AI for Nonprofit Teams: Roles, Responsibilities & Practical Use Cases
Development / Fundraising
Manage and cultivate major donors and institutional relationships in line with overall strategy
This involves executing the organization's major gifts and institutional giving strategy within your team's scope. You'll identify prospects, build relationships, make solicitations, and steward high-value donors and funders like foundations and corporations, ensuring your activities align with the broader strategic approach. You'll coordinate with other teams to ensure consistent messaging and avoid conflicts in donor cultivation.
Detailed Breakdown
1
Identify and Qualify Major Donor and Institutional Prospects
The Director of Development identifies potential major donors and institutional funders who have the capacity and interest to make significant gifts. This involves prospect research, capacity analysis, and qualification to determine which prospects are worth pursuing and how to prioritize them.
- •Conduct prospect research to identify potential major donors and institutional funders.
- •Analyze donor capacity and giving history to qualify prospects.
- •Assess prospect interest and alignment with organizational mission and priorities.
- •Prioritize prospects based on capacity, interest, and strategic fit.
- •Build prospect lists and databases for ongoing cultivation and solicitation.
- •Coordinate prospect identification across teams to avoid conflicts.
How AI Can Help
Prospect Research & Identification
What AI can realistically do
- •Conduct automated prospect research to identify potential major donors and institutional funders.
- •Analyze donor capacity and giving history to qualify prospects automatically.
- •Assess prospect interest and alignment with organizational mission and priorities.
- •Prioritize prospects based on capacity, interest, and strategic fit using scoring models.
- •Build and maintain prospect lists and databases for ongoing cultivation and solicitation.
- •Identify prospects across multiple data sources and channels.
Value for staff
- •Accelerates prospect identification and qualification processes.
- •Ensures prospects are prioritized based on data-driven analysis.
Prospect Coordination & Management
What AI can realistically do
- •Coordinate prospect identification across teams to avoid conflicts automatically.
- •Track prospect assignments and cultivation activities to prevent duplication.
- •Generate prospect management reports showing pipeline and prioritization.
- •Flag prospects that may be cultivated by multiple teams simultaneously.
- •Suggest prospect assignments based on team capacity and expertise.
- •Maintain prospect databases with current information and status.
Value for staff
- •Prevents conflicts and ensures efficient prospect management.
- •Provides visibility into prospect pipeline and prioritization.
2
Build and Nurture Relationships with Major Donors and Institutions
Relationship-building is the foundation of major gifts and institutional giving. The director develops and maintains relationships with high-value donors and funders through personalized engagement, regular communication, and meaningful interactions that demonstrate organizational impact and value.
- •Develop personalized engagement strategies for each major donor and institutional prospect.
- •Maintain regular communication with major donors and institutional funders.
- •Provide meaningful updates on organizational impact and donor contributions.
- •Identify opportunities for deeper engagement and relationship building.
- •Coordinate relationship-building activities across teams to ensure consistency.
- •Track relationship progress and adjust engagement strategies as needed.
How AI Can Help
Personalized Engagement Strategy Development
What AI can realistically do
- •Generate personalized engagement strategies for each major donor and institutional prospect.
- •Analyze donor interests, preferences, and history to inform engagement approaches.
- •Suggest engagement opportunities based on donor characteristics and organizational activities.
- •Create engagement calendars and touchpoint plans for each major donor relationship.
- •Recommend engagement approaches that align with donor preferences and organizational capacity.
- •Track engagement activities and outcomes to inform strategy refinement.
Value for staff
- •Ensures each major donor relationship receives personalized, strategic attention.
- •Maximizes relationship-building effectiveness through data-driven approaches.
Relationship Tracking & Management
What AI can realistically do
- •Track relationship progress and engagement activities automatically.
- •Monitor communication frequency and quality with major donors and institutions.
- •Identify opportunities for deeper engagement based on relationship history and donor behavior.
- •Generate relationship health reports showing engagement levels and opportunities.
- •Suggest engagement adjustments when relationships need attention or development.
- •Coordinate relationship-building activities across teams to ensure consistency.
Value for staff
- •Provides comprehensive visibility into major donor relationships.
- •Enables proactive relationship management and development.
3
Execute Strategic Solicitations
Strategic solicitations require careful planning, timing, and approach. The director plans and executes solicitations that are well-timed, appropriately sized, and aligned with donor interests and organizational priorities. This involves preparing solicitation materials, coordinating ask meetings, and following up effectively.
- •Plan solicitations that are well-timed and aligned with donor interests and capacity.
- •Prepare solicitation materials and talking points for ask meetings.
- •Coordinate solicitation meetings with appropriate organizational leaders.
- •Make asks that are appropriately sized and aligned with organizational priorities.
- •Follow up on solicitations promptly and professionally.
- •Track solicitation outcomes and adjust strategies based on results.
How AI Can Help
Solicitation Planning & Preparation
What AI can realistically do
- •Suggest optimal timing for solicitations based on donor behavior and relationship history.
- •Generate solicitation materials and talking points tailored to each donor's interests.
- •Recommend appropriate ask amounts based on donor capacity and giving history.
- •Prepare briefing materials for solicitation meetings with organizational leaders.
- •Coordinate solicitation meeting logistics and preparation.
- •Suggest solicitation approaches that align with donor preferences and organizational priorities.
Value for staff
- •Ensures solicitations are well-planned and strategically executed.
- •Increases solicitation success through data-driven planning and preparation.
Solicitation Tracking & Follow-Up
What AI can realistically do
- •Track solicitation outcomes and results automatically.
- •Generate follow-up reminders and action items after solicitation meetings.
- •Suggest follow-up approaches based on solicitation outcomes and donor responses.
- •Analyze solicitation success rates to identify effective approaches.
- •Recommend solicitation strategy adjustments based on results and patterns.
- •Create solicitation pipeline reports showing status and next steps.
Value for staff
- •Ensures timely follow-up and effective solicitation management.
- •Enables continuous improvement through solicitation outcome analysis.
4
Steward Major Donors and Institutional Funders
Stewardship ensures that major donors and institutional funders feel valued and connected to organizational impact. The director develops stewardship programs that acknowledge contributions, demonstrate impact, and maintain long-term relationships that support continued giving.
- •Develop stewardship programs that acknowledge and appreciate major donor and institutional contributions.
- •Provide regular impact updates that demonstrate how contributions make a difference.
- •Create recognition opportunities that are meaningful to major donors and institutions.
- •Maintain long-term relationships that support continued giving and engagement.
- •Coordinate stewardship activities across teams to ensure consistency.
- •Track stewardship activities and outcomes to inform relationship management.
How AI Can Help
Stewardship Program Development
What AI can realistically do
- •Generate stewardship program ideas and frameworks for major donors and institutions.
- •Create personalized stewardship plans for each major donor based on preferences and giving history.
- •Suggest recognition opportunities that are meaningful to different donor types.
- •Develop stewardship calendars and touchpoint schedules for major donor relationships.
- •Generate impact updates that demonstrate how contributions make a difference.
- •Create stewardship materials and communications tailored to each donor.
Value for staff
- •Ensures major donors receive thoughtful, personalized stewardship.
- •Maintains long-term relationships that support continued giving.
Stewardship Tracking & Coordination
What AI can realistically do
- •Track stewardship activities and outcomes automatically.
- •Monitor stewardship touchpoint frequency and quality for major donor relationships.
- •Coordinate stewardship activities across teams to ensure consistency.
- •Generate stewardship reports showing activities, outcomes, and relationship health.
- •Suggest stewardship improvements based on donor engagement and response.
- •Flag when stewardship activities need attention or adjustment.
Value for staff
- •Provides visibility into stewardship activities and outcomes.
- •Ensures consistent, effective stewardship across all major donor relationships.
5
Align Activities with Overall Strategic Approach
Major donor and institutional giving activities must align with the organization's overall fundraising strategy. The director ensures that prospect identification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship align with strategic priorities, coordinate with other fundraising activities, and support overall organizational goals.
- •Ensure major donor and institutional activities align with overall fundraising strategy.
- •Coordinate major gifts activities with other fundraising channels and priorities.
- •Align solicitations with organizational strategic priorities and funding needs.
- •Ensure messaging and approaches are consistent with overall fundraising strategy.
- •Balance major gifts activities with other fundraising priorities and capacity.
- •Adjust activities when strategic priorities or organizational needs change.
How AI Can Help
Strategic Alignment Analysis
What AI can realistically do
- •Analyze major donor and institutional activities for alignment with overall fundraising strategy.
- •Compare major gifts activities to strategic priorities and funding needs.
- •Identify alignment gaps and suggest adjustments to improve strategic fit.
- •Coordinate major gifts activities with other fundraising channels and priorities.
- •Generate alignment reports showing how major gifts activities support strategic goals.
- •Recommend activity adjustments when strategic priorities or organizational needs change.
Value for staff
- •Ensures major gifts activities consistently support strategic priorities.
- •Provides visibility into how major gifts contribute to overall fundraising strategy.
Activity Coordination & Balance
What AI can realistically do
- •Coordinate major gifts activities with other fundraising channels to prevent conflicts.
- •Balance major gifts activities with other fundraising priorities and capacity.
- •Suggest resource allocation adjustments to optimize major gifts and other fundraising activities.
- •Identify when major gifts activities need adjustment to align with strategic priorities.
- •Generate coordination reports showing how major gifts integrate with overall fundraising.
- •Recommend activity prioritization when resources are constrained.
Value for staff
- •Ensures major gifts activities are coordinated with overall fundraising strategy.
- •Maintains balance between major gifts and other fundraising priorities.
6
Coordinate with Other Teams to Ensure Consistency
Major donor and institutional relationships often involve multiple organizational touchpoints. The director coordinates with other teams to ensure consistent messaging, avoid conflicts in donor cultivation, and create a seamless donor experience across all organizational interactions.
- •Coordinate with other teams to ensure consistent messaging to major donors and institutions.
- •Prevent conflicts in donor cultivation by coordinating activities across teams.
- •Share information about major donor and institutional relationships with relevant teams.
- •Ensure donor experiences are seamless across all organizational touchpoints.
- •Resolve conflicts or misalignments in donor cultivation approaches.
- •Create systems for cross-team coordination on major donor and institutional relationships.
How AI Can Help
Cross-Team Coordination
What AI can realistically do
- •Coordinate messaging to major donors and institutions across teams automatically.
- •Share information about major donor and institutional relationships with relevant teams.
- •Identify potential conflicts in donor cultivation across teams.
- •Generate coordination reports showing major donor touchpoints across organizational teams.
- •Suggest coordination approaches that improve cross-team collaboration.
- •Create shared documentation systems for major donor and institutional relationships.
Value for staff
- •Ensures consistent messaging and coordinated cultivation across teams.
- •Prevents conflicts and creates seamless donor experiences.
Conflict Prevention & Resolution
What AI can realistically do
- •Detect conflicts in donor cultivation approaches across teams automatically.
- •Suggest resolution strategies for cross-team cultivation conflicts.
- •Identify misalignments in donor cultivation approaches and recommend solutions.
- •Track donor touchpoints across teams to ensure seamless experiences.
- •Generate conflict prevention reports showing potential issues before they arise.
- •Recommend coordination improvements to prevent future conflicts.
Value for staff
- •Prevents conflicts that could harm major donor relationships.
- •Ensures seamless donor experiences across all organizational touchpoints.