10 Questions to Ask Before Your Organization Adopts AI

AI is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Each AI software has its own focus areas, integration requirements, and data processes. The software you choose needs to be carefully vetted by your organization so it can seamlessly integrate into your current tech stack and day-to-day routine. In this article BWF partnered with Momentum to help you navigate the considerations for selecting an AI-powered software with 10 questions to ask your potential AI vendor.

AI is a powerful tool that can help fundraisers reduce their workloads and increase productivity.

However, AI is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Each AI software has its own focus areas, integration requirements, and data processes. The software you choose needs to be carefully vetted by your organization so it can seamlessly integrate into your current tech stack and day-to-day routine.

For this article, we’ll help you navigate the considerations for selecting an AI-powered software with 10 questions to ask your potential AI vendor.

How Adopting AI Helps Fundraisers

AI systems streamline processes and reduce manual tasks, saving fundraisers time and enabling them to focus on more strategic projects. AI can also help identify potential major donors, generate personalized content such as email communications, and prioritize your donor outreach.

While AI cannot take the place of a fundraiser’s role, it can support fundraisers, alleviating some of their workload and helping them focus on the initiatives that drive impact to their organization.

10 Questions to Ask Before Adopting AI Software

By asking these questions, you’ll gain a comprehensive understanding of the AI tool, its capabilities, and how it can benefit your organization. From there, you can determine what features are most important to you and your organization.

Understanding AI and Its Capabilities

To help direct your discussion with a potential vendor, go into the conversation knowing what your organization needs from an AI tool. This will help you identify early on whether an AI tool is a good fit.

1. What specific problem does your AI tool solve?
Are you looking to remove manual work such as updating your CRM or support generating personalized content? Would you like your AI tool to analyze donor data and identify potential major donors?

Consider the problems you’re facing as an organization and prioritize your needs. From there, you can map those needs to AI software features.

2. How does the AI work?
Get a basic understanding of the underlying technology (e.g., machine learning, predictive AI, generative AI) to gauge its suitability for your task. Understanding the types of AI in nonprofit fundraising, can help you identify what AI tools will work best for your organization.

3. What data is the AI trained on?
AI systems learn through data and inherit the biases present in their training data. If the data is skewed towards a certain perspective or lacks diversity, the AI tool will reflect that bias in its outputs.

Additionally, the quality and relevance of the training data directly impacts the tool’s performance. If the data is inaccurate or not representative of real-world scenarios, then the AI tool might make unreliable predictions or fail to adapt to new situations. Learn how the vendor mitigates bias in training data and ask about the level of accuracy within the tool.

Implementation and Integration

If the AI tool is not easy to use, it will not be widely adopted. Understand its integration capabilities, implementation timeline, and the support provided to see which AI tool for nonprofits, such as BWF’s Donor AI,  would be a good fit for your organization.  

4. How will the AI tool integrate with my existing systems? Does the AI tool integrate with our donor or constituent relationship management system?
Seamless integration with your existing tools is essential for an efficient workflow. Avoid integration headaches by ensuring compatibility with your current software and infrastructure. In addition to integration, ask about the timeline for implementation. Some systems can be up and running in minutes, other systems need months to integrate, and this timeline may affect your selection.

5. Do you provide training and support tailored to the needs of nonprofits?
Each new technology has a learning curve, and without training, a new tool won’t be adopted or won’t be used effectively. Ask about the vendor’s support options for onboarding a new tool, hosting training sessions, and troubleshooting issues with fundraisers.

Data Privacy and Security

Protecting the data of your organization and its donors should be high on your list of priorities. AI often leverages sensitive data, so it’s important to assess potential privacy risks and ensure your data is handled responsibly.

6. How will my data be secured?
Assess a company’s security measures by learning where the data is stored and how it is accessed and about the company’s encryption standards and security certifications.

• Find out if the data is stored on the vendor’s servers, in the cloud, or both.
• Inquire about access controls and user authentication protocols to ensure that only authorized personnel have access to your data.
• Look for solutions with strong encryption standards and security audits or certifications. Certifications like SOC 2 demonstrate the vendor’s commitment to robust security practices.

The vendor should be able to clearly tell you how and where your data is being used. A vague answer is a red flag, so don’t be afraid to press for more details.

7. How will you communicate security incidents?
Look for a vendor with a clear communication plan if potential data breaches or security vulnerabilities were to occur. Their security policy should outline their approach to data security, risk management, and incident response, and which shows that the vendor has thoroughly thought through its security practices.

Organization Impact and ROI

Ultimately, whatever tool you choose should enable you to drive more donations. Whether that’s by saving you time so you can focus on stewarding major donors or creating personalized content that engages donors at scale, the benefits of using the tool need to outweigh the cost.

8. Will the AI tool adapt to evolving needs as my organization grows?
It’s an investment to purchase new software, integrate the tool, and train fundraisers. The tool’s ability to scale and be flexible tells you whether it’s a good long-term investment.

Look for solutions that can adapt to change. Organizational needs and goals evolve. An adaptable AI tool can adjust to new workflows, data sources, or emerging challenges you might face in the future.

9. How can I measure the success of the AI tool?
Define metrics to track the tool’s impact on your goals (e.g., increased efficiency, stronger donor retention rate, improved decision-making). Ask for customer success stories to understand how the AI vendor measures the success of its customers.

10. Do you have experience working with other nonprofits?
Tools that are designed specifically for nonprofits may be more valuable to organizations than tools created for for-profit businesses. If the software is not designed for nonprofits, ask about the vendor’s experience working with other nonprofits and how they adapted the tool to fit their needs.

Get started with AI fundraising tools

Use this list of questions as a starting point to help you uncover the best AI fundraising solution for your organization. From here, you can dive into questions specific to your organization and its needs.

If you’re looking for an AI fundraising solution designed specifically for nonprofits, explore Momentum’s AI Donor Engagement platform, which lets you identify potential major donors, draft personalized communications using your AI assistant, and prioritize outreach within the Momentum Inbox.

You can also evaluate your organization’s level of AI literacy with this AI Self-Assessment from BWF, which will identify opportunities and challenges and outline the risks when considering implementations. (Get your score now!)

‍

‍