29 Starter Prompts for Fundraisers

Inside AI – George Irish

By George Irish

The promise of ChatGPT for fundraisers is tantalizing – a super-intelligent fundraising assistant ready to boost your efficiency and lift your fundraising performance.

However, many first-time ChatGPT users are disappointed with results that can be off-target, incorrect, or unhelpful. Like any new tech, there’s a learning curve: writing effective prompts.

Prompts are the instructions or questions you submit to ChatGPT to guide its responses.

Effective prompts are clear, specific, and provide necessary context to help ChatGPT understand exactly what you’re looking for.

Writing prompts from scratch takes practice and patience, and fundraisers who are new to using ChatGPT could use a hand-up to discover the prompts that work best for their tasks.

Prompt Crafting

How you choose to write your prompt will change the type of response you get. Here are three types of prompts to get helpful responses from ChatGPT.

Task Prompts

“Write a memo explaining our new lunchroom recycling policy.”

Task prompts are for when you know exactly what you need and you can give clear instructions to ChatGPT. Use them to help you get started on a task quickly and efficiently, or to explore new types of tasks. The list below contains a number of common tasks prompts and indicates the additional information** you should provide along with your prompt.

** You can attach or paste text documents, or link to urls with background information.

‘Help me plan’ Prompts

“Help me plan a weekend trip to see the musical ‘Hamilton” in Toronto.”

‘Help me plan’ prompts are useful when you want to tap into ChatGPT’s vast knowledge base. As a planning assistant, ChatGPT can be your helpful second brain or knowledgeable fundraising colleague to collaborate with you on the details of a complex project or help you identify gaps.

‘Ask Me’ Prompts

“Ask me about my food preferences, then design a weekly meal plan”

‘Ask Me’ prompts can help you work through thorny problems step-by-step. With these prompts you reverse roles so instead of giving you answers, the chatbot starts a guided conversation*** and asks questions that help you think through details of your problem step-by-step, working toward a solution.

*** You may need to add this specific instruction: “Ask me XX questions one at a time, then summarize my answers.”

Prompts are conversation starters

Also remember to have a chat. Don’t just accept ChatGPT’s first response.

Chatbots aren’t answer machines. You’ll get the best results by following your first prompt with questions that probe for additional detail, investigate related ideas, or pivot to different approaches. Try following your first prompt with a second one that starts with: “Tell me more about …”

Starter Prompts for Fundraisers

Below is a list of starter prompts for common, day-to-day fundraising tasks. Use them, adapt them, or read through them to get ideas for writing your own prompts. They’ll work equally well on any of the popular ChatGPT alternatives: Google Gemini, Anthropic Claude, or Microsoft CoPilot.

For Donor Engagement and Communications

1. “Write a personalized fundraising  appeal for a major donor who contributed last year. 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>”
2. “Help me plan for segmenting our donor base to improve our communications with supporters. What criteria should we use to segment our donors?”
3. “Help me plan for improving donor retention rates. What actions can we take to engage and retain our existing donors?”
4. “Ask me questions to create detailed donor personas. We want to understand the demographics, interests, and giving behaviours of our key donor segments.”
5. “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.”

For Fundraising Events and Campaigns

1. “Write an invitation email for our upcoming charity gala, emphasizing the importance of attending and how the funds raised will support our programs. <include details about the event>”
2. “Write a thank you note for attendees of our recent charity event, highlighting the success of the event and the impact of their participation. <include details of the event, or url of a press release>”
3. “Help me plan a virtual fundraising event, including key elements such as theme, format, promotion, and follow-up activities.”
4. “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.”
5. “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.”

For Grants and Partnerships

1. “Write a grant proposal for our community project. Include the problem statement, objectives, methodology, and expected outcomes. <include project profile or brief>”
2. “Help me develop a plan to identify and apply for grants. Include how to research potential funders, what information to gather, and tips for writing successful grant proposals.”
3. “Help me plan a corporate sponsorship program for our nonprofit. Include benefits for sponsors, sponsorship levels, and strategies for outreach.”
4. “Write a proposal for a potential corporate partner, highlighting how a partnership with our organization will benefit their brand and contribute to our mission. <include organization profile and relevant program details>”
   

For Digital and Online Fundraising

1. “Write an email fundraising appeal for our supporter list based on the details of this latest press release about our program work.  Include a donation ask, and indicate where a Donate button should be placed. Also include a p.s. that repeats the donation ask. <include url of press release>”
2. “Write 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>“
3. “Write compelling website copy for our donation page that encourages visitors to contribute, focusing on the urgency and importance of their support.”
4. “Help me develop a social media strategy for our upcoming fundraising campaign. Include content ideas, posting schedules, and ways to engage followers. <include campaign details>”

Strategic Planning and Analysis

1. “Help me develop a fundraising strategy for next year. Include goals, key fundraising activities, target audience, and metrics for success.”
2. “Ask me questions to develop a comprehensive fundraising calendar for the next year/quarter. We need to schedule campaigns, events, and communications strategically.”
3. “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.”
4. “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.”
5. “Help me use data analytics to improve our fundraising. What types of data should we collect, and how can we use this information to make data-driven decisions?”
6. “Ask me questions to analyze our past fundraising campaigns.  We need to learn what worked well and what didn’t so we can identify key areas for improvement.”
7. “Ask me questions about our internal processes and team performance. We need to find possible operational efficiencies and improved coordination.”

Messaging and Content Creation

1. “Write a cover letter for our annual report that summarizes our achievements in 2023, including key statistics, success stories, and future goals. <include text content from your annual report>”
2. “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.”
3. “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.”
4. “Ask me questions to assess our audience targeting. We need to ensure we are reaching the right people with the right messages.”

Prompt crafting holds the key to unlocking the full potential of ChatGPT and other AI assistants. Start experimenting with the prompts above, adapt them to your specific needs, and develop your own strategies for leveraging AI in your fundraising efforts.

While AI can generate valuable content and insights, it’s crucial to review and refine the outputs to ensure they align with your organization’s voice, values, and fundraising goals. Stay mindful of ethical considerations and maintain transparency with your donors. Use AI as a complement to your expertise, not a replacement for human creativity and relationship-building.

 

George Irish is a veteran of strategy, coaching and consulting for AI-powered charity fundraising. He works with Amnesty International Canada and Greenpeace among other organizations. He writes this column exclusively for each issue of Foundation Magazine.