OPTIMIZING AI IN THE DEVELOPMENT OFFICE

Schools Find Benefits to Combining AI and Fundraising

Today’s independent school development professional is confronted with many challenges: raising annual fund dollars to support tuition shortfalls, building a major gifts pipeline for the next capital campaign, researching prospects, and applying for grants for major initiatives. The list goes on. And, above all, development officers must be good stewards of school funds. No matter the size of your development team, technology is proving to be a boon for fundraisers.

AI is especially growing in popularity in the field of philanthropy, both because of the potential for increased efficiencies, as well as for idea generation. David Ibsen, director of development for Gaston Day School in Gastonia, NC, and Britton Ryan, director of development for George Walton Academy in Monroe, GA, offer their insight into venturing into AI usage and share their tips, tricks, and lessons learned.

Signals: How long have you been using AI in your role, and what made you decide to incorporate AI?

David Ibsen (DI): I started using AI when I moved to Gaston Day School (GDS) in July of 2024. In an office of 1.5 staff members, it is important to run things as efficiently as possible. One of the pieces of my role that takes time is writing appeals to different segments of the population for our annual fund. When I first arrived at GDS, the school had begun partnering with a firm who was helping to find different ways of utilizing AI throughout the school, not just in the development office. I met with them to discuss ways that would make sense for my role. The one area that was discussed was utilizing this for communications with donors.

Britton Ryan (BR): I use AI every day currently in my role and have used it for two+ years on a consistent basis. I started using AI just out of curiosity of its capabilities as it was gaining traction and popularity. Over time, I learned that its abilities to assist me in completing minor tasks save me time and allow me to utilize my time more wisely.

Signals: Has AI allowed you to do more with less? If so, how?

DI: Although I have only utilized AI on a limited basis, it has allowed me to develop segmented communications so that we can ask those whose interests are in specific areas of the school (athletics, arts, technology, etc.) without having to write multiple [versions of appeal] letters. I develop the type of information that I would like to be in the letter, and then the AI program will help me to write a full letter.

Signals: Britton, you mentioned you are a team of one. Has AI allowed you to do more with less? If so, how?

BR: AI has allowed me to take minor tasks such as creating emails, letters, reports and more and complete those tasks in a fraction of the time. What would normally take me an hour to write a schoolwide email to send to the community that could depict what I wanted to share, the message I was working to convey, and share it in a way that made sense for our families, now only takes me 10 minutes in using AI. I am able to plug in a prompt of what I want the system to create for an email, and I can ask it to add in themes such as, “Please make the letter include the message of the holidays season” for a Christmas mailer, and then decide how short or long I want it to be. I then go through and review the letter or email and edit it based on what I want to share. The great thing about AI is that as you use it, it gets smarter. If I ask it to create an email for me, it knows to add my school’s name, George Walton Academy, our shortened title of “GWA”, and include my signature and contact information. The system knows the mission and values of our school and is able to add those themes into every email and letter I may ask of it. It helps take a lot of the thought out of minor tasks to then allow me to utilize my time better in the Development Office.

Signals: Any specific tools or programs that you love? How are you using them in your role?

DI: The program that I am most knowledgeable about and most comfortable utilizing is ChatGPT. I put an outline of what I need written and have the program help me to develop the letter or email necessary. It usually takes a few times to put all the information that I am looking for to get what I need, but it does save me significant time.

BR: I use ChatGPT for any AI-related task. The system has written emails sharing our annual loyalty fund; helped me write our Christmas mailer, which included the importance of giving; and has even helped us come up with the name of our brand new athletic booster club. (Keep reading for a sample prompt and letter.)

Signals: There’s a learning curve to becoming familiar with AI and with training the programs to give you what you need. Have you found the time investment to be worth it? How are you learning how to use AI?

DI: The next step that I need to take is to invest in professional development/training for this. I have been self-taught and talked with others that have used similar programs, but I have not had any formal training.

BR: The investment in learning AI is very valuable and a huge [ROI]. I have not utilized any professional training to learn how the program works but simply took the time to use it more and more and see what its capabilities are. I have used it in my personal life to understand its capabilities by asking it, “I have XYZ ingredients. What’s a low-calorie meal that I could make using these items.” Not only will it give you multiple meal ideas, but will also give you the directions on how to make it. I truly believe the system works best when you just use it and get comfortable with it. Start by asking it simpler concepts or maybe things you have knowledge on that you can reflect your knowledge against it.

Signals: What are some challenges you’ve faced incorporating AI into your workflow?

DI: The biggest challenge and concern is that I want all communications to sound like the person who it is coming from. So, there have been times where I have had to completely change the wording as it didn’t sound like me or the person who the communication was from. I have found that shorter communications do not translate as well. That could be due to the fact that I am not giving the type of information for the program to translate.

BR: The only thing with AI is that it is not a perfect system. You still need to review or edit the expectations of the system to fit your needs or wants, but the challenges don’t go much further than that.

Signals: What advice would you give to your peers who are considering using AI in the development office?

DI: I would say at this point it is a good tool. However, I would not rely on it to do all communications, or at least, not without reworking to make it sound like you. At schools, I think the parents and community have an expectation that there be a personal connection with those in the school, and they do not want to be made to feel like a transactional relationship. You need to have a personalized relationship. So, AI is a good tool that can help to save tremendous time. However, be careful not to use it to do all your work for you.BR: I highly recommend you at least try to use it, [even if] just for a week and see what it can do. Allow it to analyze your email to a donor, review your presentation to your boss or [board of trustees], or even just ask for creative auction items for your gala. Just try it and see what it can do to help you.

Putting Ideas Into Action

Britton Ryan, director of development at the George Walton Academy, shares a sample AI prompt and response for use in fundraising.

What’s Possible? February 2025 AI Fundraising