By now, you’re probably familiar with the vast potential that AI solutions have to maximize nonprofit fundraising. These tools have been used to automate donor outreach, identify new giving opportunities, and grow fundraising through targeted insights. But did you know that they can also help optimize your nonprofit’s events?
Whether you’re looking to develop an effective event web page or perfect your gala guest list, AI solutions can streamline the event planning process and increase your return on investment (ROI). This guide will explore five tips to use AI insights to level up your fundraising events:
There are many different AI solutions for nonprofits, but relevant tools for events that we’ll cover in this guide include generative AI solutions (like ChatGPT and DALL-E), data monitoring solutions (including social listening tools), and predictive analytics tools.
Predictive modeling AI solutions assess past fundraising performance and donor behavior to anticipate future fundraising outcomes. You can use these tools to analyze fundraising event results and make more accurate predictions for how your next event will go.
One of the most effective ways to leverage predictive analytics is to use these solutions to set optimized event goals. Having defined goals gives your event planning team a clear target to reach for. Ambitious but achievable goals can also motivate donors to get involved to push your event over the finish line.
Use predictive modeling to set event goals such as:
Predictive AI solutions can assess donors’ past giving behaviors as well as their giving potential to help you set ambitious but reasonable targets for each of these categories.
Perception tracking is the process of evaluating supporters’ thoughts and opinions about your nonprofit over multiple platforms, including social media, email, and your website. AI solutions can facilitate perception tracking to help you stay updated on how audience members feel about your organization’s events.
With the help of AI social listening and perception monitoring tools, you can gather the following attendee insights:
AI solutions can help track mentions of your nonprofit’s events across these platforms, allowing you to keep a finger on the pulse of what matters most to your audience members.
Supporters need different types of outreach from your nonprofit at different stages of their involvement. According to BWF’s AI fundraising guide, AI solutions can help “manage each step of the donor lifecycle to optimize your nonprofit’s outreach and meet donors at their level.”
Map the attendee journey through the following stages with the help of AI:
You can also use this approach to map supporter journeys for other audiences, such as event sponsors. Potential sponsors will go through a similar journey of learning about your cause, looking into your event, and deciding whether they want to contribute funds to the experience.
One of the most common uses of nonprofit AI technologies is prospect research. Prospect research is the process of screening your donor database to identify potential major donors who have the capacity and willingness to contribute larger gifts.
Double the Donation’s prospect research guide highlights the following factors to look for when identifying prospective major donors:
If you’re missing any supporter information, you can run a data append to supplement your internal database with third-party data.
Then, you can use prospect research to identify potential major donors to personally invite to your event. Send a handwritten invitation or give them a call.
Make a point to engage with these donors one-on-one during the event. Thank them for coming, catch up with them, and schedule a follow-up meeting after the event. For example, you can ask, “Are you free to meet with our development director next week to chat about your charitable goals for the year?” Try to set a meeting time on the spot to keep your nonprofit at the forefront of potential donors’ minds.
Using a combination of AI predictive analytics and social listening tools, you can understand what marketing content your audience responds best to. Then, you can tailor your event promotional materials to match supporters’ preferences. Plus, you can use generative AI solutions to help brainstorm creative content ideas based on your audience’s interests.
With the help of these tools, you can generate ideas for content used before, during, and after your event. Pre-event marketing materials include:
You can also generate content ideas for your event itself, such as:
After your event, you can follow up with participants through:
By leveraging AI solutions, you can more accurately predict which types of marketing messages, visuals, and educational content your audience will be interested in. This can greatly increase engagement surrounding your event marketing materials, leading to higher interest and participation in your event, as well as increased involvement after the fact.
As you can see, AI solutions can help you increase your event’s ROI by helping you make data-driven decisions based on what you already know to be true about your audience. These tools can help not only increase event-planning efficiency but also allow you to plan experiences that exceed supporters’ expectations and lead to increased support for your mission.
Guest Author Bio: James Barnard, Associate Managing Vice President of Annual Giving and Digital Marketing at BWF
James an integral part of the team at the global fundraising consultancy BWF. He helps nonprofit clients develop digital strategies for fundraising and marketing. James has been active in CASE for a number of years, participating as a conference speaker and CASE District II board member.
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