ChatGPT for Nonprofits: Your Guide to AI Success

AI usage, particularly ChatGPT has become prevalent across industries and nonprofits are no exception.

According to a survey by Google.org, over half of nonprofits (58%) are now using AI for some daily operations. While Momentum’s report, The Nonprofit Productivity study, found that 82% of nonprofit professionals are comfortable using AI for at least some donor outreach. 

If you’re exploring AI tools for your nonprofit or looking for tips to improve your ChatGPT usage, you’re in the right place. We’ll dive into the ins and outs of ChatGPT and give you tips on how to most effectively use this tool.

What exactly is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is an AI chatbot developed by OpenAI to generate human-quality text in response to a wide range of prompts and questions. ChatGPT stands for Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer. If your immediate reaction is “Umm, what?” you’re not alone. 

Here’s the breakdown:

• Chat: The chatbot part of the name, which refers to how you interact with ChatGPT by typing in text 
• Generative: Refers to how ChatGPT generates human-like, conversational text 
• Pre-trained: Emphasizes the model's original learning phase, where it's trained on a large amount of text to understand language 
• Transformer: Refers to the type of large language model (LLM) that ChatGPT uses

This AI chatbot is particularly appealing to nonprofit fundraisers because its basic version is free. OpenAI also offers discounted pricing on paid plans for nonprofit professionals. Check out this article from OpenAI for more information.

ChatGPT vs. other AI tools

One of the questions we get a lot is what’s the difference between ChatGPT and Gemini (or insert your generative AI tool of choice)? The platforms are very similar and comes down to personal preference. 

OpenAI’s ChatGPT is known for:

• Strong natural language generation and reasoning capabilities. It is widely used for text-based tasks like writing, coding assistance, and conversational AI.
• It offers additional features like image generation and the ability to analyze and interact with images. 

Google's Gemini is known for:

• A broader integration with Google's systems, such as Google Docs, Gmail, and Sheets. This makes it highly effective for productivity-oriented tasks and seamless integration into everyday workflows.
• It also offers image generation and other multi-modal capabilities.  

For a full breakdown of AI tools for nonprofits, check out our article 11 Time-Saving Tools for Nonprofits. 

Why should nonprofit fundraisers care about ChatGPT?

Nonprofit fundraisers are trying to drive impact with limited resources. Often overworked and bogged down by time-consuming tasks, ChatGPT models and AI for fundraising, can help nonprofit professionals streamline their workflows and get more time back in their day. 

In fact, 69% of nonprofit professionals believe their job satisfaction would improve if they could use AI to reduce manual tasks. 

5 ways nonprofits can use ChatGPT 

ChatGPT is renowned for its generative abilities. For features such as data analysis or image creation, you’ll likely need to upgrade to ChatGPT plus as the free plan offers limited capabilities for these use cases. 

Generating written content

ChatGPT excels at drafting content, helping organizations maintain regular contact with supporters without straining staff resources.

For example, organizations can use it to draft initial grant proposals, generating structured outlines that capture key program elements and impact metrics. While ChatGPT provides an excellent first draft, we also recommend having human oversight over the content that it creates. 

Here are several other ways nonprofits can use AI for content generation:

• Generating newsletter content that highlights program achievements
• Creating social media posts that maintain engagement
• Developing educational materials for beneficiaries
• Writing volunteer handbooks and training materials
• Producing multilingual content to reach diverse communities

For content that is hyper-personalized to your donors, try Momentum’s AI Fundraising Assistant. It syncs with your CRM and automatically pulls in information about your donors to create relevant, personalized communications in your writing style. 

Creating images

If you’re tired of searching for the perfect stock photo or getting approval from donors before you use their images, ChatGPT is a great alternative tool. The free version allows you to create a limited number of images daily. Below is an example of an image that ChatGPT created with the prompt, “Create an image of nonprofits using AI to support fundraising initiatives.”

Research and analysis

One of AI’s strengths is its ability to analyze vast quantities of data to provide insights. What would take a human days or sorting and analyzing, can take ChatGPT minutes, even seconds to parse through. Here are a few examples of what ChatGPT can help nonprofits analyze:

• Past fundraising campaign performance and identify trends
• Strategic recommendations based on organizational data and historical outcomes
• Grant requirements and match them with organizational capabilities

In order for ChatGPT to analyze your data, you do need to upload your data files. ChatGPT uses the data you upload and interactions with its system to train its models, so we don’t recommend uploading sensitive information to ChatGPT.

For a more secure solution, explore donor engagement platforms that integrate directly with your CRM. 

Supporting your ask

One of the more challenging aspects of the role is the ask. There are so many variables: asking at the right time, for the right amount, and with the right message. Fortunately, AI can help you with each stage of your ask:

• Researching a donor's giving history and communication preferences
• Determining the right ask amount
• Drafting and practicing your pitch

For more information on how AI can support your ask, check out our article with Blackbaud, How to Use AI for the Right Ask (Without Being Creepy).

Summarization

Another helpful capability is ChatGPT's ability to summarize information. Whether you’re looking to understand what happened at a meeting or receive a summarized background of a donor’s giving history, ChatGPT can provide you with briefs with key takeaways. Here are a few ways you can use ChatGPT to summarize information:

• Synthesize complex program data into compelling narrative reports
• Translate technical impact metrics into accessible language
• Creating executive summaries of long-form impact assessments

Tips to write ChatGPT prompts for nonprofits

1. Use nonprofit-specific ChatGPTs

By using ChatGPTs trained and designed specifically for the nonprofit industry, you’re much more likely to get the results and information you’re seeking. For example, Momentum’s free Chat-GPT is geared toward major gift fundraisers. This ChatGPT 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.

2. Provide examples to guide your request

When you’re first using AI, think of it as a new hire at your organization. It needs to receive a lot of information about what you’re looking for in order to do a good job. When using AI to draft communications, like grant proposals, thank you notes, or email communications, the best way to train your AI model is to provide it with examples of your best-performing content. By saying "Write in the style of this successful appeal..." rather than starting from scratch, you help the AI model learn what you’re looking for and guide it toward a more successful response.

3. Give the your ChatGPT model feedback

One of the advantages of AI models is that they learn from their mistakes. But, just like your new hire, you have to provide feedback to the AI model. If you don’t share that something isn’t quite right, it will continue to provide responses that aren’t what you’re looking for. 

Give specific feedback on how ChatGPT’s response does not fit your needs. For example, if the response is too casual in voice or tone, respond by saying, “Write this response in a more professional voice.” You could also share your organization’s brand guide, voice and tone information, and mission-specific language to help the model more accurately capture your communications. 

Get started using ChatGPT for your nonprofit

ChatGPT for nonprofit fundraising is an excellent resource for fundraisers searching for support at a low cost. If you're looking mainly for generative capabilities, then ChatGPT would be a great fit. However, if you’re looking for a more robust tool that can integrate with your CRM, draft hyper-personalized communications, and create dynamic donor plans for every donor in your portfolio, or, you need a high-security solution to protect your donor data, then Momentum’s Donor Engagement Platform may be a better fit. 

Explore the Momentum platform and start streamlining your workload today. 

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