What is ChatGPT and how does it work?
The term ChatGPT stands for “Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer”. In simple terms, it is an artificial intelligence (AI) that is specially designed to conduct natural and human-like dialogs. The way ChatGPT works is based on a powerful AI model that has previously been trained with an enormous amount of text data. This training enables ChatGPT to understand a wide range of information and respond appropriately to questions or requests. I have described“What is ChatGPT” in great detail in this special post.
Why is ChatGPT suitable for fundraising?
ChatGPT can conduct natural-sounding dialogs, compose e-mail drafts, generate blog texts, perform research and brainstorming tasks and much more. These functions also make the chatbot a useful and important tool for fundraising. In this post, I’ll show you some examples of how you can use ChatGPT for your next fundraising campaign.
What are ChatGPT prompts?
ChatGPT prompts are like small requests or tasks that we send to the chatbot ChatGPT. These prompts are like hints or instructions for the chatbot to help us with various things. If we ask ChatGPT with a prompt, it can write us helpful answers or even texts that we need. The great thing is that we can use ChatGPT prompts to get ideas, improve texts or even invent new stories. It’s almost as if we have a clever writing helper at our side to help us write better and get information. Another term for prompts would also be “command”. You can find a brief overview of the most important prompts in my last post on prompts.
Applications of ChatGPT in fundraising
With the right prompts, ChatGPT can also support fundraising and make employees’ work more efficient. Here are a few examples of how ChatGPT can be used in fundraising. However, this is only a small selection of the many possibilities you have with ChatGPT.
Create landing page
Every fundraising campaign needs a landing page. This can be the landing page for the appeal for donations or the landing page for the entire project. ChatGPT can first create a content structure for you and then even generate suitable texts and call-to-actions for your landing page. And with other tools like DALL-E, you can even create images with the help of AI.
Of course, you should not copy the results of ChatGPT 1:1, but critically scrutinize the content and adapt it to your campaign and your values.
A possible prompt here could be: “Please create a rough outline for the planned fundraising campaign with the target <Target>. The name of the campaign is <Campaign name>. The target group is <Target group> and the fundraising campaign starts at <Start date>”.
The more information you include about your campaign in the prompt, the better your results will be.
Compose e-mail texts
As part of your fundraising campaign, you will certainly have to create many emails or newsletters. ChatGPT can prepare the emails for you as drafts and you simply add your own input to the drafts. ChatGPT can create thank you emails, update emails and many other email types for you. ChatGPT can adapt the e-mail content precisely to your target group. If your target groups differ in terms of tone or needs, ChatGPT can prepare different email templates with the same end goal for you in no time at all.
I deliberately emphasize here that ChatGPT only creates drafts. It is important that you critically scrutinize the result of ChatGPT and adjust it if necessary.
A possible prompt could be: You are in the role of <Role> and should send an invitation email for the event <Event name> on <Target group> send. The event will take place at <event date> in <event location>. The following conditions apply to participation and registration <Conditions of participation / registration information>. The event has <number of places> places and the registration deadline is <registration deadline date>.
The same applies to this prompt: the more information you give ChatGPT at the first prompt, the better the result you will get.
Create social media posts
At the moment, it is probably still a little tricky to give ChatGPT responsibility for the entire social media channel. But ChatGPT can create ideas for social media posts and supplement them with suitable hashtags and other additional information. Again, the more information ChatGPT has about your campaign, the better the result will be.
Here’s a possible prompt: You manage the Linkedin channel of a company in the <industry. Develop 3 ideas for Linkedin posts on the topic <Insert content topic> that will appeal to the target group <Insert target group>. Include appropriate call-to-actions, images and hashtags wherever possible.
Create a marketing plan
ChatGPT can help you create a marketing plan. With this prompt, it is essential to give ChatGPT as much information as possible so that the result matches your campaign and your target group. Apart from that, you should supplement the marketing plan created by ChatGPT with your own ideas and requirements if necessary. The following is a possible prompt, which you are welcome to customize.
Create a marketing plan for <event, product>. The event / product will take place / be launched on <Date Launch>. We have a marketing budget of <Marketing budget>. We already use the following social media platforms and communication media <Social media, newsletters that are already in use>. The aim is to reach <number of people / reach> with the campaign.
Provide article drafts
In addition to the general project descriptions, many fundraising campaigns have their own blog where they regularly publish updates and more in-depth information about the campaign. ChatGPR can also provide support here and generate article ideas or article content for you. A possible prompt would be the following:
You are a blog author. Help me find a topic. Generate 5 article ideas that might interest my readers on the <topic>. List the article ideas in tabular form with the narrative goal in one sentence in a second column.
Generate draft applications
For many NGOs, writing applications has almost become routine. Now it’s time for the use of ChatFPT to become routine. ChatGPT probably can’t submit an entire application on its own, but it can do important research for you, formulate texts and much more.
Data protection and ethics in the use of AI technologies
Of course, when using ChatGPT in fundraising, there are some aspects that need to be considered with regard to data protection and security. In general, all information that employees send to the ChatGPT chatbot is processed by the AI model and can also be used for further AI training purposes. It is therefore advisable not to exchange any sensitive or confidential data with the ChatGPT chatbot. You can also find out more about data protection and ChatGPT in one of my last posts.
It should also be noted that ChatGPT is based on extensive knowledge from the Internet. Not all information is always correct. It is therefore possible that ChatGPT is using an incorrect knowledge source and is therefore producing an incorrect response. This makes it all the more important that all ChatGPT results are critically scrutinized by us humans. If you create your own chatbot based on Generative AI, you have control over the accuracy of the content. So if you have “good” sources of knowledge, the number of incorrect answers will be significantly lower.
Conclusion: ChatGPT in fundraising
ChatGPT does not always have to support the large corporations. OpenAI’s chatbot also supports NGOs and other non-profit organizations and can help with fundraising. It is important to note that the chatbot is merely a supplement to existing employees and not an addition. Companies must also ensure that they do not transfer any sensitive data to ChatGPT, but anonymize it beforehand. ChatGPT can also make mistakes. We must therefore always critically scrutinize the results of the chatbot.
Get started with ChatGPT
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