Fundraising Automation: 7 Ways Nonprofits Can Save Time

In the nonprofit world, fundraising isn't just important—it's the lifeblood that drives missions and sparks change.

And major gifts? They're the turbo boosters that can propel a nonprofit to new heights. But managing these gifts can feel like navigating a labyrinth. And fostering relationships with all of the donors in your portfolio can feel like a juggling act. 

Fundraising automation utilizes software to automatically execute tasks when certain criteria are met, saving nonprofit professionals time by removing manual tasks and streamlining tedious processes. These automated tasks could be everything from syncing updates to your CRM to sending a donation email receipt immediately after a donation is made. 

We’ll explore 7 ways you can leverage automation to help you take back your day and focus your energy on the projects that truly move the needle. 

Benefits of Fundraising Automation and AI 

If you’re spending hours each week updating information in your CRM, or copying and pasting information from one platform into another, then automating some of your fundraising tasks should be at the top of your to-do list. 

Automation can help you reduce the number of manual tasks on your plate, opening up your time–just think of all you could do if you didn’t need to update contact reports! 

In today’s world, it’s challenging to talk about automation without AI—AI is often integral within fundraising automation tools, taking automation capabilities to the next level. By using predictive AI, for example, software can analyze massive data sets and provide suggestions using that data set.  

This not only benefits the nonprofit, but also the donor. By leveraging automation and AI, donors can receive donation receipts instantly, get communications tailored to them, and send recurring, automated gifts.

For more information on fundraising and AI, check out our guide, AI and Fundraising: Everything You Need to Know.

7 Tasks You Can Automate in Your Fundraising Program 

Here are a few ways automation fundraising software can help your fundraising program. 

1. Identify potential major donors

Each time a new donor gives to your organization, you can leverage predictive AI to analyze a donor’s giving history, wealth capacity, affinity to the cause, and determine whether the donor has the potential to become a major supporter of your organization. 

From there, the donor can be automatically added to your portfolio. 

2. Create and update donor plans

Building donor plans from scratch for each major donor can be a time consuming project. And updating the donor plan each time you contact them takes just as long as sending the actual communication! By reviewing your CRM, some automation tools, such as Momentum, will automatically put together custom donor plans for each donor within your portfolio. The tools then go a step further and automatically update your donor plan and contact report anytime you reach out to that donor. 

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3. Prioritize donor outreach

With so many tasks on your plate, it can be challenging to know who to reach out to when, but prioritization can actually be automated. By reviewing your donor plans and communication cadence, automation tools can help you prioritize the most important donor outreach tasks for the day. 

4. Recurring gifts and action-based gifts

Many donation platforms offer recurring gifts as a donation option, which allow donors to give at a regular cadence, such as weekly, monthly, or quarterly. These donations are processed automatically and offer predictable revenue for organizations. 

In addition to recurring gifts, action-based gifts are a type of recurring gift that allow donors to choose an action and donate every time that action occurs. For example, donors could commit to a $1 donation every time they fill up their gas tank or .25 cents every time a celebrity tweets about a topic.

5. Drafting personalized emails

Using AI, nonprofit professionals can draft personalized emails for each donor in their portfolio. What used to take hours can now be completed in seconds. While the drafting portion is automated, tools like Momentum, allow you to review each email ahead of time to make any edits or tweaks. 

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6. Donation acknowledgement

Donation acknowledgements such as donation thank you emails and donation receipts are emails that can easily be automated through your email or payment processing solution. Setting up automatic emails helps donors confirm that their donation was received and avoids unnecessary tasks for fundraising professionals. 

7. Updating CRM & contact reports

Perhaps one of the most time consuming aspects of being a fundraiser is updating your CRM and contact reports. These manual tasks often involve copying and pasting information from one tool into another tool to ensure all information is accurate across platforms. 

While it’s valuable to track this information, it shouldn’t be something you need to do manually. Fundraising automation tools can sync this information to your CRM and contact reports any time you contact a donor. 

What to Look for in a Fundraising Automation Tool

There are many fundraising automation tools on the market, but many tools aren’t intuitive, don’t easily integrate with other platforms, and end up gathering dust on your desktop. Keep the following tips in mind to help you find the right tools for your program. 

• Seamless integration: Before bringing on a new tool, ensure that it seamlessly integrates with your existing tech stack. If you need to copy and paste information from one platform into another, then the tool adds to your workload rather than making your day-to-day easier. 

• Automatic updates to your CRM: As part of the integration, look into whether the fundraising automation tool also automatically updates your CRM. Once again, you don’t want to double your workload with unnecessary, manual updates between platforms. 

• Intuitive user experience: If a tool is challenging to learn or operate, your team probably won’t adopt the tool or use it to its fullest potential. Be sure to request a demo to see the tool in action and ask about additional training and support opportunities once the tool has been integrated into your systems. 

Momentum: The Game-Changer in Fundraising Automation Software

Fundraising doesn't have to be a constant uphill battle. Fundraising automation enables teams to do so much more with their time by minimizing the number of manual tasks on their plate. The challenge is finding the right fundraising automation tool for your nonprofit. 

Momentum, an AI Donor Engagement Platform, was designed with the goal of streamlining nonprofit professional workflows to increase impact. With Momentum, you can transform your major gift fundraising process, engage your donors more effectively, and maximize your ROI. 

Momentum integrates into your existing tech stack, automatically updates your CRM anytime you contact a donor or update their profile, and makes your everyday life so much easier. 

Don't wait—embrace the power of automation with Momentum today and see your nonprofit soar to new heights.

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