Most fundraising teams already have what they need to understand their donors—it’s just buried in CRMs, call notes, emails, and stories that never get revisited.
The donors who might name you in their will or donate a major gift are already telling you who they are. The problem is those signals never make it out of your notes and into your strategy.
The real challenge isn’t data access; it’s data activation.
That’s where AI comes in. Tools like Avid help fundraisers turn that noise into insight—identifying what donors are really saying, why they give, and how to meet them with the right message at the right time.
These seven prompts help you build that muscle—using AI to:
A – Aggregate
Bring all your donor data, stories, and engagement signals into one unified view—no more silos across CRMs, campaigns, or channels.
V – Visualize
Turn that data into clear, actionable insights—surfacing what’s working, what’s missing, and where opportunities are hiding.
I – Identify
Use AI to pinpoint patterns, motivations, and moments that matter most—from legacy prospects to next best actions.
D – Deploy
Activate personalized outreach instantly across every channel—email, ads, direct mail, and beyond—so insights turn into measurable impact.
Once you see what it can do on a single prompt, you start to imagine what’s possible when your entire program thinks this way automatically.
AI Prompts
1. What They’re Really Saying
Description:
Use this to interpret donor visit notes or call recaps. It helps you surface the emotional intent behind a donor’s words so your next follow-up feels human and relevant.
Prompt:
You’re a planned giving officer analyzing donor visit notes.
For each note, identify:
1. The donor’s life stage or context (retirement, caregiving, early career, etc.)
2. Their emotional or motivational themes (family, faith, gratitude, financial security, legacy, etc.)
3. What they are actually saying beneath the surface (the human insight).
4. The recommended communication tone (educational, empathetic, inspirational, etc.)
5. One suggested next step (resource, conversation, or follow-up idea).
Return as a table: Donor | Life Stage | Themes | What They’re Really Saying | Tone | Next Step.
Use Cases:
- Before writing thank-you or follow-up emails.
- Summarizing team call notes.
- Training gift officers to listen for intent, not just information.
Example output:
“Retired grandmother, motivated by family and gratitude, worried about outliving her savings. She needs reassurance that a bequest can come after her needs are met.”
How Avid would do this for you:
Avid centralizes donor notes from your connected systems so the whole team sees context in one place.
2. Segment by Motivation
Description:
Turn unstructured donor notes or giving history into usable audience segments. Great for tailoring campaign language by motivation instead of just wealth or age.
Prompt:
Analyze these anonymized donor visit notes and latest giving history.
Group donors into segments based on shared motivations (family legacy, faith & values, community impact, financial planning).
For each segment, provide:
• A one-line summary of the segment’s core driver
• Three recommended message themes or hooks
• A suggested next-step action or campaign idea.
Use Cases:
- Creating donor personas for planned-giving marketing.
- Building tailored follow-up series or appeal letters.
- Prioritizing outreach lists by motivation cluster.
Example segment:
Family Legacy Builders: often grandparents or long-time donors who care deeply about what they pass on.
Hooks: “stories your grandkids will tell,” “turning gratitude into legacy,” “caring for family and community.”
How Avid would do this for you:
Avid keeps segments refreshed automatically based on giving behavior, engagement, and CRM updates.
3. Rewrite for Clarity
Description:
Use AI as your copy editor to make planned-giving content warmer, clearer, and easier for older audiences to read.
Prompt:
You’re a planned-giving copy editor. Rewrite this email (or letter) for clarity and warmth:
• Keep the donor’s dignity and voice.
• Use roughly an 8th-grade reading level.
• End with one specific, gentle next step.
Return: two subject-line options, short preview text, and the full body text rewrite.
Use Cases:
- Refreshing stewardship emails.
- Drafting board or leadership letters.
- Simplifying donor-facing materials for readability.
How Avid would do this for you:
Avid gives you a single place to store past messages, templates, and donor context, so when you rewrite for clarity and warmth, you’re not starting from a blank page, so you can pull in the right tone, segments, and examples instantly.
4. Multi-Channel Storytelling
Description:
Turn one great donor or impact story into multiple ready-to-use assets for print, digital, and video channels.
Prompt:
Take this donor story (insert text) and rewrite it for multiple formats:
1. A 250-word print newsletter story
2. A 100-word email feature
3. A 60-second video script
4. A 40-word social caption
Keep the donor’s voice authentic, emphasize values and impact, and adjust tone appropriately for each channel.
Use Cases:
- Repurposing annual-report stories.
- Coordinating messages across marketing, advancement, and alumni teams.
- A/B testing tone between channels.
How Avid would do this for you:
Avid brings your donor stories, past campaign assets, and CRM-synced donor context into one workspace. Instead of digging through shared drives, old emails, or separate marketing tools, everything you need to adapt a story for multiple channels is already organized inside the campaign you’re building.
5. Responsible AI Checklist
Description:
Quickly build a working policy to ensure your team uses AI responsibly and transparently.
Prompt:
Create a one-page ‘Responsible AI Checklist’ for a nonprofit fundraising team.
Include policies for: data privacy (PII handling), human oversight (final approval steps), transparency with donors (when AI assists communication), and periodic audit/review.
Write in plain, clear language.
End with a short ‘Why It Matters’ paragraph.
Use Cases:
- Drafting AI policy for leadership review.
- Training new staff on best practices.
- Demonstrating compliance during donor or board audits.
So when a board member asks, “How are we using AI?” you have a clear, confident answer.
How Avid would do this for you:
Avid enforces permissioning, data standards, and human-review steps so your team uses AI safely, without relying on ad hoc policies.
6. Engage Prospective Legacy Donors (Univ. Example)
Description:
Create personalized outreach that connects alumni to relatable donor stories and encourages survey participation or meetings.
Prompt:
Using donor stories from a planned-giving page like this one (e.g., Drake’s ‘Supporters Like You’ page:
https://plannedgiving.drake.edu/supporters-like-you, and grouping alumni into three age categories (Millennial, Gen X, Baby Boomer), please:
1. Sort relevant stories by age group.
2. Draft email copy for each group that includes:
a. A short teaser for one story
b. A link to the story
c. A call-to-action to fill out the survey or meet in person.
Use Cases:
- Personalized legacy campaign emails.
- Alumni reunion follow-ups.
- Donor engagement surveys with story-driven framing.
Pro Tip: Use Microsoft Email Merge to personalize stories at scale. Link to more info.
How Avid would do this for you:
With Avid, the alumni data you already trust flows straight into the campaign builder. Age bands, class years, and giving recency are instantly usable as filters, and you can write and send your outreach in the same workflow—no pivot tables, exports, or tool-hopping required.
7. Quarterly Review Insight Tool
Description:
Use AI to summarize quarterly results, highlight learnings, and identify what to stop, start, or continue doing.
Prompt:
You’re a strategic advisor to the planned-giving team.
Review the last quarter’s metrics: number of contacts, expressions of intent, and finalized bequest notifications.
Provide:
• Three things that worked well
• Two things to stop doing
• Two things to start doing (with next-step recommendations)
Return concise, actionable bullet points.
Use Cases:
- Quarterly donor strategy reviews.
- Board or leadership updates.
- Identifying patterns and priorities for the next cycle.
It shifts the conversation from effort to outcomes, making it clear which actions contributed to new intents or documented gifts.
How Avid would do this for you:
Avid visualizes your PG pipeline automatically—showing which actions led to intent, documentation, or meetings, without manual reporting.
Final Thought: From Curiosity to Confidence
AI isn’t replacing the art of fundraising—it’s helping you see what’s been hiding in plain sight. The patterns in your donor conversations, the motivations buried in your notes, the stories that could inspire the next legacy gift.
Used well, AI can:
- Surface hidden insights about donor intent and timing
- Save hours of manual writing and segmentation work
- Keep communication human, while helping scale your personal touch
- Turn unstructured data into usable stories and next steps
And while these prompts are a great place to start, tools like Avid can help take this further—bringing your donor data, stories, and communications together in one place, so the ideas you spark with AI turn into action automatically.
When used responsibly, AI gives planned giving officers what they’ve always needed most: more time to build real relationships and the clarity to know where to focus next.
Click here to watch a quick demo video.
