By Eric Okimoto & Katrina VanHuss
No more dumb questions, we don’t care what your fourth-grade teacher said.
A dumb question is a question asked with no context. And, as peer to peer (P2P) organizers send their volunteer fundraisers into the world, they are sending them out there to ask dumb questions, which can make fundraising pretty darned hard. The particular dumb question we are talking about is a request for donation in the absence of solid data about the party being asked. Typically, the only data a volunteer fundraiser has is what they personally know about the potential donor or what they find by scouring the web. And there is so much more to know.
Welcome to the World of Smart Questions and Deep Influence
Asking the right individual the right question brings the two sides of influence into action. Some of an individual’s predictable behaviors (like donating) emanate from their demographic data, their disposition, their background. These attributes include things like ethnicity, wealth, prior giving. The rest of predictable behaviors emanate from the conditions to which the potential donors are subjected. Those conditions include, ‘My friend asked me to donate.’ The analysis of predictable behaviors and conditions are what provides volunteer fundraisers with smart questions and deep influence.
With the power of AI, boodleAI helps volunteer fundraisers raise more money by capitalizing on machine learning algorithms which include these smart attributes and conditions. Typically, a P2P fundraiser sorts through their own contact lists and then tries to decide who will say yes to the request. They decide who to ask based on what they know. Far too often, what they know is limited to what they can remember. Using a fully secure and private process, boodleAI appends third-party data to the volunteer fundraiser’s contacts, letting them know who is likely to say yes. Results show the typical boodleAI user raises over $1,000 more than without the tool.
That kind of result means a few things:
- More revenue – the ROI is great, but arguably is not the most important outcome.
- More and better new donors – donors acquired in this fashion are simply more likely to convert and become organization-attached based on past behavior and other factors. Typical P2P acquired donors give primarily due to peer influence. boodleAI donors give for shared affinity reasons. That’s why they give more often and at higher amounts.
- Happier P2P volunteer fundraisers – success feels good. Combined with robust recognition, success at fundraising will bond this fundraiser more tightly to the organization. Fundraisers like reaching out to people who are likely to share an affinity for the cause.
We spend a lot of time listening to industry leaders. Here’s what we hear: raising money is hard, acquisition is hard, retention is hard. They evaluate the best opportunities, including, “what we did last year.” Good opportunities to address the challenges are few, and new ideas are hard to come by.
The Future of P2P Fundraising is Human-AI Teams
That’s why Turnkey and boodleAI have decided to partner together.
Turnkey is the premier P2P fundraising strategy firm in the world. Name a major nonprofit, and Turnkey has probably worked with them. March of Dimes, Susan G. Komen, the Alzheimers Association, UNICEF New Zealand, Need Help Foundation in Russia – it is a deep and diverse list. Nonprofit professionals trust Turnkey’s empirically-tested strategies and deep knowledge of human behavior to support their P2P fundraising efforts. Turnkey’s 30 years of service and study which have led to measurable results for nonprofit clients compared to the national average.
boodleAI was founded by nonprofit board members and supporters who wanted to tap their networks to raise money for their favorite missions but lacked the tools to easily find friends and colleagues who would be inclined to support their cause. The advent of AI technologies in other industries left the team wondering why the same could not be done to help nonprofits. That curiosity led the team to develop boodle, an AI assistant that helps nonprofit supporters identify, recruit, and engage donors from their social networks to make a positive difference in the world.
A New Partnership that is Well-positioned to Help Nonprofits Go Further, Faster
Turnkey’s clients will benefit from boodleAI’s improved messaging and optimized analytics. boodleAI’s clients will benefit by having deeply experienced P2P strategists at the ready. Together, Turnkey and boodleAI’s new partnership is well-positioned to help nonprofit’s go further, faster.
You heard it here first: the intelligence of the boodle platform combined with the P2P expertise of Turnkey is the future of smarter P2P fundraising and donor acquisition.
For more information, see our press release. Ready to get started? Request your account today and start using boodle to help your best fundraisers find new donors and supporters.