Artificial Intelligence Improves Fundraising

Making donations continuous, offering engaging information, looking for new potential donors. The third sector looks with confidence to artificial intelligence while being aware that the process must be thought out and guided. Sos Mediterranee, a humanitarian rescue organization in the Mediterranean Sea, has always worked on data management and has a high level of digital skills. It was therefore able to dive headlong into the use of artificial intelligence thanks to the collaboration with Skillando, a non-profit that accompanies the third sector in digital.

"The starting point was to ask ourselves: if Sos were a person, what characteristics would it have? We identified three Jungian archetypes: the sage, the hero, the rebel - explains Greta Granzini, head of fundraising for Sos Mediterranee Italia - Then we trained Gpt to produce different versions of the same information email based on the three archetypes, therefore with slightly different styles. Emails that we sent to our donors divided into four groups based on the email opening rate". By sending personalized communications, the email opening rate increased by 10 percent. Not only that. Different versions of the same email - however controlled in content by the organization - allow us to escape the somewhat glossy and standardized information that characterizes many third sector organizations. "Moreover, we work in an emergency, it would be impossible without artificial intelligence to send personalized emails to our donors within two or three hours" adds Granzini.

The experience of Sos Mediterranee reflects the results of the qualitative survey of Donare 3.0, conducted among the leaders of non-profit organizations. The area of ​​greatest use of artificial intelligence is precisely the review/writing of press releases, emails and reports. But also more targeted aspects such as defining the most effective subject for an email communication or adapting the communication and tone of voice based on the organization and the specific profile of the donor to whom it is sent. Secondly, AI is used for data analysis, especially for the identification of profiles, both individuals and companies, or in the definition of the most potential targets. This is the case of Fondazione Dynamo Camp, which offers free recreational therapy programs to minors affected by serious or chronic diseases.

"As digital donations increased both in number and value, we felt the need to re-engineer ourselves to make the most of the information that came from the donations themselves and to be ready for our transition. - explains Serena Porcari, CEO of Fondazione Dynamo - That is, we are an organization that lives a lot on donations from companies and foundations but now donations from individuals are growing a lot. And then the big challenge is the transformation of donations from sporadic to continuous". The latest available data for the 5 per thousand - relating to the year 2023 - report a collection of over 929 thousand euros against 20,175 signatures.

The Foundation has therefore invested heavily in digital architecture, software and hardware. The database has been made responsive and segmentable. Then the 70 people of Dynamo are being trained and the foundation is about to publish a policy on the ethics of artificial intelligence.