For nonprofits with limited resources, employing an approachable form of AI such as chatbots could help advance their mission through the delivery of timely and appropriate messages to donors and potential donors. Chatbots could also be used to educate and motivate supporters through action alerts, fundraising appeals, and fun content like interactive quizzes.
Rose de Fremery explains how nonprofits can use emerging technology like chatbots to build relationships with donors in this article from Skyword:
Nonprofits with lean resources may especially appreciate the many ways in which chatbots can cost-effectively advance a nonprofit digital marketing strategy. As was pointed out in the recent 2019 Nonprofit Technology Conference session “Make a Robot for Good, Not Evil: Building a Chatbot on Facebook,” chatbots garner a fundraising response rate that is roughly five times that of email. Meanwhile, the cost per acquisition associated with chatbots is 50 percent lower than it is with Facebook ads. And since chatbot messages are currently free to send, they can offer nonprofits a budget-friendly alternative to digital advertising.
Nonprofits can have their AI ambassadors answer simple queries around the clock, letting a curious constituent know when the organization’s hours of operation are and where it is located, while also providing a donor details on when and where the next gala event will be held. Particularly, in the case of a nonprofit organization with global reach and operations, this always-on capability may provide a valuable edge in keeping constituent connections warm—regardless of the time zones involved.
Chatbots relieve some of the communications burden from their human counterparts in this way, conducting conversations at all hours of the day or night and fielding multiple queries without breaking a sweat—all while providing the on-demand engagement that constituents increasingly expect. They’re also scalable and able to grow with an organization as its communications strategy evolves. It’s also worth noting that, by their very nature, chatbots also meet constituents where they prefer to spend their time these days: messaging apps.
