applications.

“We want to encourage them to write really good quality applications that are more likely to be more successful,” she said.

“Drafter will help users move from finding a grant to drafting a strong project plan and then an application, all in one smooth workflow.”

Ball said a key difference between Drafter and generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, is its compatibility with Funding Centre’s existing suite of tools.

“Unlike general purpose platforms such as Chat GPT, Drafter is tailor-made for grantseeking by people who know the grant sector,” she said.

“It's safe, secure, simple, all the data held in Australia and most important of all, it will be affordable for not-for-profits.”

The use of AI in the sector has steadily increased over the past few years.

Infoxchange's 2024 Digital Technology in the Not-for-Profit Sector Report revealed that 76 per cent of organisations are now using AI tools, up from 52 per cent the year before.

The topic of AI featured prominently at the recent Infoxchange Technology for Social Justice conference in Melbourne.

One of the winners at the Infoxchange Australian Not-for-profit Technology Awards, held as part of the conference, went to Wombot, a chatbot developed by Wombat Housing Support Services that has transformed how people access homelessness support.

Other recent examples of the sector’s innovative use of AI include:

• A new trial of AI tutoring for 700 students by education focused charity The Smith Family

• An award-winning AI tool developed by legal services charity Justice Connect, which allows help-seekers to ask questions about their legal dilemmas in their own words before connecting them to the right support.
  

• The use of automated ‘bots’ to bolster charitable fundraising efforts.

AI innovations in the sector haven’t always been well received, however.

In an Australian first, a disarmingly human looking AI generated bot named Alice Ing, was in 2024 controversially appointed to the board of the Real Estate Institute of New South Wales (REINSW).

More information

Cash splash to boost sector AI skills

Help sheet: Opportunities and pitfalls when writing funding applications with AI

Community Directors Intelligence: The artificial intelligence edition