What happens when your nonprofit uses an A.I. writing assistant for fundraising?
You have probably never used an AI writing assistant, but you might want to start.
Let me tell you about Fundwriter.ai because this tool has transformed the way I work, and I believe it will do the same for you…
Have you ever been faced with writing something and wished that you had an assistant to do the work for you?
Maybe you need to create an appeal for an email campaign, a proposal, or a new set of thank you letters. You’re at your desk just wishing that coherent sentences would magically start appearing.
Then two hours later, you’re sitting there looking through past writing projects and online templates, hoping to find inspiration without a single word written… Sound familiar?
What if a tool could cure writer’s block and produce draft after draft on command?
That tool, Fundwriter.ai, has been in the works for a while and just started opening up to the general public.
Fundwriter.ai uses the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to quickly write all sorts of projects for nonprofit development teams (appeals, proposals, prospect emails, social posts, and much more).
Fundwriter.ai is so good, in fact, that it has proven valuable to both mega organizations and new nonprofits. It allows anyone to produce surprisingly good first drafts in a fraction of the time, regardless of the level of expertise.
It feels like magic when I use Fundwriter. I have used it to help me write appeals, emails, thank you letters, and draft some 1- and 2-page proposals.
In fact, I am planning to post a how-to article to teach you how I go about writing a typical appeal with Fundwriter.
Rather than go on about Fundwriter’s benefits, I asked Fundwriter to write about itself.
I opened up one of Fundwriter’s appeal models (Appeal – Human Impact) and entered information as if Fundwriter.ai were a traditional nonprofit. I told it that the goal was to get readers to try Fundwriter.ai. (Normally, the “goal” would be “make a year-end gift,” or something along those lines.)
I spent about 5 minutes writing the “appeal” for Fundwriter. Here is what it wrote for me…
Beautiful communication leads to successful fundraising.
Dawn Sherman’s eyes were starting to glaze over. It was 8 p.m., and she was tired, hungry, and ready for bed. But she had one more thing left to do before she could call it a day: write one more appeal for Giving Tuesday.
She opened up the fundraising email template she had downloaded from her nonprofit’s website, but an hour later, she was still staring at what now seemed like gibberish. Dawn needed fresh eyes on the project to give it that last power wash before sending this out.
It was 8:30 pm when she remembered Fundwriter. Dawn quickly logged in and started to type.
Fundwriter is a writing assistant for nonprofit professionals. After two hours of typing, Dawn was done. Fundwriter had written 10 emails in one sitting. She sent them off to her boss for feedback, and they were ready to go in just one evening.
For Dawn, Fundwriter is the perfect way to help nonprofits grow and make a positive impact in the world. But Dawn’s not the only one who’s embraced Fundwriter.
“The default is to try to do everything, and it’s hard to get other people to help,” says Jennifer Lewis, an experienced nonprofit founder and CEO. “Fundwriter frees up time and energy for me.”
Jennifer has been using Fundwriter to write more appeals and meet more donors.
“It’s giving me back some of my sanity,” she says.
She’s had time to work on the proposal she had been waiting to write for months. And her social media feeds are full of polished, highly personalized content, which is good for everyone.
“Having a tool that helps you do your best work is what you want,” Jennifer says. “Fundwriter helps me do my best work.”
If you’re like Dawn and Jennifer, give Fundwriter a try. It’s free to use, and all you need is an email address.
Fundwriter wrote all of that in less than a minute.
Not bad for a robot!
What is Fundwriter.ai?
Fundwriter.ai is the writing assistant you never knew you always wanted.
It helps you write emails, appeals, thank-you letters, and more without breaking a sweat.
It uses the power of artificial intelligence to help nonprofit development teams and fundraisers create quality first drafts faster than ever before, regardless of experience level.
Who should use Fundwriter.ai?
- Development Directors – If you are a nonprofit development director, then Fundwriter will be a dream come true. You can use it to produce great first drafts for most projects, including thank-you letters and proposal packages.
- Nonprofit Founders – Starting a nonprofit means you are a jack of all trades. If you’re a nonprofit founder, then Fundwriter can help you write great donor-facing content like special appeal letters and more. Use it to produce the perfect notes and updates that keep your donors engaged and turn them into passionate supporters.
- Grant Writers and Contractors – If you are a full-time writer, Fundwriter will be a huge timesaver. It allows you to produce decent first drafts regardless of your expertise or background with the organization. Rapid prototype your ideas and identify what additional information and quotes you will need from the organization.
- Executive Directors – If you lead a nonprofit, then Fundwriter will be a godsend. You can let Fundwriter do the heavy lifting of writing emails, punching up grant proposals, and more. Use Fundwriter to write for your internal and external audiences.
- Major Gifts – If you’re a gift officer who focuses on personal relationships, Fundwriter can help you write great donor-facing emails, meeting invites, and proposals. Use Fundwriter to write the perfect notes and updates to keep your prospect warm.
- Annual Giving – If you’re an annual giving officer, then Fundwriter can help you write great donor-facing content like special appeal letters and more. Use it to produce the perfect notes and updates that keep your donors engaged.
How does Fundwriter.ai work?
To put it simply, Fundwriter.ai uses artificial intelligence that has been trained on billions of real-world examples. Fundwriter further teaches this AI using nonprofit-specific writing samples from websites to appeals to proposals to social posts.
The AI uses all this training to determine what words are most likely to follow the last word. Fundwriter has given the AI room to be creative, so every draft is entirely unique.
The folks at Fundwriter have a quick overview video.
Step 1: Choose a Fundwriter model
Fundwriter.ai is ready to help you write almost any kind of content.
Fundwriter is trained by veteran nonprofit professionals and fundraisers to follow proven writing models that work again and again.
Fundwriter has 35 models at the time of this post, including multiple options for the most important writing projects like appeals, thank you letters, and donor emails. Some models are building blocks to help you assemble longer documents. Some models are intended to help improve or reword passages and improve the quality of your writing.
Read more about the 30+ writing models in the section below.
Select the Fundwriter model that fits your project, and you’re ready for step 2!
Step 2: Enter Your Project Details
Once you have selected a writing model, your next step is to fill in some information about your project.
This is where you get to show the AI what it needs to write about. The quality of your input has a significant effect on the quality of the AI writing.
Each model asks for different information.
At this point, I think the best way to understand how it works is through an example.
Let’s pretend I want to draft a letter for people who volunteer at Cradles to Crayons.
I want to say ‘thank you, and I’d love to include details about a client they’ve helped. I find the “Thank You – Story Driven” model. Let’s give it a try!
The model title appears, and I have a few fields to fill in:
Organization – Enter the name of the organization sending the thank you.
Mission – Enter the organization’s mission. If your mission is vague, try including a general description of what your organization does and why.
Impact – Describe some of your successes. Facts and stats are useful here.
Success story – Enter key details or plot points of a story that demonstrates the organization’s impact.
Reason to say thanks – What do you want to say thanks for? (i.e., “first-time donation”)
Once you complete the fields, you get to experience the magic in step 3.
Step 3: Generate Drafts with AI
Now that you have selected a model and entered the information you want Fundwriter.ai to write about, you can go ahead and click Generate!
Enjoy a brief moment of zen as the AI does its magic, and Fundwriter’s logo appears and dissolves before you. And then…
Ta-Da! You have five AI-generated drafts ready for your review.
For longer documents, like “Thank You – Story Driven” in this example, Fundwriter first presents you with 5 beginnings.
Use the “Write more” button, and Fundwriter will continue writing that version. You can even make edits to lead the AI in the direction you want to go.
Fundwriter will generate 5 more drafts that take you in 5 unique directions. Continue the choose your own adventure until you have a complete draft.
Here is one of the complete drafts it generated for our example…
What writing models/skills does Fundwriter.ai offer?
The most significant benefit of using Fundwriter.ai is the growing library of writing models(skills) specific to nonprofits and fundraising.
The Fundwriter.ai team is very responsive to requests for new models, sometimes pushing them out on the same day you request them.
As of this post, Fundwriter.ai has 35 writing models to choose from, including:
- Appeal – Human Impact
Write an appeal that features a story of personal impact to connect readers with the people who benefit from their support. - Grant Proposal Introduction
Introduction to a grant proposal or Letter of Intent to a Foundation or Corporate funder. - Invite supporter to meet regarding_____
Write an email that shows you value past support and gets them excited to connect with you. - Rewrite for Brevity
Clean your writing of fluff and clutter to give it a succinct grace. - Event Follow-Up
After an event, there are a lot of personal notes and next-step messages to send out. Plugin some information and quickly move relationships forward. - Article Outline
Plan the outline for your next blog post or newsletter article based on a topic. - Gift Proposal Outline
Outline sections to include in a proposal for a grant or major gift based on the project and funder’s areas of interest. - Thank You Letter
Tired of finding new ways to write the same thank you letter? Draft multiple, unique, and specific thank you letters in minutes. - Article Ideas
Brainstorm article ideas and find every angle on the topics that matter to your organization’s audience. - Donor Persona
Personas are some of the most valuable tools you can use to dial in communication with your target audience. - Grant – Letter of Intent
Let funders know you plan to apply for a grant or gift with an introduction to your project, your organization, and your shared focus. - Appeal – It Takes A Village
Put people at the forefront with a story of transformation and impact. Feature two to four key characters, including people who benefited from your work and the people who helped them. - Quotable Inspiration
Great for social media posts or to drive home a point in other writing projects. - Appeal – Research Centered
This appeal is trained on samples from research-related appeals, but it can work for any organization. - Improve Passage
Improve the readability of a sentence or passage. - Article Introduction
Introduce the topic of your article with an engaging lead-in to hook readers. - Reword
Take a sentence and find different ways to get the information across. - Thank You – Story Driven
Draft a letter to donors describing the impact of their gift through a specific success story. - Thank You – Impact Focus
Show the donor how their gift makes an impact through story, personal anecdotes, and data. - Subject Line
Brainstorm subject lines for appeals, newsletters, and other bulk messages. Generate multiple options for testing, or find the perfect subject line for your next 1:1 email. - Photo Caption
Generate sharable photo captions for your next post or publication. #emojisincluded 😉 - Appeal – Core Belief
Demonstrate that your work aligns with your donors’ core beliefs, and they will see you as an ally who deserves support. - Expand Idea
Take an idea or a sentence and expand it into a fully developed paragraph. - Social Media Tactics
Jumpstart your social media with ideas unique to your project and goals. - Mission Statement
Craft a mission statement for your organization that reflects your vision and work. - One-Page Grant Proposal
Draft a one-page summary of your project that hits on all the key areas that funders care about. - Partnership Outreach
Approach a complementary organization about collaborating on a project or sharing resources. - Article Section Intro
Use your article topic and outline to generate content for each section of the article. - Google Ad Tactics
Ideas to make the best use of your $10k Google Ad Grant based on your goals. Test them out to see what works. - Likely Questions
Anticipate questions that will come up in people’s minds. Prepare for meetings with donors, draft FAQs, plan presentations, write for your website, and much more. - Paraphrase
Summarize a passage into fewer words while keeping the main idea. - Problem-Agitate-Solution-Impact
A reliable and powerful writing formula to help your audience connect emotionally with your important work. - Build A Bridge
Fill gaps in your document by connecting two ideas. Add details to stories or transition between ideas.
There’s a Fundwriter.ai model for every project – whether you are a development director, gift officer, executive director, contract writer, or starting your own nonprofit!
Fundwriter.ai Examples and Demos
I’ve been raving about Fundwriter.ai and the potential it has to create great content for long enough. Why not show you what it can accomplish using a couple of Fundwriter’s models?
First, almost every fundraising program includes appeals. Writing an appeal that moves donors to give is not an easy task. It needs to connect on a human level and have a clear ask, among other things.
Fundwriter has a few appeal models that incorporate human stories, but let’s see how it does with a complex story…
Model Name: "Appeal - It Takes A Village"
Inputs:
- Organization:
- Los Angeles Cancer Center (LACC)
- Mission:
- Our mission is to serve as a regional destination for oncology services that ranks with the best major treatment centers to ensure we deliver superior care to our patients. close to home, regardless of means to pay.
- Relevant activities:
- Los Angeles Cancer Center is home to cutting-edge technology including two Elekta Versa HD linear accelerators, a diagnostic laboratory, and superb clinical research, genetic counseling, and supportive care and wellness programs.
- List your story’s characters:
- Anthony is a citrus farmer in the San Joaquin Valley. He is married to Amber.
- Dr. Marootian was Anthony’s top-rated surgeon Dr. Butler was Anthony’s Radiologist who made Anthony and Amber believe they would beat cancer
- List the story’s key moments:
- September 2015 Anthony lost feeling in three fingers on his right hand.
- January 2016 Anthony visited LACC for the first time where brain cancer was confirmed and he met with Dr. Marootian.
- February Surgery to remove the cancer March Dr. Butler gives them confidence in Anthony and Amber on radiation options and new approaches day Anthony is grateful and optimistic
- I want the reader to…:
- Make a gift that will be matched 3:1 by an anonymous donor
- Letter signer:
- Anthony, patient and cancer survivor
Show us what you can do, Fundwriter!
A lot is going on in this appeal, but Fundwriter handled it well.
It doesn’t get easier than that. It usually takes a day for me to get 5 different drafts in decent shape. This only took 15 minutes. 😂
Now, let’s say we want to meet with a vital donor or community member about a sensitive project.
Can Fundwriter help with that? Let’s try the “Invite Supporter To Meet Regarding ____” model…
Model Name: "Invite Supporter To Meet Regarding ______"
Inputs:
- Organization:
- Yellowstone Valley Conservation Corps (YVCC)
- What would you like to get their input on?:
- We would like to explore a partnership with the Treasure State Mountaineers (TSM). We know that you have been active with both YVCC and TSM. We would like to discuss the concept and the right way to approach TSM about partnering.
- Who are you to this person?:
- I am the Development Director for Yellowstone Valley Conservation Corps. We have not spent much time together because i am new.
- Describe their past support:
- One of our largest donors and an active volunteer for 15 years. Served on our board of directors until last year.
👌
I don’t know about you, but these are all great starts for me.
I’d probably add an intro that builds some more rapport before diving in. But as far as substance goes, this gives me some solid options and helps me decide on which way to go.
Fundwriter.ai Pricing - How much does it cost?
Fundwriter.ai offers two pricing plans that are sure to cover your needs Basic and Professional
How much does Fundwriter.ai cost? The Basic plan is $29/month and gives you access to 20,000 words each month and all fully developed writing models. The Professional plan is $89/month. It gives you access to unlimited words along with early access to new models before they are widely released.
Here is a comparison table outlining the features offered in each of the Fundwriter.ai pricing plans.
30+ Writing Models
Al Powered Idea Generators
Unlimited Projects
Unlimited Al Generated Writing
30+ Writing Models
Al Powered Idea Generators
Early Access to New Features
Fundwriter.ai Free Trial
Does Fundwriter offer a free trial? Yes, Fundwriter.ai provides a 14-day free trial with full access to the Basic plan features.
Fundwriter.ai Monthly vs Annual Pricing - Which Plan is the Better Deal?
Fundwriter.ai offers the option of monthly or annual pricing plans.
Here are the monthly pricing plans:
If you choose to purchase Fundwriter for an entire year, you get the benefit of 2 months free, which will save you almost $200 on the Professional plan.
Considering that a professional writer typically costs at least $250 per appeal, it might be a no-brainer to purchase the yearly Professional plan and get 2 months of Fundwriter.ai for free.
Once you’ve created only 5 appeals or grant proposals with Fundwriter.ai, it will have already paid for itself. I expect you can accomplish that in a week. Think about what you can do in a year!
Here are the pricing plans when you purchase Fundwriter.ai on a yearly plan.
Which Plan Should I Choose?
It comes down to your budget, but this is a tool that pays for itself. So, it probably comes down to how much time you want to save.
Personally, I love the freedom of unlimited words and generating new writing without a second thought.
Final Thoughts – Is Fundwriter.ai worth it?
Yes, Fundwriter.ai is undoubtedly worth a try, and I think you’ll find it worth the price and very dependable. Fundwriter’s writing is high-quality, and you will be able to produce far more for your nonprofit than you ever could before.
Plus, you save money by not having to hire a writer or onboard a new staff member.
Which Fundwriter.ai plan is best? I recommend purchasing the Professional plan, which unlocks the ability to produce unlimited AI words every month and gives you early access to new models!
Plus, it just lets your writing fly because you don’t have to pace yourself.
Whatever you choose, I hope you will let me know what you think below in the comments. Your review will help others out, too.