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Monthly giving is one of those things every small nonprofit knows it should be doing, but rarely has the staff time to build out properly. A new crop of AI tools is starting to change that math — letting solo fundraisers and skeleton crews sketch out donor segmentation, email sequences, and full campaign strategies in hours instead of weeks.

The Chronicle talked to two small nonprofits using AI this way. One executive director in Los Angeles used an AI tool trained on a fundraising consultant's own book and coaching calls to rebuild her monthly giving page and set a donor growth plan. Another in Tennessee — a two-person shop — used an AI tool built into her donor database to more than double her monthly recurring revenue while recovering from surgery.

The tension worth sitting with: these tools are explicitly being marketed as a substitute for hiring. Here's how the ED put it:

>"It acts as a partner and it does so much that it also keeps us from having to hire someone. We don't have the budget to hire someone else." — Kimberly Alexander, Executive Director, Haven House for Children

Discussion Questions:

1. If you've used AI tools for fundraising strategy or donor communications, what actually worked — and where did it fall short?
2. Does framing AI as a replacement for hiring worry you, or does it feel like a realistic response to what small nonprofits can actually afford?
3. How do you think AI-built donor journeys compare to ones built by a human who knows your community?

Note: This story is behind a paywall, however a limited number of Chronicle stories are available for free each month to readers who register at philanthropy.com.

The leaders of the MacArthur Foundation and DonorsTrust don't usually find much common ground. But last week they shared a stage at the libertarian Cato Institute to make a joint case: that government threats to nonprofit independence aren't a left or right issue — they're a threat to the freedoms that underpin civil society for everyone.

As one leader put it, defending these freedoms "is not about protecting our sector" — it's about the fundamental rights of speech and association that belong to all Americans.

Discussion questions for the community:

• Do you think this kind of bipartisan coalition can hold under sustained political pressure?
• Is your organization feeling the effects of the current climate around nonprofit oversight?
• Are there other issues in the sector where you'd want to see left and right come together?

For decades, the standard choreography of a nonprofit gala consisted of a few hundred well-dressed donors, a plated dinner, a paddle raise, and a gift bag as guests streamed out the door. But the major donors who fill those tables have changed — and so have the events designed to court them.

What moves wealthy philanthropists today is an event that feels specific, intimate, and distinctly tied to the mission.

Three nonprofit leaders who have recently hosted home-run events share the new rules of courting big donors.

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