How Nonprofit Fundraisers Can Craft Effective AI Prompts

Artificial intelligence (AI) models are powerful tools for nonprofit fundraising, but their effectiveness hinges on the quality of the prompts they receive. If you’ve tried using ChatGPT to draft donor communications or write grant applications without much luck, you may need to refine your AI prompting skills. 

A well-crafted prompt can unlock incredible results, while a poorly constructed one can lead to irrelevant, unhelpful outputs. This article will explore key strategies and provide specific examples to help you create better AI prompts.

Best practices for crafting effective AI prompts

By following these guidelines and experimenting with different approaches, you can significantly improve the quality of your interactions with nonprofit AI tools and reach their full potential. 

1. Be specific and clear:

• Avoid Ambiguity: Instead of "Write a thank you letter," try "Write a thank you letter for attending our 5K fundraiser and raising funds for those fighting breast cancer."
• Provide Context: If you're asking for a thank you letter, specify the format. Is this a letter to be mailed or an email? 
• Define Scope: Limit the scope to prevent overwhelming the AI. For example, instead of "Write a summary of about fundraising best practices," try "Write a 200 word summary on fundraising trends for 2025.”

2. Use keywords and modifiers:

• Keywords:  Keywords act as signposts, guiding the AI towards relevant information and concepts within its vast knowledge base. For example, keywords like “renewable energy and solar” help inform AI in this prompt: 
  
  • "Draft a compelling grant proposal to [Funding Organization] for the Renewable Energy Campaign that addresses their funding priorities and highlights the project's innovative approach to solar energy."
• Modifiers: Modifiers help you shape the AI's response by specifying desired attributes, style, or tone. Use adjectives and adverbs to refine the AI's response. For example:
  
  •  "Write a thank you letter that enthusiastically expresses gratitude," or "Generate an informal, concise summary of the fundraising event."

By providing more direction in your initial prompts through keywords and modifiers, you’re more likely to receive the desired response. 

3. Break down complex tasks:

• Divide and Conquer: For intricate projects, break them down into smaller, more manageable subtasks. For instance, if you need a long research paper, start with individual prompts for research questions, thesis statements, and outlines. Or, you can use the ideal AI prompt structure for long prompts (more on this later in the article).
• Iterative Refinement: Start with a basic prompt and gradually refine it based on the AI's initial response. This iterative process allows for fine-tuning and ensures the output aligns with your expectations.  

4. Leverage examples and templates:

• Show, Don't Tell: Provide examples of the desired output style or format. For instance, if you're requesting an event invite, share an invitation from a previous event that you’d like to emulate. Or, if you’re having trouble capturing your nonprofit’s voice through AI-generated content, share your brand, voice, and tone guidelines with the AI. 
• Use Templates: Create reusable templates for common tasks. For example, templates for fundraising prompts could include:
  
  • Thank you letters
  • Grant applications
  • Event invitations
  • Making the ask 

Remember that effective prompt engineering is an ongoing learning process. Embrace experimentation, refine your techniques, and enjoy the journey of discovering new and innovative ways to collaborate with AI tools like ChatGPT for your nonprofit.

Examples of AI prompts for fundraisers

Use the following techniques to help you get more out of your AI and fundraising efforts. 

Approach 1: Give AI a style instruction 

Use a style instruction, which is a set of guidelines or parameters given to AI to specify the desired tone, voice, and writing format for the output it should generate. For example, a synonyms prompt is a style instruction that informs the AI to exclude an unwanted word, and instead, use a variety of synonyms.

AI Prompt Example: "Generate a donor outreach email that uses varied language when referring to financial support. Avoid using the word 'donation.' Use synonyms that convey generosity, contribution, and support."

Approach 2: Define the tone

Tell the AI tool what tone to use and how to sound while emphasizing a variety of language.

Prompt Example: "Draft a donor outreach email using language that emphasizes generosity and meaningful impact. Use varied terminology to describe financial support, avoiding repetition. Never use the word 'donation.'

Approach 3: Roleplay

By instructing AI to adopt a specific role, such as a seasoned grant writer or a persuasive storyteller, you help the AI consider the perspective it's writing from and enhance the output's tone and style.  

Prompt example: "You are a professional fundraiser drafting a personalized email. Use warm and thoughtful language. When referencing financial support, use the term 'gift' to convey gratitude and partnership."

Approach 4: Leverage "If-Then" Conditions

Prompts that use “if-then” tell the AI to generate different outputs based on specific criteria. This can be helpful if you’re drafting content for different audiences. 

Prompt Example: "If the donor has a history of supporting environmental causes, then the email should emphasize the environmental impact of the project. Otherwise, focus the email on the social impact of the project."

How to structure lengthy AI prompts

For more robust projects, it’s helpful to have guidelines on how to structure your prompts. 

While you can take the iterative approach and break the project down into small, individual prompts, you could also provide the AI with a larger, structured input of information from the get-go.

We recommend four components for these larger projects:

1. The goal: Share with the AI in one sentence what the overall goal is of the prompt.  
2. Format: Provide specific details as to the format you’d like the response to be in. This could include word count as well as the structure of the response.
3. Warnings: Share what the AI should be careful not to do. 
4. Context: This can be extra information to help inform the AI’s response.

Example of a long-form AI prompt

The Goal: Generate a compelling grant proposal outline for a new after-school program to improve literacy rates among underserved youth in Washington D.C.

Format:

• Word Count: 500-1,000 words
• Structure: 
  
  • Executive Summary: Briefly introduce the program and its objectives.
  • Project Description: Detail the program's methodology, activities, and target population.*
  • Evaluation Plan: Outline how the program's success will be measured.*
  • Budget Summary: Briefly outline key budget items.*
  • Conclusion: Reiterate the program's importance and call to action.

*To provide the AI with even more detail, you could attach documents that detail the project description, program plan, and budget. 

Warnings:

• Avoid generic language: The outline should be specific to the target city/neighborhood and the unique needs of the underserved youth population.
• Do not plagiarize: The outline should be original and not based on existing grant proposals.
• Ensure clarity and conciseness: The outline should be easy to read and understand.

Context:

• Organization: Words for Washington D.C.
• Mission: To improve literacy and access to resources for underserved youth in the D.C. area.
• Target Population: Ages 3-18 from low-income families and/or immigrant communities
• Program Goals:
  
  • Increase reading comprehension levels by 20% within the next 5 years.
  • Improve students' writing skills and vocabulary.
  • Foster a love of reading and learning.
• Program Activities:
  
  • After-school tutoring sessions led by certified teachers and volunteers.
  • Access to a well-stocked library with age-appropriate books.
  • Creative writing workshops and storytelling sessions.
  • Field trips to local museums and libraries.

From here, you can ask the AI to add to or update different components of the response to guide the results. 

Try out these AI prompting techniques

By utilizing these diverse prompts and experimenting with different approaches, you can leverage the full potential of AI to enhance your work, increase efficiency, and ultimately achieve greater fundraising success.

Give it a whirl with Momentum’s free Major Gifts GPT. This AI model has been trained on the latest fundraising best practices and can help you brainstorm the best ways to engage with your major donors and maximize your impact.  

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