AI is the new kid on the block.
You know, the one with rich parents. Who has the best toys.
You were eager to play. But you had to wait for an invitation, of course.
Then the big day arrived!
And you realized the kid didn’t have anything interesting to say. Just sort of repeated back what you’d just said.
Weird.
And soon, kind of boring.
AI is iterative, not creative.
That’s another way to say it only does what it’s been taught to do. Or to be more crude: it only spits out what it’s been fed.
The good. The awful. And every bit of meh in between. Denisa Casement calls it “beige goo.”
You don’t want to feed that to your donors, do you?
(I’m not even going to go into the less-than-savory ways giant companies are fighting to find data to feed their LLMs…)
What AI has for a brain
Like humans, AI has to learn from somewhere.
We’re careful about what we teach children in school. Lessons are tailored to their age, and progress in complexity as they get older.
AI is more like a giant vacuum cleaner, sucking up everything it’s given. It has amazing breadth (and speed). But it’s just regurgitating bits of “everything.”
Concerned parents know what their kids are learning in school. Who’s minding AI?
Being human is different
AI at its very best (and we’re not there yet) can only imitate a human. But who is showing it how to human? Could you capture all that being human means, in all its vastness?
I couldn’t. And that’s good because defining something like “humanity” also limits it. What we never thought possible 100 years ago is now taken for granted. Who knows what we’ll learn tomorrow?
And most of all for fundraisers, humanity is critical for good fundraising. People give to people. So if you’re depending on a robot to spit out your donor communications, you’re cheating those donors… and yourself.
Honest emotion. 💞
Storytelling.📖
Gratitude.🤗
Even mistakes (intentional or not).🤦♀️
AI can try, but it’s not convincing. Because it’s only based on a slice of human experience. And through humans’ attempts to describe that experience. It’s a few important steps from real.
I like the way Sara M. put it on Medium:
One of the things to strive for in writing is relatability. Writers aim to connect with their customers or audiences on a gut level, even if it is to ultimately sell a product. As I was testing out AI writers, I noticed that the blogs generated by the computer lacked the empathy I am accustomed to expressing.
Your donors deserve better
As a fundraiser, you ask people to give you money to do something good. For other people, for animals, and the planet. Those people deserve a genuine request… person to person.
And they also respond to that sincerity. (That’s why touches like handwritten notes, a coffee ring, or even small typos work so well. They signal “A human hand has touched this page.”)
So how much of your time and effort is a gift worth?
What AI can help you do
After all this, you might think I have a problem with technology. I don’t! I love it!
I’m old enough to remember typing a letter on a typewriter. I ran a large box office using phones and printed tickets… no online sales! We mapped the seats as we sold them on paper charts.
Then I spent enough time learning how to get around early iterations of fundraising software… enough that the company started sending other clients to me to learn. Ah, early days.
So I’m thrilled I can write this to you on a computer and have it automatically turned into the proper code to share with you on a website. Easily. It means one fewer obstacle between my thoughts and your response. (And you can weigh in on whether the thoughts have value for you or not. Write me back!)
But…
Fundraising isn’t about the tech. Fundraising isn’t about tools and automation. We can’t distance ourselves from the humanity at its heart. Fundraising is personal.
With that in mind, though, use the tools you have. Texting, social media, and the ability to create personalized letters and send them to thousands of people with a few clicks. It’s all fantastic!
AI has its place. Think about:
- Organizing your thoughts
- Inspiring ideas
- Taking already created emails and reconfiguring them for social media
- Rough drafts
- Automating basic processes like data entry
- Finding information quickly
- Search – about donors, their background, their wealth, and giving
(Julie and Brett at Fundraising Writing have been experimenting and have some great ideas. Check them out!)
Confidently wrong
But that rich kid I mentioned at the beginning, with the great toys? That kid is also quite sure they’re always right… even when they’re not. So always, always bring your human brain and eyes when you use AI. Verify everything!
The bottom line for me
We have a multitude of tools available to us today. But just because a tool exists doesn’t mean it must be used.
And fundraising is essentially human. Cutting out the humanity – yes, including any sweat or tears you put into writing – is cheating your donors.
Making a gift is not a “transaction.” It’s a meaningful act, tied closely to how the donor sees themselves as a person. And beyond a single gift, beyond even a single organization, we connect people looking for meaning with people looking for help. You’re right there in the middle… giving of yourself is an important part of the process.
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