By Greg Fine – a marketing consultant that works to elevate nonprofit marketing impact, revitalize giving campaigns, and bring energy and awareness to nonprofit brands and their mission.

Artificial intelligence is simplifying the nonprofit slog work that ties up enormous banks of time and resources. For nonprofit managers who oversee tedious administrative work and grant proposal grinds, for instance, AI is a godsend for reducing time suck. And, as we learn more, we’re discovering that these applications are remarkable research assistants, too. For example, OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini have revealed the secret sauce behind what’s working for successful nonprofit giving marketing campaigns.

A recent deep dive into both ChatGPT and Gemini’s bottomless well of insight proved a worthwhile rabbit hole to tumble down. Starting with a general research prompt, “Highlight the top four to five giving campaigns nonprofits have created in the past three to five years. Please show the top four or five appeals campaigns and then determine what each of these campaigns had in common that contributed to their success. Please cite sources.” the generative search engines spit out an initial list of organizations with performance-plus campaigns.

The prompts were refined to hone the list more, and the query and response activity ultimately revealed the four power chords that lead to effective nonprofit appeals campaigns.

“Highlight the top four to five giving campaigns nonprofits have created in the past three to five years. Please show the top four or five appeals campaigns and then determine what each of these campaigns had in common that contributed to their success. Please cite sources.”

Making It Rain

The search focused on large and mid-size nonprofit fundraising campaigns. ChatGPT and Gemini* collectively identified six organizations and the work that created such notable returns. The campaigns are, for the most part, current and ongoing. (ALS’ “Ice Bucket Challenge” was launched in 2014 and relaunched in 2021 due to its popularity.)

But, please note: If you lead your small non-profit’s giving campaigns, do not dismiss your organization as too small. Implementing these nonprofit giving campaign tactics should be de rigueur for nonprofits regardless of size.

The Rainmaker Campaigns

ALS Association – “Ice Bucket Challenge”
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital – “Thanks & Giving Campaign”
American Red Cross – “Giving Day Campaign”
Feeding America – “12 Days of Giving”
The Trevor Project – “Pride Campaign”
Heifer International – “Gifts that Keep on Giving”

Here are the respective elements for each campaign:

Four Essentials for Successful Nonprofit Giving Campaigns

A pie chart: 20% Partnerships, 25% multi-channel fundraising, 25% emotional storytelling, and 20% urgency.

Credit: GregTheFine – Outsized Marketing for Mid-Size Nonprofits
AI identified the common success factors in successful nonprofit giving campaigns. The pie chart illustrates proportionately how each contributes to the campaigns’ success.

Legend:

30% BLUE: Partnerships with Corporate & Digital Platforms

Partnerships played a critical role in extending reach and credibility. Many campaigns relied heavily on corporate relationships and digital platform integration to boost their visibility and engagement, making this a significant factor.

25% RED: Multi-channel Fundraising

Utilizing a combination of digital tools, social media, email, website, and traditional media allowed these nonprofits to reach diverse demographics several times. Multi-channel strategies were crucial for broad outreach, frequency and engagement.

25% YELLOW: Emotional Storytelling

Emotional appeals were crucial for tapping donor heartstrings. By sharing genuine, personal stories, nonprofits could connect more deeply with their audiences, encouraging more substantial and sustained giving.

20% GREEN: Urgency & Specificity

Creating a sense of urgency through one-day campaigns or crisis-based appeals drove immediate donor action. While important, this factor wasn’t universal but was vital for campaigns focused on crisis relief or specific fund-raising event promotion.

The Hero Campaigns

Here are the campaigns, plus highlights and impact for each.

1) The ALS Association – The Ice Bucket Challenge (Launched in 2014, renewed in 2021)

  • Campaign: This viral social media challenge involves dumping ice water on oneself and donating to ALS research.
  • Success Factors:
    • Public Engagement: The challenge was simple, fun, and encouraged user-generated content, leading to massive social media engagement and celebrity participation.
    • Emotional Connection: The campaign raised awareness about ALS, a debilitating disease, fostering empathy and a desire to help.
  • Campaign Highlights and Impact:

Credit: GregTheFine – Outsized Marketing for Mid-Size Nonprofits
A simple promotion – fill a bucket with ice and water and encourage friends, followers, partners, volunteers, and others to dump it on themselves – reaped millions for the ALS Assoc. The message: Don’t be afraid to stick your toe in the water and try something creative.

2) St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital – Thanks & Giving Campaign (Ongoing)

3) American Red Cross – Giving Day Campaign

  • Campaign: Urgency is a core component, emphasizing immediate needs as a result of disasters; tailored to invoke rapid donor response.
  • Success Factors:
    • Social Media: Platforms like X/Twitter and Facebook are heavily used to broadcast real-time needs and impacts, using hashtags and live updates to maintain urgency and high visibility.
    • Email Marketing: Sent urgent calls to action to their subscriber base, emphasizing the limited one-day window to increase the impact.
    • Influencer and Celebrity Endorsements: Leveraged well-known personalities to promote the campaign, increasing reach and credibility.
    • Urgency: The campaign is a one-day, high-impact event.
  • Campaign Highlights and Impact:


Credit: GregTheFine – Outsized Marketing for Mid-Size Nonprofits
The American Red Cross does a magnificent job of presenting beneficiary stories. The good news? Almost every nonprofit organization can leverage its success stories to grow giving campaign contributions.

4) Feeding America – 12 Days of Giving (Annual Campaign)

  • Campaign: This year-end campaign leverages the holiday season spirit by matching donations over 12 days, maximizing fundraising efforts.
  • Success Factors:
    • Seasonal Timing: Capitalizes on increased generosity during the holiday season, a prime time for charitable giving.
    • Matching Gifts: Matching donations incentivize larger contributions and create a sense of urgency during the campaign window. (Support Feeding America)
  • Campaign Highlights and Impact:

5) The Trevor Project – Pride Campaign (Ongoing)

  • Campaign: Focused on community and identity affirmation, mainly targeting LGBTQ+ youth with messages of support and inclusivity. Matching contributions doubled the impact. The Trevor Project heavily promoted the push during Pride Month.
  • Success Factors:
    • Social Media: Extensive use of platforms like TikTok and Instagram, popular among younger demographics, to share impactful stories and engage with interactive content like filters and hashtags.
    • Corporate Partnerships: Collaborated with brands that support or cater to the LGBTQ+ community, creating themed products and promotional content that resonate with the audience all year.
    • Digital Events: Hosted virtual events and discussions to deepen engagement and community feeling during Pride Month.
  • Campaign Highlights and Impact:

Credit: GregTheFine – Outsized Marketing for Mid-Size Nonprofits
The Trevor Project enjoys a strong partnership with Macy’s. Partnerships of any size help extend nonprofit audience reach and giving campaign awareness.

6) Heifer International – Gifts that Keep on Giving (Ongoing)

  • Campaign: This long-running campaign allows donors to purchase livestock or other resources for international families that they can use to become self-sufficient.
  • Success Factors:
    • Tangible Impact: Donors directly contribute to a sustainable solution, creating a sense of empowerment and long-term impact.
    • Personalization: Personalized experiences through different giving options at various price points.
    • Gift Catalog and Impact Stories: Heifer’s campaign features various impactful gifts like honeybees, ducks, clean water, and livestock, all of which help communities globally. You can explore their gift catalog and specific stories here​.
    • Passing on the Gift Model: This unique model explains how Heifer gifts keep giving by enabling recipients to pass on the firstborn of their livestock to others in need. Read more about this transformative impact here.​
  • Campaign Highlights and Impact:
    • The Cowculator Tool: Heifer’s interactive tool helps donors see how their gifts make a lasting impact by calculating how many families their donation will benefit. Check it out here.​

Heifer’s foundation page provides visuals and details on how gifts make an immediate and long-term impact. View it here.

Credit: GregTheFine – Outsized Marketing for Mid-Size Nonprofits
Heifer International’s brilliant Cowculator webpage. Interactive elements that engage donors and reveal contribution impact help increase revenue.

Do anything and everything you can to ensure your campaign is seen. Your audience can’t give if they don’t first see your ask.

“Do anything and everything you can to ensure your campaign is seen. Your audience can’t give if they don’t first see your ask.”

The Takeaways

The main takeaway is this: Do anything and everything you can to ensure your campaign is seen. Your audience can’t give if they don’t first see your ask.

Partnerships with Corporate & Digital Platforms

This element’s dominance was surprising. In hindsight, it makes sense, though. Partnering with a larger entity can amplify your efforts. Securing an in-kind donation and leveraging a corporate partner’s retail or social presence or a regional media outlet’s muscle (TV and news companies, regional bloggers, etc.) gives your campaign visibility and credibility. These relationships require nurturing, though, so approach this as a long-game goal. It’s worth its weight in gold.

Multi-channel Fundraising

Media mix is critical — Divide your media budget and promotional efforts across as many channels as you can afford. Your audience needs to see an ad or a promotion SIX TIMES before absorbing your message. Six times. So, analyze your audience and the channels they’re using and do everything within your capabilities to meet them where their eyes are.

“Do anything and everything you can to ensure your campaign is seen. Your audience can’t give if they don’t first see your ask.”

Emotional Storytelling

Donors want two things: to know they’re donating to a worthy cause and to see how their money is causing change. Your success stories bridge both these requirements. The six campaigns above do an exceptional job in their campaigns and on their websites of using emotional storytelling to increase donations.

Urgency & Specificity

The Red Cross and Feeding America have urgency and specificity built into their organizations. When people require blood or need to eat, tomorrow could be too late. Your nonprofit may not have an urgent need. But creating urgency could be the seeds of your campaign. Time-specific matching gift campaigns (“The matching gift ends tomorrow!”) are super effective in creating urgency.

Similarly, specificity means focus. Focus on a specific event, a specific benefit for a beneficiary, or a specific day. Keep your appeal tightly focused on a single event, action or outcome. Do not throw a kitchen sink or laundry list into your campaign. Give your audience one thing to focus on.

Mix Up the Magic

ChatGPT and Gemini have identified the elements of effective nonprofit campaigns. So, now what? For in-house marketing teams or those working with outside marketing firms or consultants, make a four-column table. Title each column after the elements listed above:

The fill-in-the-blank exercise is straightforward from here. Add details in the second row. For example:

Credit: GregTheFine – Outsized Marketing for Mid-Size Nonprofits

Then create your messaging, highlighting your success story(ies) and closing with a very specific ask or call to action.

If you work with a marketing agency or nonprofit marketing consultant skilled in campaign development, now is the perfect time to engage their services. They can create these assets and help refine your media buy and distribution.

Finally, and this is critical: Measure your results against expectations. Measure, measure, measure. This is a marathon, not a sprint. And even though the process is relatively simple, it isn’t easy. There are a lot of layers to consider. Give your organization a foundation to build from and then refine. But trust the process because it works. Just ask ChatGPT (and Gemini*).

A Special Callout to Small Nonprofits: Capacity Concerns

If your nonprofit marketing budget is smaller than some of those highlighted above, you can still create high-yield giving campaigns.

You already have several arrows in your quiver that you can use to develop impactful giving campaigns despite limited budgets and staff. And keep in mind that a commonly cited ratio for giving is 16:1 – for every dollar spent on development, you can net a 16x increase. For example, a $30,000 budget can net $500,000 in return (actually, this is a 16.6 to 1 ratio for every dollar spent).

Leverage Storytelling

Almost every organization has compelling success stories. Leverage them. Focus on sharing the impact of donations through various channels, including social media, email newsletters, and the website, during events and with partners.

Collaborate with Partners

Form Partnerships – Collaborate with local businesses, other nonprofits, local influencers/personalities, or community organizations. These partnerships can extend your reach, provide additional resources, and create co-branded campaigns that resonate and build credibility with a broader audience.

Tap into Volunteer Networks – Encourage volunteers to participate in your campaign by helping with outreach, social media promotion, or event planning. Volunteers can significantly expand your campaign’s reach without additional costs.

Use Matching Gift Challenges

Partner with a major donor or local business to create a matching gift challenge. This can incentivize smaller donors to give, knowing their donation will double their impact.

Utilize Inexpensive Tools

Low and No-Cost Fundraising Platforms – Use online fundraising platforms like GoFundMe, Classy, or MightyCause that offer tools to create appealing campaigns without the need for extensive technical knowledge or expensive software.

DIY Content Creation – Utilize free or low-cost tools like Canva for graphics, Mailchimp for email marketing, and Google Analytics to track your campaign’s effectiveness. These tools can help you create professional-looking materials without needing a large budget.

Host Low-Cost Virtual Events

Webinars and Online Auctions – Host virtual events such as webinars or online auctions that allow you to engage with your donors in real-time. These events are less costly than in-person events and can reach a broader audience.

Prioritize Donor Retention

Thank and Recognize Donors – Acknowledging your donors through personalized thank-you notes, recognition on social media, or featuring them in newsletters can help retain them and encourage future giving.

Share Impact Updates – Inform donors about how their contributions make a difference. Regular updates on the progress of projects or programs can strengthen their connection to your cause.

Develop a Year-Round Strategy

Plan Ahead – Create a year-round fundraising strategy that includes smaller, more frequent campaigns, as well as your more extensive appeals. This can help smooth out revenue and reduce the pressure of raising a large sum all at once.

Recurring Donations – Encourage donors to set up recurring donations. Smaller, regular contributions can add up over time and provide a stable source of income for your organization.

By focusing on these strategies, nonprofit leaders can maximize their resources and create successful giving campaigns that resonate with their supporters, even with limited budgets and staff.

  • Gemini CAVEAT: Beware Gemini’s hallucinations. I used Gemini exclusively in my initial search. Of the six “successful” campaigns it identified, further research revealed the bot had completely fabricated four of the results. Gemini apologized but the message was clear: be sure to source, cite and double-check any information the AI machines spit out.  – Greg the Fine

Greg Fine is a marketing consultant that works to elevate nonprofit marketing impact, revitalize giving campaigns, and bring energy and awareness to nonprofit brands and their mission.