If you already feel like your organization is playing catch-up when it comes to technology, the mere thought of throwing AI into the mix may feel exhausting and full of potential pitfalls.
But you might be surprised just how simple it is to leverage AI in small but impactful ways. You can leverage AI tools to save time, be more creative, and generally work smarter — all with minimal tech knowledge or investment.
At Fundraise Up's 2025 Donor Experience Summit, the "Making Sense of AI" panel brought together experts who have been in the trenches implementing AI at scale:
- Maya Samadani, Board Member at Rise Alliance for Children, shared insights from her years leading people and culture at the International Rescue Committee.
- Mahin Samadani, SVP, Experience AI Growth at Publicis Sapient, offered perspective from three decades connecting humans to emerging technology.
- Moderator Svetlana Filipson, Innovation Initiative Director at Adirondack Community Foundation, guided the conversation about making AI accessible and actionable for nonprofits.
Here are 10 ideas you can implement today.
1. Generate more ideas for subject lines, content, etc.
The task: It's time to ideate subject lines, headlines, or other content that has to be brief and catchy.
The tactic: Open up your preferred AI platform, such as Claude or ChatGPT and ask it to generate ideas for you. For example, you could prompt: "Create 10 subject lines for an email asking donors to support our annual campaign to benefit [insert your org's details]."
Go further: "You can say, 'How good is this? What's my human judgment on what's come out of AI? Which ones would I throw out? Which ones would I keep? And in that way, you start to flex the muscle," said Maya.
The more specific you are, the better your results will be. "AI is only as good as the data that you feed it. And the more good data, the better the AI, the better the output… and the more actionable it is," said Svetlana.
You may or may not use one of the ideas AI provides, but chances are it will help you and your staff think up more angles or clever wording.
2. Summarize long documents, transcripts, or meeting notes
The task: You've got a long report to get through and minimal time to read.
The tactic: Copy the document into AI and prompt: "Summarize the key points of this report in three paragraphs."
Go further: This won't give you every nuance and detail, but it can help you prioritize the most important parts — whether you're reviewing donor research or internal reports.
4. Translate donor thank you messages
The task: Your donor base speaks multiple languages, most of which you don't know.
The tactic: Ask AI to translate your thank-you email into the other languages most often spoken by your donors.
"If you're trying to reach a certain donor base in English, you can use AI to expand that capacity by translating that content into ten, 12, or 20 languages. It's able to scale the work of one human being," noted Maya.
Go further: You'll want to have someone with true fluency in those languages review for tone and potential errors, but AI's version should be pretty close. You just saved everyone involved a lot of time while finding a new way to connect with valued donors.
5. Take the pain out of grant boilerplate
The task: You're writing your mission statement, organizational history, program description, for the umpteenth grant application.
The tactic: AI can jazz those up for you in seconds. Plug them into AI and ask for a fresh take. (Again, the more detail you can provide on tone or other considerations, the better your results will be.)
You don't have to reinvent the wheel every time. AI can give you a workable first draft without you having to "yaddah yaddah" yourself into a coma.
Go further: You can also use AI to predict how likely your application is to win that grant. "You can take the RFP from the potential funder, feed that into your AI tool with the historical record of how they typically fund, and your background and your credentials. It can give you a probability of your chances of winning that grant," said Maya — one more way to strengthen your overall fundraising strategy.
6. Upload files to Notebook LM and ask questions
The task: You need fresh ideas and content types.
The tactic: If you use Google's free Notebook LM or a similar tool, you can upload documents and have a "conversation" with them. Upload your last three annual reports and ask: "What are the recurring themes in our impact stories?"
Go further: "It can do a range of things," said Mahin. "You can create a little chat bot for your team. It can make a little podcast overview. It does flashcards and summaries. You can do a bunch of things. And it'll plant the seeds for invention, because you'll start to get some new ideas."
7. Practice refining your prompts
The task: You aren't totally sure you're using AI the most effective way and you want to improve.
The tactic: Take something simple — like "write a donor thank you note" — and see what happens. Then try: "Write a warm, personal thank you note to a first-time donor who gave $50 to our youth education program." Notice the difference? You're learning how to ask better questions, which is a valuable skill with or without AI.
Go further: A lot of people use AI almost as a search engine, but it's so much more. "For a while we've lived with what I would call a prompt gap, where some people knew how to prompt it," said Mahin. "People are getting better. There's a next horizon there... it's really integration of AI into your everyday work."
8. Get unstuck on writing projects
The task: You've run out of ways to communicate the same message. Or, you have something new to say and don't know where to start.
The tactic: Share the details with AI and let it get you started. For example, you could say: "I need to write about our summer program's success. We served 200 kids, partnered with five schools, and saw reading levels improve by 30%." Then, depending on the type of content you're writing, have it provide three different opening paragraphs or an outline.
Go further: We've all had that moment staring at a blank screen trying to will the words to come. You can use AI to kickstart ideas without "cheating." You're using it to bounce ideas off of and help you refine your own takes.
9. Create a simple donor acknowledgment
The task: You're writing your 47th thank you of the day and need to spark new ideas.
The tactic: Ask AI to write "a short, heartfelt acknowledgement for a donor who has supported us for 10 years."
Go further: Sometimes AI can help when you're running out of fresh ways to say something, but don’t forget to go back and add the human touch. "If you're just taking whatever was generated and you've done nothing, it's a race to the mean," said Mahin. "Because AI is quite literally a race to the most average answer you can imagine."
10. Have a conversation with it
The task: Find other ways to leverage AI
The tactic: Open up your AI tool and ask: "I work in nonprofit fundraising and I'm curious about AI but not sure where to start. What's one thing I could try today?"
Go further: Ask follow-up questions or provide more detail about your specific concerns and challenges to keep digging deeper. You can have a surprisingly insightful conversation with AI. Will it feel a little weird at first? Probably. But when you see the ideas it gives you, you'll get used to it quickly.
Small steps, big impact
You can start with the low-hanging fruit and still get impactful results. "It's low risk. You're not doing anything with it initially, but you are potentially investing a little time to save you much more time down the road," said Maya.
AI is a tool that works alongside you, not instead of you. It still needs your expertise and judgment to be most effective. You add the heart. You make it personal. AI just helps you get the result faster.
Consider picking just one tip from the list to try this week. See how it feels. That's all you need to get started.
Read next: 10 donor engagement strategies that let tech supplement tradition