Leveraging artificial intelligence to boost charity marketing

As charities continue to face rising demand for their services, rising costs, and ongoing fundraising concerns related to the cost-of-living crisis, many are turning to Artificial Intelligence (AI) as an answer to their resource challenges.  

Charity Digital’s recent webinar with Salesforce revealed that 30% of charities are actively experimenting with AI, while 50% are in the research process. However, more than half of webinar attendees were mostly looking at AI in terms of creating copy for emails, grants, and other campaigning activities.  

While generative AI tools, like ChatGPT, have dominated the headlines, AI can do so much more than generating copy. In fact, many charities are already taking advantage of AI, using machine learning and CRM data to improve donor experiences, gain insights into supporter behaviour, and streamline donor journeys.   

Below, we explore some of the key findings from Salesforce’s webinar, The future of non-profit marketing: preparing for AI, which explores the basics of digital marketing that charities need to get right before jumping into new technology.  

Though AI might seem daunting from the outside, it is essential for charities to understand how it can help them now, so they are better prepared for the future.   

WATCH THE WEBINAR

AI is a generational opportunity 

In the webinar, Patrick Frank, Marketing Cloud Director for Nonprofits, EMEA at Salesforce points out that we are currently at a pivotal inflection point when it comes to AI. AI tools have been around for a while in some form or another and Salesforce’s own AI tool Einstein has been in circulation since 2016.  

So why have we been seeing such sudden growth in AI and how we talk about it? Frank suggests this is because AI has transitioned from being a complementary tool to one that is transformative. 

“Any changes in technology or the tools that are out there can either be complementary or transformative,” Frank explains. “Things like cryptocurrency, virtual reality, or NFTs – those are complementary, they may or may not help us in our work or personal lives but they don’t really change the way we do things, they complement. They add to, they’re a tool in our toolbox.” 

While AI has been in that category for a while, the advent of tools such as ChatGPT and Bard mean that the technology has now crossed over into transformative in that it is likely to “fundamentally recondition the behaviour of every individual interacting with it”.  

It is this transformative capacity, which Frank compares it to online shopping and social media, that means that those who don’t take the time to understand the technology risk being left behind their competitors. The world of AI is changing all the time so it is natural to be hesitant or simply experimenting at first, particularly in the charity sector where our duty is to our beneficiaries and supporters.  

But as Andrea Goezinne, Senior Product Marketing Manager EMEA at Salesforce points out in the webinar, those who adopt the technology earlier are going to be able to use AI more efficiently and to maximum effect sooner. Charities should start preparing for AI now.  

The difference between predictive and generative AI 

Predictive AI uses historical data from a variety of sources to identify patterns and trends that will help predict future outcomes. It can tell you which audiences have responded well to communications via certain channels in the past, indicating which channels you should use in the future in order to reach those demographics.  

Generative AI, on the other hand, can help charities create campaigns speedily and at scale, taking care of the nuts and bolts so that charity workers can focus on the strategy.  

But, as the webinar points out, part of what makes generative AI so significant in 2023 is that marketers don’t have to be experts to use the technology. Many of the tools that have emerged in 2023 are relatively intuitive, making it easy for charities to make use of them while limiting the time and resources they need to dedicate to learning new technology.  

AI + Data + CRM = Impact 

The webinar demonstrates the importance of bringing together data from multiple sources, including data from external parties such as demographic data, that AI can use to develop insights and personalise your marketing to your supporter needs.  

By bringing together this data and using it alongside AI, charities can hope to improve the effectiveness of their campaigns, reduce the strains on their workload, and, in turn, increase their capacity to deliver services where they are most needed.  

The webinar contains much more information about the uses of AI, including practical examples of how it may help charities, by enabling them to adapt their donors journeys to re-engage supporters and more.  

You can watch the full webinar here.