Philanthropisms Allison Fine: Using AI to make fundraising better
May 15, 2025
48:36
In this episode we talk to Allison Fine (President of Every.org and nonprofit tech expert) about the impact of AI on philanthropy, and how it can be used to make fundraising more relational at scale. Including:
- Is everyday giving in decline? If so, what are the key drivers?
- Are there particular declines among certain demographics or age groups?
- Has this led to an over-reliance on a small group of donors giving larger amounts? What are the practical and ethical issues with this?
- Has fundraising become too transactional? If so, why?
- Has a paradigm of transactional fundraising led many nonprofits to measure the wrong things, and therefore misjudge “success”?
- How do donors feel about transactional fundraising?
- What is the ‘leaky bucket problem’?
- Has an over-reliance on transactional methods of fundraising played any part in damaging or eroding public trust in nonprofits?
- Has a lack of opportunities for genuine connection and participation as a result of nonprofits becoming too transactional led donors to look elsewhere? (E.g. to online social movements, or individual crowdfunding requests?)
- What impact does transactional fundraising have on fundraisers themselves? (Do they actually want to use these methods?)
- What are the key components of a relational approach to fundraising? (E.g. personalisation of approach, tailored reporting etc).
- What have traditionally been seen as the barriers to making this work at scale?
- How can AI tools help?
- How do nonprofit leaders ensure that AI tools are adopted in the right way? (i.e. in ways that add value to human work, or free up human time, rather than just replacing it)?
- What new opportunities and challenges does the growth of online giving via digital platforms bring?
- What is the current market for cryptocurrency donations?
Related Links:
- Every.org
- Every.org's "Relational Fundraising Playbook"
- Allison's pieces for Chronicle of Philanthropy: "How to Treat Every Donor Like They Matter — and Keep Them" and "Relentless Fundraising Is Eroding Trust in Nonprofits. Here’s How to Fix Things".
- Excerpt from The Smart Nonprofit in SSIR (2022)
- WPM guide to philanthropy and AI,
- Philanthropisms podcast episodes with Milos Maricic & Giuseppe Ugazio, Lisa Greer and J. Bob Alotta.
- Philanthropisms podcast deep dives on philanthropy and AI and the platformisation of giving.