Your next major donor may already be in your data

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How can AI help find major gift prospects?

AI can read your existing donor data and point out people who look like your best donors but have never been treated like them. It works from what you already have, so you don't need an expensive new database to start. The first job is often cleaning up the data so the patterns can show.

I watched this happen with an If Possible customer this summer. They're a small team with an operating budget of about a million dollars a year, and their last year-end campaign raised about $85,000. They installed their intelligence layer at the end of June. In July, working through their donor data with AI, we found 5,000 high-likelihood prospects hiding in their list. I described it to Scott as finding a treasure chest.

Their data was a mess, which is normal for a lot of nonprofits. So before we used it, I spent real time building context with AI and talking through how to look at the data, and it helped me sort and clean it first. That step is easy to skip, and it matters.

Why do major gift prospects stay hidden?

Because personal attention is expensive, so most organizations can only afford to give it to a few people. Everyone else gets the same letter. Some of those people might respond to more, but you can't know who until you give them a real chance to connect. I put it this way to a room of nonprofit teams.

Who in that list could become your biggest donor because you haven't given them the amount of attention and opportunity to connect before? You haven't been able to.

Colleen Cook · Recorded conversation, Oct 14, 2026

Most of you already know how to give someone a personalized experience. You do it for your biggest donor because you can't afford to lose that person. What's new is that AI lets you offer close to that level of personalization to far more people. The one thing that still doesn't scale is your face-to-face time, so AI helps you decide where to spend it.

What does AI need to know about a donor?

It needs more than your CRM record. Your database knows a donor's name, spouse, giving history and address. The details that actually shape a major gift conversation, like what motivates them and what frustrates them, usually live somewhere else.

When I was a director of development, one of my most generous donors chaired our events and gave very generously when she felt the staff was working alongside her to get the thing done. When she felt things were lagging, the purse strings got tighter. That's exactly the kind of insight that never lives in a CRM. Where would it even go? Maybe a note nobody reads.

Scott's answer is to capture those conversations. Record your meetings with a donor (with their permission), keep the transcripts, and give them to AI when it's time to prepare.

Scott gave a fun example. Ask AI to look back through a donor's transcripts, and it might remind you that they grew up a Chicago Bulls fan. If you happen to have an old Bulls mug, that's a thoughtful gift for the meeting where you make the ask.

How can AI help you prepare for a major donor meeting?

AI can turn your case for support into something tailored to the person across the table, and it can do it before every meeting. It can also draft a conversation plan from everything you know about that donor, so you walk in with a clear path to the ask.

Another If Possible customer had their case for support living as a single deck. We turned it into something more useful.

a template that allows them to personalize that case for support ahead of every single meeting to make sure that it's really focused on a strategy that will serve the ask that they're actually going to make.

Colleen Cook · Recorded conversation, Sep 8, 2026

The same goes for leave-behinds. You're no longer stuck with whatever the agency or designer built six months ago. With the right tools and your brand already set up, you can make a custom piece of collateral for a donor visit in minutes.

Here's a prep checklist I'd use for any major gift conversation:

1. Gather the context. Pull the CRM record, past giving, notes from every staff member who knows them, and any meeting transcripts.
2. Ask AI what you might be missing. Have it summarize what this donor cares about, what they've asked about before, and any open questions.
3. Tailor the case. Ask AI to adapt your case for support to the program or vision this donor connects with most.
4. Plan the conversation. Draft the path from catching up to the ask, including the questions you'll ask them.
5. Make one custom leave-behind. A one-page piece about the exact project you'll discuss.
6. Review it as a person. You know the donor. Correct anything AI got wrong before you walk in.

And a prompt to copy for step 2:

Prompt to copy: Here is everything we know about [donor name]: our CRM record, notes from our staff, and transcripts from our past conversations. Summarize what they care about most, what they've asked us before, anything that might frustrate them, and three questions I should ask in our next meeting. Flag anything you're unsure about instead of guessing.

How does AI change the way you steward major donors?

It lets you be more personal with more people, without losing the touches that only you can make. AI can tell you who needs a different message during a big campaign, draft the personal notes, and remind you of details. The handwritten card and the visit still come from you.

During our year-end work for one If Possible customer, we segmented the appeal so major donors who give consistently heard gratitude first. In some cases, you might hold back the year-end appeal letter from a major donor you're already working with personally and send them a stewardship touch instead, so they still feel included in the campaign.

I also remind teams that the goal is bigger than a gift size. At our October Intensive I told the room, "our goal isn't them for them to become a major donor. Our goal is for them to become a legend." A legend gives their time, talent, treasure and voice, and trusts you with part of their legacy.

What changes when a team stops dreading major gifts?

The energy changes. Fundraising feels hard when you can't see a way through. When a team can see who their prospects are and has the materials to start those conversations, the dread turns into readiness.

That same If Possible customer that found 5,000 prospects used AI with us to develop a case for support for those conversations and a whole set of campaign resources. Not long after, on a call, they told me something I'd never heard from them.

They have on a call, just like a week or two ago and was like, we're ready to fundraise. And I've never heard them so amped about that ever.

Colleen Cook · Recorded conversation, Sep 8, 2026

For the systems around those conversations, read about a donor thank-you system that runs itself and how to write a year-end appeal with AI that still sounds like you. For outreach at scale, 5 nonprofit email templates AI can personalize is a useful next step. If you're still building the foundation, start with treating AI like a new hire. There's more on the fundraising hub.

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