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AI fundraising has gone from curiosity to habit in about two years. The Fundraising Regulator reports that the Charity Digital Skills Report found 76% of charities using AI in 2025, up from 61% the year before.
The trouble is that nobody explains which jobs suit AI and fundraising, and which jobs it quietly makes worse. A tool that writes a decent first draft can also write a confident, wrong sentence about your cause. This guide sorts the helpful from the risky, step by step, with a shortlist of tools and a plain look at donor data. Fundraising AI is good at first drafts, tidying data and making images. It is poor at finding donors for you and cannot replace the personal story. Use it to save time, rewrite everything in your own voice, keep donor details out of public tools, and check every word before it goes live.
Got a new campaign in mind? Log in and set it up alongside your existing page.
What Is AI Fundraising?
AI fundraising means using software that writes, sorts or generates content to help you plan and run a fundraising campaign. In practice, AI in fundraising does three jobs well. It drafts copy, such as campaign pages, appeals and thank-you notes. It sorts information, such as a spreadsheet of past gifts. And it makes images, from social graphics to a simple banner.
Here is what it does not do. It does not find donors for you, because it has no idea who cares about your cause. And it does not replace the personal story, the reason you are asking in the first place. Fundraising AI can polish a story you already have, but a supporter can tell when nobody was home.
How Does AI Help With Fundraising?
AI for fundraising earns its keep on small, repetitive jobs, so you can spend your time on people. Three areas stand out.
- Data analysis. Give a tool an anonymised list of past gifts and ask it to group supporters by how recently and how generously they gave. You will quickly see who to thank first and who has gone quiet.
- Campaign optimisation. Ask for five versions of a headline, then test two. Or paste one social post and have it reworked for different channels. Used this way, AI-driven fundraising tools give you options, and you pick the winner.
- Fraud prevention. Payment providers such as Stripe screen card payments with machine learning, so some of the checking happens before a gift reaches you.
Keep your expectations modest. AI and fundraising work well together when the tool does the groundwork and a person makes the call.
How to Use AI in Fundraising, Step by Step
Using AI in fundraising works best as a short routine rather than a one-click fix. These five steps keep the human parts human.
- Write a first draft of the campaign story. Give the tool the facts: who you are, what you need, how much, and by when. Ask for two or three versions. Our guide to writing your fundraiser description shows what a strong one covers.
- Rewrite it in your own voice. This is the step that matters most. Change the phrases you would never say, add the detail only you know, and cut anything that sounds like a brochure.
- Generate supporting images. Use AI for banners and graphics, but never present a generated picture as a real person you are helping.
- Draft the donor update emails. A draft saves time, and a quick personal edit makes it yours. See writing fundraising emails for a simple structure.
- Check everything before it goes live. Read every figure, name and claim yourself. AI can sound sure and still be wrong.
Do those five things, and AI in fundraising becomes a helper rather than a shortcut that backfires.
Not sure where to begin? Follow these five steps to set up your donation page, then start fundraising when you're ready.
The Best AI Fundraising Tools
The best AI tools for fundraising are the ones you will actually use, so start with one job and one tool. This table compares five common choices, and the AI-driven fundraising tools on it each cover a different job.
Tool | Best for | Free tier | Paid plans | Watch out for |
ChatGPT | First drafts of your campaign story and donor emails | Yes | Higher limits on paid plans | Output reads generic until you rewrite it |
Fundwriter.ai | Appeals and proposals written in charity language | Free trial | From $22 a month on annual billing | Built for nonprofits, less useful for personal campaigns |
Canva AI | Campaign images and social graphics | Yes, with limits | Pro plan raises the limits | Usage limits vary by Canva plan |
Notion AI | Keeping campaign tasks, donors and notes in one place | Limited trial only | Included in the Business plan | It organises work; it does not raise money |
Buffer AI | Scheduling and rewriting social posts | Yes, limited | From $5 per channel a month on annual billing | Repurposes your content; does not create the campaign |
Plans and prices change often, so check each tool's own pricing page. These details were last checked in October 2026.
A few notes on getting more from them. If you are new to ChatGPT, our guide to using ChatGPT for nonprofit work covers prompts and pitfalls. Buffer is handy once the campaign is live, because it helps you rework one message for several channels, and our social media fundraising ideas give you plenty to post. Notion earns its place only if you manage a team, since the full AI sits in a paid plan.
Is It Safe to Use AI With Donor Data?
Yes, with conditions, and the conditions are specific. Most of AI for nonprofit fundraising comes down to what you put into the tool. Never paste donor names, contact details or giving history into a public AI tool. Use summarised or anonymised data instead, such as "gifts grouped by size and date" with no names attached. UK GDPR still applies to anything you upload, so treat the tool like any other place you send personal data.
The Fundraising Regulator published its first guidance on AI in charitable fundraising in 2025, to help fundraisers follow the Code of Fundraising Practice. The regulator is neutral on whether charities should use AI. It asks that the use is legal, open, honest and respectful, and it makes three points worth knowing.
- Trustees are ultimately accountable for how their charity uses AI in fundraising.
- The greater the risk of misleading donors, the more open you should be about using it.
- A person should check AI-generated content for accuracy, fairness and legality before it is used.
For AI nonprofit fundraising, agree a short internal policy that says which tools are allowed, which data stays out, and who signs off the final copy.
Where to Run Your AI-Assisted Campaign
Once your copy and images are ready, you need a page where people can give. When your content is AI-assisted, look for a platform that makes editing easy, lets you upload your own images, supports regular donor updates and pays out quickly. A page you can tweak in minutes beats a perfect draft you cannot change.
If you are starting from scratch, our guide to setting up a donation page and our charity crowdfunding guide walk through the basics.
Run your AI-assisted campaign on WhyDonate. WhyDonate charges 0% platform fees; standard payment processor fees apply. Stripe clears payments in up to 3 business days, plus 0 to 2 business days to reach the bank, with Payout Weekly, Payout Monthly or Payout Now available. Start your fundraiser, it's free, or log in if you already have an account.
Final Thoughts
AI fundraising works best as an assistant, not a replacement. Let it draft the first version, sort the spreadsheet and make the banner. Then do the part only you can do: tell people why this matters, in words they would believe coming from you. The charities that get the most from fundraising AI are rarely the ones using the most tools. They keep a person in charge, someone who checks the facts, protects donor details and says plainly when a tool has helped. Start small, with one task and one tool, and see whether it genuinely saves you time before you add another.
When your page is ready, give supporters an easy way to give. Start your fundraiser in a few minutes, or log in to add a new campaign to your account.
FAQ: AI Fundraising
1. Can AI write my fundraising page for me?
It can write a first draft, but you should not publish it as it comes. Give the tool your real facts, then rewrite the result in your own voice and check every claim. A page that sounds like you, with details only you know, is what makes supporters trust you and give.
2. What are the best AI tools for fundraising on a small budget?
Start with free tiers. ChatGPT can draft your story, Canva has a free plan with limited AI for images, and Buffer's free plan includes its AI assistant for social posts. These AI tools for fundraising cost nothing to try, so test them on one small task before you pay for anything.
3. Will donors know my campaign was written with AI?
Sometimes, yes. Generic wording gives it away, and donors respond to detail and warmth. Using AI in fundraising is fine when you edit it into your own words and stay honest. Be especially open if an image or text could mislead people, such as a generated picture of someone you support.
4. Do UK charities need an AI policy?
The Fundraising Regulator's 2025 guidance expects trustees to be involved and anyone using AI to have the right skills. A short written policy is the simplest way to show you have done both. Read the full guidance for the exact wording, and keep your policy short enough that people actually follow it.
Sudatta is a senior content manager with more than 10 years of experience in the content space and an expert in crowdfunding and fundraising-related topics. She enjoys creating engaging and reader-friendly content. In addition to writing, Sudatta is also passionate about music, travelling, and reading.