Raising More Money with AI

·24 min·2 clips

Travis Tester reveals how his two-person development team uses AI to save 15 hours weekly for donor meetings.

The episode begins with host Bill Stankiewicz introducing guest Travis Tester, Chief Development and Communications Officer for Foster Success, a nonprofit supporting teens aging out of foster care in Indiana. Travis provides context about his organization's $5 million budget and two-person development team. He explains his philosophy of embracing change and working smarter with technology. Travis challenges the assumption that only large organizations can use AI, noting small nonprofits often have more flexibility to experiment. He shares multiple free AI tools, starting with Canva Write for social media text and Grammarly as everyday AI examples. Travis describes Salesforce's Einstein tool that automatically logs donor email interactions. He details using Nentex within Salesforce to automate segmented thank-you letters based on donation type. The guest highlights Otter.ai for recording and summarizing donor meetings, then linking interests to specific programs like education or basic needs. Travis estimates this saves him 15 hours weekly, allowing more donor contact time. He mentions self-teaching through webinars from Charity Excellence and tools like InVideo AI for creating videos from text. Bill notes the Fundraising School offers a three-hour online AI course. The episode concludes with promotional information about the school's courses, certificates, and textbook.

As heard by us

A grounded look at everyday AI tools that can make nonprofit fundraising work easier.

Artificial intelligence lands here as a working fundraising aid rather than a distant technology theme. Bill Stankiewicz asks Travis Tester, Chief Development and Communications Officer for Foster Success, to tie the subject to support for teens and young adults leaving foster…

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Want AI fundraising help that starts with tools already in reach?

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