The budget conundrum: Is it feasible to scale fundraising?
All advancement leaders want to grow donor outreach and giving. But the traditional model of fundraising makes it impossible to grow at scale due to budget and resource constraints.
Growing giving happens in two ways:
- Getting to more donors
- Asking more of current donors
Traditionally, hiring a new fundraiser adds capacity to acquire more donors through increased (and sustainable) donor outreach. It also takes a chunk out of the budget. Further, increasing the numbers of donors an organization can reach—one gift officer at a time—doesn’t allow for scalable or sustainable growth.
Is there a cost-effective way to grow donor outreach and giving at scale?
Yes, and this is precisely why leaders are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) as the cost-effective solution to grow giving at scale. For example, Dean Bruns, Executive Director of Partner Relationships at Living on the Edge has a three-person team. Before using Raise from Gravyty’s AI-enabled fundraising technology, that team of three was attempting to connect with roughly 700 donors through manual donor outreach. Now, with AI-enabled fundraising, that same team expects to personally reach 1,600 donors in a single month.
For the price of a mid-level fundraiser, we can cover 2.5x the number of donors we could in the past. Without Raise from Gravyty’s AI, we would not be able to afford personal outreach to these donors.”
Dean Bruns, Executive Director of Partner Relationships, Living on the Edge
University of the Pacific’s Vice President for University Development and Alumni Relations, Burnie Atterbury, echoed that sentiment, asking, “How can we better leverage staff so they can be as effective as possible in the most efficient way? Investing in Raise is a lot less expensive than hiring new fundraisers. I am very comfortable with that decision.”
Learn more about how Raise from Gravyty and AI can transform your fundraising by scaling your donor outreach. Book your free consultation.
