Stop Wrestling with Technology and Start Connecting with Donors

Have you ever left a donor meeting, recorded quick thoughts on your phone, then spent hours translating those scattered notes into a proper contact report? There's a better way.

At AFP Icon in Seattle last month, I watched a room full of fundraisers experience a collective "aha" moment. It wasn't sparked by fancy tech demos or pie-in-the-sky AI promises. It happened when they realized that tools like ChatGPT could immediately solve real problems they face every day. One fundraiser's words particularly resonated: "I always thought this stuff was for the tech team. I had no idea I could do it myself, like today."

That's the disconnect we need to bridge. AI has become an overwhelming buzzword, with too many platforms and not enough practical guidance. You've likely tried AI tools only to receive content that sounds like it came from a corporate handbook rather than your authentic voice. Maybe you've spent more time fixing AI-generated content than you would have spent just writing it yourself. The frustration is real — every minute wrestling with technology is a minute you're not deepening donor relationships.

Let me walk you through three game-changing tactics that are already helping fundraisers reclaim hours each week: First, "persona prompting" ensures AI understands your authentic voice before generating content. Second, turning voice notes into polished contact reports with a single prompt can save hours of documentation time. Third, building custom dashboards becomes simple when AI guides you through the process. These aren't theoretical possibilities — they're practical tools you can implement tomorrow.

Imagine saving eight hours this week, not by skipping meetings or working through lunch, but because your tools actually worked for you. What would you do with that time? Call that lapsed donor? Feel prepared for your next meeting? Or simply go home on time?

Ready to make AI work for you? I'm launching a four-week hands-on mini course where we'll build these exact tools together. Want to be a part of it? Click here

Chapters

• 0:00 The AI Breakthrough at AFP Icon
• 1:36 The AI Frustration Fundraisers Face
• 3:37 Ethical AI: Amplifying Not Replacing You
• 4:30 Three Game-Changing AI Tactics
• 7:46 Mini Course Opportunity Announcement
• 9:17 Call to Action and Wrap-Up

Transcript

Keith Greer, CFRE: 0:05

Hey, there, hi and welcome back ambitious fundraiser. Last month I was in Seattle at AFP Icon, leading a session on ethical AI and organizational readiness, and I'll be honest, I wasn't sure how it was going to land. Ai has become such a buzzword right. But as I started walking through the steps real doable steps you can actually take I watched the room shift. Eyes lit up, folks leaned in. You could see the light bulbs going off and it wasn't because I showed off some wild tech demo. It was because people saw that an AI tool as simple as ChatGPT could help them get their time back, that it could actually fit into their day-to-day work and not add more stress to their plate. One fundraiser came up to me afterward and said Keith, I always thought this stuff was for the tech team. I had no idea I could do it myself, like today. And that stuck with me because that's the moment where AI stops being this abstract, futuristic thing and it starts being a tool you use at your desk tomorrow. So here's what we're doing today we're going to explore one small shift, one prompt that could change the way you capture donor visit notes. By the end of this episode, you'll see how you can take a rough voice note after a donor meeting and turn it into a polished contact report with just a few words. Sound good, let's get into it.

Keith Greer, CFRE: 1:36

You've heard the buzz AI is everywhere Conferences, newsletters, webinars it's all over your feed. How it's going to transform fundraising, revolutionize stewardship, make your job easier. But when you actually sit down to try it, it feels like you've been dropped into a foreign country, with no map, no translator and a deadline breathing down your neck. You open up ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot and think, okay, now what? You ask it to write an email and it gives you something that sounds like it came out of a corporate HR handbook from 2008. Not exactly the warm, donor-centered tone you were hoping for, right? And then there's the overwhelm so many tools, so many platforms. There's Jasper and Claude and Notion AI, zapier Otter. You don't have time to vet 15 platforms just to find out that 12 of them don't actually solve your problem.

Keith Greer, CFRE: 2:35

I've had fundraisers tell me things like I know ChatGPT can do this, but I don't know how to do it myself. Or this one which really stuck with me I tried automating thank you emails and I ended up spending more time fixing the tone than if I'd just written them myself, and it's frustrating, right? Because you're not afraid of technology, you're smart, you're capable and you're constantly juggling a hundred things. What you don't have extra time is to waste on trial and error, and that's the heart of it. Every minute you spend wrestling with AI is a minute you're not spending with your donors, a minute you're not deepening relationships, a minute you're not doing the real human-centered work that only you can do. So let's name the struggle for what it is Only you can do. So let's name the struggle for what it is.

Keith Greer, CFRE: 3:24

It's not that AI isn't powerful. It's that it hasn't been made useful for you yet, not in a way that fits your voice, your workflow, your real day-to-day. But that's about to change. So here's the good news there's a way to make AI actually useful for you as a major gift fundraiser, not in some abstract, theoretical way, in a practical. This saved me an hour before lunch, kind of a way, and we're going to start with something called ethical AI, and for me that means tools that respect your voice, your relationships, your donors', privacy and security and your time. This isn't about replacing you. It's about amplifying you and to be safe. Before you put anything into AI, always make sure your organization is on a plan that doesn't allow the AI to use your information to train its future models. So let me walk you through a few tactics I've been testing that are already helping me reclaim hours every week.

Keith Greer, CFRE: 4:30

So first up is persona prompting. One of the biggest misses I see with AI-generated content is tone. You ask ChatGPT to draft an email and it gives you something that starts with Dear esteemed benefactor, or I hope this message finds you well. Nope, that's not how you talk and that's not how you would talk to a donor you just met, let alone one you have a years-long relationship with. So here's a quick fix Tell the AI who it is before you ask it to write anything. Start with something like you are a warm, donor-centered major gift fundraiser. Your emails are professional but personal, with a natural tone. Here's how you open your emails hey Julia, thanks for that note, or whatever it is, and then give it one or two examples of your real voice. Suddenly, the email it drafts doesn't sound like a robot. It sounds like you, but so much faster.

Keith Greer, CFRE: 5:31

Second, you can turn your voice notes into summaries, and this one is a game changer for those of you who dread writing your contact reports and remember. Make sure your organization is on a plan and has the security features enabled to not let what you put into the ai become part of the training data for that ai. But next time you leave a donor visit, just open your phone, hit record in that notes app and say what happened. Don't script it, just talk. I met with Dan. He's excited about the scholarship update he mentioned his daughter is starting college this fall, or whatever else happened in that visit. Then take that raw voice-to-text into ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot with a prompt like summarize this in a polished professional contact report for our CRM. I've seen this. Take 30 seconds of that audio text and turn it into a report that's ready to paste into your CRM. No plugins, no extra apps, just you, your notes and a little help cleaning it up.

Keith Greer, CFRE: 6:37

Third, building dashboards yes, even in Excel and I know I know Excel can feel like that drawer in your kitchen filled with the random cables and chargers that you last used in 2009. Donor visits, giving totals or proposal stages, without any add-ons or subscriptions. You can use AI to walk you through formulas step-by-step. Whether you need a pivot table that groups donors by status, just ask. Want conditional formatting that highlights lapsed donors Done.

Keith Greer, CFRE: 7:15

The goal isn't to turn every fundraiser into a tech wizard. It's to help you make this AI tool work for you. No more tech for tech's sake, just useful, ethical, human-centered tools that let you spend less time doing administrative work and wrestling spreadsheets and more time connecting with people. So let's zoom out for a second. Imagine saving eight hours this week, not because you skipped a meeting or you worked through lunch, but because the tools you use every day actually worked for you. Imagine finishing your donor reports in minutes and not hours, prepping for your next visit with your CEO in one clean dashboard, not seven open tabs, writing emails that sound like you, without having to rewrite them five times. What would you do with that extra time? Maybe you'd finally call that lapsed donor you've been meaning to re-engage, or walk into your next one-to-one with your VP, feeling calm, confident and prepared. Or maybe you'd just take a breather. You'd go home on time, be fully present with your family at dinner.

Keith Greer, CFRE: 8:27

That's the future I want to build with you, and here's how. This week, I'm opening up a small group, hands-on mini course. It's just going to be four weeks, one hour a week. Live with me. We'll build these exact tools together, step by step, so you're not figuring it out alone and, as a listener of this podcast, you're getting the first heads up. You'll have first dibs on pre-launch pricing and you'll actually help shape the modules with your feedback. I want to build this with you and not just for you. So if you're curious or even just thinking, hmm, maybe this could finally help me get ahead of my work, here's what to do next Check the link in the show notes or, if you get my emails, hit reply to the email you got from me and say I'm in. That's it. I'll send you everything you need to get started. So let's make this the season where AI stops being intimidating and starts being empowering.