Leading AI Adoption From the Top with World Vision Germany's CEO Christoph Hilligen

This is the first time in 18 years that Christoph Hilligen sees a possibility to radically change the way NGOs operate.

As the CEO of World Vision Germany, he’s already using AI to launch emergency appeals in HOURS and build personalized donor journeys. One of the most fascinating examples? His team uses predictive models to flag which donors may be at risk of canceling, so they can step in earlier and build stronger relationships.

AI is definitely no longer optional, and the nonprofits who move faster, personalize better, and use their data to guide decisions will raise more and create more impact without risking falling behind. This is exactly the kind of case study I could have talked about with Christoph forever!

Resources & Links

Connect with Christoph on LinkedIn and learn more about World Vision Germany on their website.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

I see there's a possibility to radically change the way how we operate, doing reactive fundraising to predictive fundraising. That means we really can enter into a personalized relationship with our donors. Something we dreamed about for years, where we use Microsoft where all this data comes together, and that is very powerful. Because that will have a fascinating ultimate experience at Doner. It feels like wow.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Hello and welcome back to Missions to Movements. I am your host, Dana Snyder, and this is another very special episode coming to you live from the Microsoft Global Nonprofit Leader Summit. Across from me, Christoph, I am very excited. We have a panel discussion later. So this is our like peek before the scenes in the podcast studio. Christoph Hilligan, CEO World Vision Germany. Thank you

Predictive Fundraising Cold Open

SPEAKER_01 0:50

so much for being here. To kick us off, I just want listeners to get to know you a little bit. So can you tell me the before we get into work a little bit about yourself, what lights you up in the work that you do, and a little bit about what day-to-day, or if there's not a typical day-to-day, what that looks like for you and your role?

SPEAKER_02 1:08

Well, hi Dana it's great to be here. Thanks for the invitation. Uh looking forward to have that conversation now with you about myself. I have a wonderful wife. I have a almost

Live From The Microsoft Summit

SPEAKER_02 1:18

nine years old son. Yeah, he brings sunshine in our life, he uh makes our life joyful, and uh that's the most important thing. But apart from that, I'm now for 18 years CEO of World Vision Germany, uh leading the organization, and the passion is the same as uh day one, because there's nothing better to do, I think, in your in your job than uh building a better world for children. What is my role? Not every day is the same, of course.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

So every day, especially especially over 18 years, I'm sure that is developed quite boring.

SPEAKER_02 1:50

So every day they're coming up new things that you have to react on. But overall, it's really and you're aware of that, the environment for NGOs over the last years changed significantly. Challenges are increasing, and to lead the organization through these challenges, to uh lead the organization into a sustainable future, to at the end make a better life for children. And that's what what I have to do. So pushing for change, driving change, and it's great.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

And I'm sure pushing change has evolved a lot over 18 years of what that dynamically looks like. Here at the summit, we're talking a lot about in our panel that are AI. And I know very proudly you say you believe AI is not an optional for NGOs right now. It's critical. What specifically do you think is at risk for organizations that treat AI as something like, oh, I'll get to it later. Maybe that's in the future for us, but not right now, rather than presenting it as something that's truly imperative to their organization's growth and success.

SPEAKER_02 2:55

I really like to talk about that. I think really, and I'm so passionate about that, I really think AI opens the door into a new era for NGOs. It's it's amazing. It's really the first time in my 18 years, and probably also before that,

Why AI Is An NGO Imperative

SPEAKER_02 3:16

that I see there's a possibility to radically change the way how we operate, to really move away from reacting on what our donors do, doing reactive fundraising to predictive fundraising. That means we really can enter into a personalized relationship with our donors. So something we dreamed about for years. I can say, well, how well we need to have a more personalized relationship with donors, but if you have a big database, if you're a big organization, it's impossible to treat every donor in an individual way. So that was really the key moment for me to say, well, we have to go for that. And what's at risk for organization? I think AI changes the way how NGOs operate. So it's not optional, and definitely AI will not remove NGOs. But those NGOs that embrace and that use AI definitely may replace those that do not. So it's it's a risk, I think it's an existential risk for NGOs not to go for that, not to use it because you will you will you will be lost behind?

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Yeah, and you've done an incredible job in a leadership role in empowering people at your organization to feel supported and utilizing AI? What did it require from you personally as a leader in the organization, leading the organization, to invest in it, to make the decisions, to work through any change management, to I'm sure there's a ton of opinions with a big staff. How did you work through those? What like signals or messages to empower your team to feel safe in utilizing it? How did how did that all come to be? Like when did World Vision Germany really take a grasp and say, A, not only is this a decision, but we're actually going to start to implement everything?

SPEAKER_02 5:13

Yes. That is really key and critical to make it successful. There I was very thankful that I had before we started with that big transformation, um, quite some previous experiences from transformational projects to and to know what is what is critical to make it happen. And critical, in my opinion, is the CEO involvement, my personal involvement. So I cannot just say here, you're the project team, I delegate this to you, it's a great thing, and let's do it. No, I have to be part of that. I have to drive it, I have to be visible for everybody involved and for the whole organization that the CEO is part of that transformation, is part of that project. And that's why to make it very concrete over the last three years, I was part of the steering committee, a small steering committee

CEO Led Change That Actually Moves

SPEAKER_02 6:04

with uh critical people, bi-weekly meetings that still go on, so that we are able to react fast on developments, we are able to take fast decisions and to do it in an agile way. That is that is critical.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

And at the same time, that's not usually a word that is equated with the nonprofit sector. How did you how did you put that in place? These I think these steering committees, that's so powerful, and to give people the authorities to make quick decisions. I just wanted to like dive into that because I think that's really important.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

That is that is the key thing because normally in NGOs we tend to discuss a lot to everybody needs to be involved, and if not, then people do not feel good, and then yeah, but okay, then we do another tour of discussion. No. I I decided we cannot we cannot uh move that project forward like that, it won't be successful. We will be left behind other organizations, and that is why I said, yes, you have to, and also that is also something you have to take unpopular decisions. You have to also knowing that there's pushback, you have to say no, we because I I am convinced. Well, as a steering committee, we are convinced, and then you have to go for it. You cannot say, ah, I'm convinced, but I listen to everybody, and it takes time and it goes in a different direction. And what's also important to create an environment where staff feels safe to experiment, to learn, to fail, to test, and also say feel safe to escalate because that's so important. These projects evolve so and and change so rapidly. So if if something happens, if if there's a risk that we lose our critical path, people need to escalate. And and people don't don't often they don't feel safe, they don't feel comfortable to do it. But if you create an environment where everybody knows it's for the success that counts. And it's not about judging anybody here, it's about making the project a success. This whole environment was so critical also, and and that's that helped us really to move forward at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

And a great example of this is I want to talk about your team launched an emergency donor appeal within hours when the earthquake hit, Myanmar. Not within days and weeks, but literally hours. Can you walk us through operationally the tools, the people like how did that look now versus how would that have looked before AI was integrated into your operations? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:41

With your first uh sentence, that was already the main difference, right? Days and now hours. So it's really, I can remember it was Friday when that earthquake happened. Within a couple of hours, we got information out of World Vision Partnership from people on the ground. Yes, we need to do something. Then in Germany we took the decision uh very fast, yes, okay, we are we are part of that.

Shipping An Emergency Appeal In Hours

SPEAKER_02 9:05

We need to raise funds in order that we can help, of course. And then one staff member was uh putting together the content, and another staff member was putting together the journey. And what was great, and really we use all the Microsoft modules and for this customer inside journey, which is amazing, and and based on templates, so we had emergency templates based on these emergency templates putting together the journey with the content within hours. So we really send out the appeal as fast as never before on Friday afternoon. And since everything is integrated now, all the different Microsoft tools, Power BI, Azure, D365, uh, Business Central, so we are really all together and we are able to analyze in real time the performance to track responses. We were even able then to say, well, let's set up journeys for the weekend for those that do not react, and uh journeys that based on the reaction of the of the donors send another appeal or ask or whatever. So it's really then optimizing, no?

SPEAKER_01 10:12

And and uh and that was able to hyper-personalize at scale and quickly.

SPEAKER_02 10:18

Exactly. And before we were dependent on external vendors, so not all the data was in our system. We couldn't send do the uh appeal on our own. So if it was Friday afternoon, the risk was that the vendor was not anymore working. So maybe it was you could only reach them on Saturday, or maybe on Monday. So it was really very different. So since we didn't have all the data, the real-time tracking of performance was not possible. So it was a complete change, it was a uh whole change, was very different. And at the end, we know that in an emergency situation, time counts. You have to be out very quickly to really get that people donate.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

Because it's also the moment that people were asking, what can I do?

SPEAKER_02 10:59

Exactly. And and the organization that comes out first gets gets a donation. So, right, so it's it's about speed. So for us, it's really comparing the new system, the new setup helps us to get more funds and to make a better impact, a greater impact at the end.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

So, my favorite thing to talk about, which you know, is recurring giving, regular giving, monthly giving, whatever thing you want to call it. Most important. Most important, thank you, most sustainable revenue stream. You've been using predictive AI to help with donors not canceling. Yeah. Can you walk us through an example now having these personalized journeys? Because in moments of emergency appeals, there's obviously a hope for obviously an increased sustainable gift to be made. And then down the line, when there's not an emergency and we hope that they don't happen, but when they do, you're even more prepared to serve. How is predictive AI helping you in that post-donor retention journey?

SPEAKER_02 11:56

Yeah. And here then I comes into an important role for what I said, the predictive fundraising and the complete change of how we how we work.

Predicting Churn To Protect Monthly Giving

SPEAKER_02 12:07

Normally, I think that donors do not cancel because of one campaign, because they didn't feel that we understood them as an organization. We we we didn't meet their expectations. And when we looked at it, where do we have to start with the first predictive model? We said it's about face-to-face uh donors, because that is in Germany our biggest acquisition channel, and in the during the first 12 months, quite a significant number of new donors cancels because we don't understand them, and so we said there there we have to start. And so now what we have now to make it concrete, the model calculates a cancellation score or a score for the cancellation risk of every face-to-face donor, and based on that score, an individual journey is launched for the donor that tells us, well, you have to communicate uh via mail or via post or via or you have to call them and this information or that or now or in in a week. So really individualized, personalized journey that gives the donor the feeling I'm understood. The organization of World Vision understands what what I need. And it's not just then that we prevent cancellation, but that we build the relationship over the customer lifetime. Right. And that is really something so amazing. I mean, it's very early, it was our first model, we are not for years into that, and we are now getting the data and so on and so on. But we really see it's changes something in the perception that the donor has of us as organization, right? And that is really amazing. And I'm looking forward to expanding these models now also to other donor groups and and other journeys, but that was our start, and it's really wow, it's powerful.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

That is fascinating because I know traditionally face-to-face is one of the most highest churned channels. For context, is your face-to-face primarily like door-to-door, or is it more at grocers and public spots, or both?

SPEAKER_02 14:14

Yeah, we do both. Both, okay. We do both, we do both. And for the score, it doesn't matter. It's really the score that calculates the risk of cancellation. It doesn't matter uh whether it's uh door to door or on the street. It really on the individual behaviors, reactions of a donor that's calculated. And that makes it so specific. Something we could never do before before and and on our own. It was always one size fits all, right? Something's hanging out. And so it's really that is powerful. And that is a new era, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:46

That is completely untapped. And I know there are so many organizations being like, wait, what's the playbook on this? Definitely. That's phenomenal. I'm just curious, in what are the actual attributes that you're looking at with the behaviors to determine the later personalization? So is it in the actual interaction of the time of the gift where there are certain things that are marked down about this person? And initially afterwards, like, did they open the email for us? Did they not? Did they take the phone call from how is it informed into the predictive model?

SPEAKER_02 15:22

At the moment, we take all the data that we have from that donor at that moment, right? So it's it's the interaction, it's when is the first payment made? Is there a request? Is there's a call, is there a reaction, what's the payment method, and so on. And really that the model is comparing the different donor behaviors and getting everything together. But my ultimate dream, of course, is to say, well, every reaction that we have of the donor over the lifetime also, then and the donor stays longer and longer with world vision. Well, if the donor goes into the world vision portal, what is he interested in? Collecting these information if it if the donor goes on on our website to get all this together, right? And see, well, that's what stories do they want to see? That's a person that's interested in water or in education, or that's a person that doesn't want to get a mailing, an appeal every X month, but that that often. Or that person expects that, or that person wants to have a call once a year, or whatever, right? To collect everything, and that is where also where we use Microsoft where all this data comes together from all the different areas, and that is very powerful because that will have a fascinated ultimate experience for our donor that feels like, wow, this is curated. They understand what I want, they understand what I need, and I don't get standardized mailings and and and that is the that's the real change.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

They feel seen and like they're making a true impact. This is amazing. Okay, I could talk to you forever about all of this. I have one final question for you. You have said, and I quote, the more money we save through technology, the more we can send to the field. And that is such a powerful reframe, I think, for any board conversation specifically, and or leadership. How much do you think that that helps make the case to leadership that should build confidence in saying, yes, like we should invest in these tools? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:26

I truly believe that makes a huge difference. And at the end, uh if we take our vision and mission, that is our vision or that is our mission, but we don't have another chance to do something else. Looking on our case, yes, until now we significantly saved money with implementing

Making The Financial Case To Boards

SPEAKER_02 17:49

AI. We could reduce costs and so on and so on. But what I see now is uh evolving that the bigger potential is even in obtaining more revenue with implementing AI. So it's both it's cost reduction, but it's also generating more more income. And and at the end, if we take, as I said, if we take our mission serious, that's where we have to go. And as leaders, and also as a ward, we are 100% aligned behind our mission. And and also looking at our donors, what do the donors expect from us? They expect from us that we, in our case, help as many children as possible. And if that helps us, that's the right direction. There's no question about that. I'm convinced there's no yes or or if or maybe. No, it's we have to go that path. We we showed it, we demonstrated it on the cost reduction side, we showed it now at early stages on the income side. So that's the way we have to go. And I feel there's complete borderline because they also see in the world today how as an NGO you have to find your USPs also. I mean, we all work with the same channels. Where can you find your USP? I see that if you're an early mover, I see that really as a possibility where you can yeah, find USPs, where you can differentiate from other organizations. So, and that is, I feel there's complete board alignment, leadership alignment, and I say, Well, it's powerful. We have to go in that direction.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

That's fabulous. Christoph, I could talk to you forever about this. I am so grateful for you and your work as a fellow parent to a three-year-old daughter. And then your son says nine. Wow. Um, he is very lucky to have you as a dad and leader in this work. We all are. So thank you so much for being here and spending the time with us.

SPEAKER_02 19:40

Thank you very much. And I can tell you, even if your daughter gets older, eight and nine is a fantastic age.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

You look forward to that. I sure hope so that we have a really strong type bomb as mom and daughter. So, yes. Thank you, Krista.

SPEAKER_02 19:52

Thank you, Dana. It was great to be here.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode of Missions to Movement. If you enjoyed our conversation and found it helpful, I would love for you to take a moment to leave a review wherever you're listening. Your feedback helps us reach more change makers like you and continue bringing impactful stories and strategies to the show. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button too, so you'll never miss an episode. And until next time, keep turning your mission into a movement.