Prompts for fundraisers can help you get past blank page syndrome and start working quickly and efficiently with ChatGPT
If you haven’t tried using ChatGPT in your daily work as a fundraiser yet, you really should give it a try. This page has a collection of ChatGPT prompts for fundraisers that can help you get started.
The prompt sets linked below are intended to be conversation starters, not enders.
🚀 Starter Prompts for Fundraisers
🗂️ ‘Help me Plan’ Prompts for Fundraisers
💡 ‘Ask Me’ Prompts for Fundraising Strategy
📊 ‘Ask Me’ Prompts for Fundraising Analysis
They will work equally well on other AI chatbots, including Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, and Anthropic Claude.
Keep in mind these two simple best practices for using ChatGPT.
- Have a chat.
Chatbots aren’t answer machines. You get the best results by continuing to ask questions that probe for for more detail, or investigate related ideas, or pivot to different approaches. Try following your first question with “Tell me more about …” - Be Specific.
Improve your prompt by adding detail. Include as much information as you can about what you are seeking –or ask the chatbot to take the lead and ask you questions to hone in on the answer you need.
Starter Prompts for Fundraisers
Starter prompts can help you overcome blank page syndrome, giving you a general framework for your task, and maybe a spark of inspiration to kickstart your thinking.
These prompts cover a variety of angles, themes, and outcomes. Use them to help you get started more quickly and efficiently, and to explore new types of tasks.
** Add detail to these starter prompts to get results that fit your needs more closely. You can attach or paste text documents, or link to urls with background information.
Personalized Donation Appeals
Prompt: “Generate a personalized email appeal for a donor who contributed $100 last year to our children’s education program. Highlight how their donation made an impact and encourage them to donate again this year. <include details about the donor’s gift and the program it supported>“
Social Media Campaigns
Storytelling Posts: “Write a social media post about a student named Maria who benefited from our scholarship program, describing how the scholarship changed her life. <replace details with an actual impact story>“
Challenge Campaigns: “Create a social media post for a matching gift challenge, where every donation made in the next 48 hours will be doubled by a generous donor. <include details about matching gift program>“
Grant Proposals
Prompt: “Draft a grant proposal for a project aimed at providing clean drinking water to rural communities in Africa. Include the problem statement, objectives, methodology, and expected outcomes. <include project profile or brief>“
Event Invitations and Follow-ups
Invitations: “Write an invitation email for our upcoming charity gala, emphasizing the importance of attending and how the funds raised will support our healthcare initiatives. <include details about the event>“
Follow-up Thank You Notes: “Compose a thank you note for attendees of our recent charity run, highlighting the success of the event and the impact of their participation. <include details of the event, or url of a press release>“
Donor Newsletters
Prompt: “Create content for a quarterly donor newsletter, including updates on recent projects, a donor spotlight, and information on upcoming events. <include details of content for newsletter stories>“
Website Content
Impact Stories: “Write an impact story for our website about a family that benefited from our housing program, including quotes and specific improvements in their living conditions. <include details about the story or a url>“
Donation Page Optimization: “Generate compelling copy for our donation page that encourages visitors to contribute, focusing on the urgency and importance of their support.”
Volunteer Engagement
Prompt: “Draft an email to recruit new volunteers for our community clean-up event, outlining the benefits of volunteering and the positive impact on the environment. <include event details>“
Corporate Partnership Proposals
Prompt: “Compose a proposal for a potential corporate partner, highlighting how a partnership with our organization will benefit their brand and contribute to our mission of fighting hunger. <include organization profile and relevant program details>“
Annual Reports
Prompt: “Write a section of our annual report summarizing our achievements in 2023, including key statistics, success stories, and future goals. <include text content from your annual report>“
Crowdfunding Campaigns
Prompt: “Design an engaging crowdfunding campaign description for a project to build a new community center, including the need for the project, what funds will be used for, and how supporters can get involved. <include text from project brief or description>“
‘Help me Plan’ Prompts for Fundraisers
ChatGPT can be a helpful second brain or knowledgeable fundraising colleague to assist you with planning: guiding you through the steps of a complex project or giving you a framework that help identify gaps.
Use these prompts for fundraisers to help you get past ‘blank page’ syndrome and quickly start working on the deeper details of your plan.
Developing a Fundraising Strategy
Prompt: “Help me develop a fundraising strategy for the next year for a nonprofit focused on environmental conservation. Include goals, key fundraising activities, target audience, and metrics for success.”
Identifying Fundraising Opportunities
Prompt: “List potential fundraising opportunities for a charity that supports mental health services. Include both traditional and digital methods.”
Segmenting Donor Communications
Prompt: “Suggest strategies for segmenting our donor base to personalize communications effectively. What criteria should we use to segment our donors?”
Planning Fundraising Events
Prompt: “Outline a plan for a virtual fundraising event, including key elements such as theme, format, promotion, and follow-up activities.”
Enhancing Donor Retention
Prompt: “Provide strategies for improving donor retention rates. What actions can we take to engage and retain our existing donors?”
Creating a Corporate Sponsorship Program
Prompt: “Draft a plan for establishing a corporate sponsorship program for our nonprofit. Include benefits for sponsors, sponsorship levels, and strategies for outreach.”
Designing a Monthly Giving Program
Prompt: “Design a monthly giving program, including the benefits for donors, how to promote the program, and ways to retain monthly donors.”
Leveraging Social Media for Fundraising
Prompt: “Provide a social media strategy for an upcoming fundraising campaign. Include content ideas, posting schedules, and ways to engage followers.”
Grant Research and Writing
Prompt: “Develop a plan for identifying and applying for grants. Include how to research potential funders, what information to gather, and tips for writing successful grant proposals.”
Building Relationships with Major Donors
Prompt: “Outline strategies for building and maintaining relationships with major donors. What steps should we take to cultivate these relationships effectively?”
Utilizing Data for Fundraising
Prompt: “Suggest ways to use data analytics to improve our fundraising efforts. What types of data should we collect, and how can we use this information to make data-driven decisions?”
Integrating Fundraising with Marketing
Prompt: “Create a plan to integrate our fundraising and marketing efforts. How can we align our messaging and campaigns to maximize our reach and impact?”
‘Ask Me’ Prompts for Fundraising Strategy
‘Ask Me’ prompts can help fundraisers think through problems step-by-step by reversing the question & answer roles. Instead of giving answers, the chatbot starts a guided conversation and asks questions that help break down complex issues into smaller, more manageable parts.
Answering questions and discussing ideas out loud can help you articulate the important details your plan, identify gaps, and come up with more nuanced and comprehensive strategies.
** You may need to add this specific instruction: “Ask me questions one at a time then summarize my answers.”
Understanding Donor Motivations
Prompt: “Ask me questions to help identify what motivates our donors to give. We need to understand their values and what aspects of our mission resonate with them the most.”
Evaluating Fundraising Performance
Prompt: “Ask me questions about our past fundraising campaigns to help analyze what worked well and what didn’t. We want to identify key areas for improvement.”
Creating Donor Personas
Prompt: “Ask me questions to create detailed donor personas. We want to understand the demographics, interests, and giving behaviors of our key donor segments.”
Planning a Fundraising Calendar
Prompt: “Ask me questions to develop a comprehensive fundraising calendar for the next year. We need to schedule campaigns, events, and communications strategically.”
Setting Fundraising Goals
Prompt: “Ask me questions to help set realistic and ambitious fundraising goals for the upcoming year. We want to ensure our targets are achievable yet challenging.”
Diversifying Fundraising Channels
Prompt: “Ask me questions to explore new and diverse fundraising channels. We need to expand our reach beyond traditional methods.”
Enhancing Donor Engagement
Prompt: “Ask me questions to identify ways to enhance donor engagement and retention. We want to build stronger relationships with our supporters.”
Crafting a Case for Support
Prompt: “Ask me questions to help craft a compelling case for support. We need to articulate why our cause is important and why donors should contribute.”
Optimizing Donor Communications
Prompt: “Ask me questions to optimize our donor communication strategy. We want to ensure our messages are effective, personalized, and timely.”
Leveraging Technology in Fundraising
Prompt: “Ask me questions to explore how we can leverage technology to enhance our fundraising efforts. We need to consider tools for online donations, CRM, and data analysis.”
Developing a Major Gifts Program
Prompt: “Ask me questions to develop a major gifts program. We need to identify potential major donors and create strategies to engage them.”
Conducting Fundraising Research
Prompt: “Ask me questions to guide our fundraising research efforts. We need to identify potential funding sources, trends, and best practices.”
Implementing Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
Prompt: “Ask me questions to plan a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign. We want to mobilize our supporters to fundraise on our behalf.”
Integrating Fundraising and Marketing
Prompt: “Ask me questions to integrate our fundraising and marketing strategies. We want to align our efforts to maximize impact and reach.”
Measuring Fundraising Impact
Prompt: “Ask me questions to develop metrics and methods for measuring the impact of our fundraising efforts. We need to track our success and report back to stakeholders.”
‘Ask Me’ Prompts for Fundraising Analysis
‘Ask Me’ prompts can help fundraisers think through problems step-by-step by reversing the question & answer roles. Instead of giving answers, the chatbot leads a guided conversation and asks questions that help break down complex issues into smaller, more manageable parts.
Responding to questions and explaining your ideas out loud, can help you better understand problems, identify gaps, and come up with practical insights.
** You may need to add this specific instruction: “Ask me questions one at a time then summarize my answers.”
Fundraising Campaign Analysis
Prompt: “Ask me questions to analyze our recent fundraising campaign. We need to identify potential issues in planning, execution, or follow-up that could have impacted our results.”
Donor Engagement
Prompt: “Ask me questions about our donor engagement strategies. We need to understand if there were lapses in communication or engagement that led to lower donations.”
Messaging Effectiveness
Prompt: “Ask me questions to evaluate the effectiveness of our fundraising messages. We need to determine if our messaging resonated with our audience and communicated the urgency and impact of their donations.”
Audience Targeting
Prompt: “Ask me questions to assess our audience targeting. We need to ensure we reached the right people with the right messages.”
Timing and Frequency
Prompt: “Ask me questions about the timing and frequency of our fundraising appeals. We need to see if we might have sent out too many or too few messages, or if the timing was off.”
Campaign Channels
Prompt: “Ask me questions to review the channels we used for our fundraising campaign. We need to see if our choice of platforms (email, social media, direct mail, etc.) was effective.”
Donor Feedback
Prompt: “Ask me questions to gather feedback from our donors. We need to understand their experience and any barriers they faced when trying to donate.”
Competitive Analysis
Prompt: “Ask me questions to conduct a competitive analysis. We need to see if other organizations with similar missions had better results and why.”
Internal Processes
Prompt: “Ask me questions about our internal processes and team performance. We need to determine if there were any operational inefficiencies or lack of coordination.”
Data and Metrics
Prompt: “Ask me questions to dive into the data and metrics from our fundraising campaign. We need to look at conversion rates, donor retention, average donation size, and other key performance indicators.”
Incentives and Recognition
Prompt: “Ask me questions to evaluate the incentives and recognition we offered to donors. We need to see if our rewards or acknowledgment were motivating enough.”
Economic and External Factors
Prompt: “Ask me questions to consider external factors that might have influenced our fundraising results, such as economic conditions, political climate, or competing events.”
Follow-Up and Stewardship
Prompt: “Ask me questions about our follow-up and stewardship practices. We need to ensure we thanked donors appropriately and kept them informed about the impact of their contributions.”
Case for Support
Prompt: “Ask me questions to assess the strength of our case for support. We need to ensure we clearly articulated the need and impact of donations.”
Team Training and Skills
Prompt: “Ask me questions to evaluate our team’s skills and training. We need to see if there are areas where additional training or resources could improve our results.”
