This is the fourth post in an ongoing blog series about optimizing the performance of your fall fundraising campaigns by increasing the personalization of your donor experiences. To read ahead and get the complete checklist of optimization tactics, download the full guide: 5 Fundraising Personalization Tactics to Wow Your Donors and Smash Your Fall Fundraising Goals.

In today's crowded communication landscape, generic messaging often fails to capture donor attention. While segmenting your donor list is a crucial first step, the real power comes from tailoring your communication to resonate with each segment's interests and preferences. However, manually crafting personalized content for numerous segments can be an incredibly time-consuming task for any fundraising team.

This is where generative AI can become an invaluable asset for your team, helping you increase your capacity for personalizing copy, while maintaining human touch and oversight.

The 3-Step Strategy for using AI to increase your Year-End  content personalization

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT, or specialized tools trained specifically for fundraising like Dataro’s ‍AI Assist, can help you move from generic appeals to highly-targeted communications in a fraction of the time it would take to manually develop personalized versions of each content piece.

Here's how to scale up your content personalization with AI:

‍1. Analyze donor motivators and build your audience segments

AI models excel at identifying patterns in donor behavior, including email open rates, click-throughs, and specific content preferences. Dataro's Interest Areas model is a unique tool that you can use to determine which subscribers on your email list respond best to emails about different areas of your work.

While AI will make this process much faster and more precise, you can replicate in manually by digging into your email reporting. Which donors open emails about your education programs versus your conservation efforts? Which ones respond best to data-driven appeals versus personal stories? These insights are the foundation for effective segmentation.

2. Draft Your Base Copy

The core message of your appeal should still be written by your team. You need to provide the AI with the factual, impactful, and emotional "ingredients" it needs to personalize the message effectively.

Define the key message: What is the central goal of this appeal? What do you want the donor to do? Then gather your core assets: Include things like simple data points that illustrate your overall impact and compelling personal stories from your beneficiaries or team. These are the real-world facts the AI will work with to maintain authenticity.

3. Adapt Your Content for Different Audiences

This is where generative AI becomes a true game-changer. Instead of hours of manual rewriting, give your LLM a clear prompt, such as:

"Take this base copy and adapt it for our 'Young Professionals interested in Climate Action' segment. The tone should be urgent and forward-looking, and you must include the specific data point on our recent policy change, while shortening the beneficiary story to one paragraph."

The AI can now take your master draft and swiftly adapt it for various donor segments, adjusting the tone, emphasis, and specific examples to match each audience profile without losing the original message's integrity.

Generative AI doesn't replace the fundraiser; it empowers them. By automating the time-intensive task of rewriting and tailoring content, it frees up your team to focus on the high-value, relationship-building work that only a human can do.

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Download the full guide to personalizing your Year-End campaign here!

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