Danish fundraisers want to use AI – but must think carefully about objectives

Fundraisers in Denmark are keen to implement artificial intelligence (AI) and other new tech in their work – but have been told that they must think carefully about what they are trying to achieve.

This warning comes from Copenhagen Business School lecturer Per Østergaard, following a study conducted by Østergaard and the Danish fundraising body ISOBRO.

Currently, 89% of the 74 respondents to the study are using ChatGPT 4.0, and 37% use Microsoft’s Copilot. The most common areas in which AI is used are communication (74%), fundraising (47%) and administration (29%).

When asked which departments they expect will grow in their use of tech and data in the next three years, 66% said fundraising. Three-fifths (59%) say that they hope their organisation will be able to use data to predict retention and churn in the future – in addition to 27% of organisations who say that they already do this.

However, many organisations are only using data in a tactical rather than strategic way, the report suggests – just 13% of respondents agreed with the statement ‘technologies are becoming a central part of our business strategy’.

Additionally, 64% of respondents to the survey say that there is a lack of understanding in their organisation on how to use new technology and data to improve their operations.

Østergaard says that organisations must adopt a “strategy focus” rather than a “technology focus”, in order to avoid the same mistakes that are often seen with projects such as CRM implementations – and that organisations need to “start with ‘why’ and consider ‘how’ afterwards. He says:

“Overall, AI presents great opportunities for fundraising organisations. This is both in relation to increasing the quality of work, and to efficiency – but it must be anchored strategically.”

Østergaard adds that in addition, organisations risk falling into the OO+NT = EOO trap – where OO means ‘old organisation’, NT means ‘new technology’ and EOO refers to ‘expensive old organisations. He first described this formula in 1999 to illustrate how “new technology does not automatically lead to improvements”, and says that it has proven accurate in many occasions in the intervening quarter of a century.

Photo by Junior Teixeira on Pexels