Seven practical ways to use AI and automation in your digital fundraising program

For digital organizers, AI and automation hold real potential to make fundraising drives more manageable and effective. Jordan Harp is a digital expert and the founder of Shift Cooperative. He sets out seven areas where these tools can boost your fundraising campaign and communication, whether you’re new to the AI and automation game or just want to be sure you’re getting the most out of them.

Digital fundraising has always been about scrappy use of technology. We’ve taken tools built for other purposes and adapted them to power movements.

AI and automation open a new chapter. Together, they make it possible to learn faster and grow digital fundraising programs.

Before we dive in, it helps to define terms clearly:

• AI means general purpose large language models like Claude that help generate, analyze, or summarize information. 

• Automation means setting up automatic steps inside the tools you use, like your CRM, email, or text messaging platforms. Instead of doing tasks manually each time, you create a sequence that runs on its own.

Here are seven practical tips to make use of AI and automation in your digital fundraising program.

1. Drafting and iterating fundraising emails faster

If you already have fundraising emails that performed well, start there. Sort by best performing and upload those examples into your AI tool for context. If you’re just getting started, you can look at examples on sites like politicalemails.org and tell the AI what you like about them. From there, outline your idea and use AI to help refine it.

You can:

• Generate narrative outlines to test

• Generate subject lines

• Turn your outlines into drafts

• Create tone variations

• Adapt content for different regions

Readers can tell when something feels generic. The goal is not to have AI write your email and send it. The goal is to use it as a collaborator. Share your ideas. Ask it to help organize them. Let it suggest improvements. Then edit with your own judgment and voice.

2. Moving faster during rapid response moments

Digital fundraising is often most effective during key moments in the news cycle.

In 2012, when I worked at Democratic Party headquarters, speed to send fundraising emails mattered. But speed only worked when the message was right.

When the Supreme Court ruled on the Affordable Care Act, we had four email drafts prepared in advance. Short and long versions for either outcome. The winning version outperformed the other by almost 50 percent. That day set a fundraising record for the committee. If we hadn’t tested the best message or sent the emails fast, we would have left a lot of money on the table.

Today, AI can help teams prepare and react even faster.

A simple workflow looks like this:

• A major moment hits

• AI helps generate draft ideas

• The team selects the framing and writes the outline of a draft

• AI helps refine the draft

• You test and deploy quickly

Speed can be critical to maximize fundraising when you’re responding to a major news event. In high-stakes moments, even 20 minutes can make a difference. AI helps us respond faster than ever before.

3. Building a smarter testing loop

The best digital programs are constantly experimenting. If you’ve run enough experiments, you know that every factor – timing, messenger, message, visuals, channel – can have an impact.

That means even things that worked well once need to be continuously tested and refined. That means we need to be curious, creative, and adaptable.

By uploading previous results, along with our testing ideas, we can use AI like a collaborator to come up with new experiments. Then also create the content for the experiment, test it out, and learn quickly from the results.

Here is one approach:

1. Upload past campaign metrics and the creative brief.

2. Ask AI to identify performance patterns.

3. Work with AI to generate new A/B test ideas.

4. Prioritize tests based on likely impact.

5. Run the tests in your email platform.

6. Feed results back in for analysis.

This process helps you generate ideas, test them, and learn faster. The more you test, the more you understand what drives your supporters to act.

4. Using automation to personalize donor journeys

Every supporter has their own unique journey through the many touchpoints we have to our campaign, across multiple channels. Some of them are really excited and ready to do everything we send their way: donate, show up in person, share a post, you name it! Others might need more time to get to know the organization before taking the next step.

Automation tools inside our CRM, like Action Network’s Ladders, or no code tools like n8n that connect multiple tools, allow us to design specific parts of the experience so that everyone gets what they need based on their behavior.

Examples include:

• A welcome sequence for new donors

• A different path for monthly donors

• A bigger donation ask triggered by giving history

• Pausing donation asks after repeated non-response

You can use AI to generate ideas for different segments and then outline what to include in them.

Automation also helps connect fundraising with other parts of your organization, such as volunteer recruitment or events. Connecting systems makes the supporter experience more coherent.

5. Using automation to make sure no supporters are left behind

Many small teams only have the capacity to manage the basics. A newsletter. Occasional fundraising pushes. Maybe a welcome email.

When AI reduces the time spent drafting and analyzing, you gain space to think about smaller groups that need attention.

You can build simple automations for:

• People who gave once but never again

• Supporters interested in a specific issue

• A smaller geographic area with specific local needs

• Event attendees who RSVP’ed but didn’t show up

Uploading campaign analysis to AI can help you spot trends in the data and generate hypotheses about the different segments. Then you can iterate on different ways to meet their needs.

You do not need dozens of segments. Even one additional journey for an overlooked group can improve retention and revenue over time.

6. Making sense of your data without a dedicated analyst

When you upload documents to AI, it can analyze and summarize large datasets with ease. For instance, upload your email campaigns and analytics, then ask it to summarize the optimal time, length, tone, and so on. You can also have it help you build a financial forecast.

This doesn’t replace your reasoning, it just speeds it up and supercharges it.

For example:

• Export channel revenue, conversion rates, and list growth

• Ask AI to summarize trends

• Use it to help outline a basic revenue forecast

This can help you see patterns faster, making it easier to report to leadership and plan ahead.

7. Setting responsible boundaries

Organizations working for climate justice and social change must think carefully about the ethical implications of the tools they use.

Technology in our sector has always involved trade-offs. We rely on platforms like Meta and Google even though we have concerns about them. AI raises similar questions.

You can codify clear boundaries:

• Decide what ethical commitments you make to supporters

• Do not upload full CRM exports with personally identifiable information into AI tools

• Require human review for outward-facing content

• Use AI selectively, where it adds clear value

  
  

Progressive organizations should model responsible use of technology. That means being thoughtful, transparent, and disciplined in how we adopt new tools.

AI and automation will not replace fundraisers. But they can reduce repetitive work and help teams learn faster.

For small organizations especially, that combination can make digital fundraising more consistent, strategic, and sustainable.

Jordan Harp is Founder and Principal Consultant at Shift Cooperative, where he works with progressive organizations to scale their impact. He previously held digital roles at Harris Walz, the Green Party of England and Wales, the DCCC, and Obama White House. He works on product discovery & delivery, digital programs & strategy, and emerging AI & workflow automation. 

Featured image from CANVA

Blog post licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0