The year-end giving season has always stretched nonprofit teams to their limits. This year, however, AI is playing a new role—drafting communications, segmenting donors, analyzing engagement trends, and easing the workload during the busiest fundraising weeks of the year. As AI becomes more embedded in nonprofit operations, leaders are asking the right questions about data safety and trust. Donor information is deeply personal, and AI can only strengthen generosity if it protects that trust at every step.
As someone who has spent more than 15 years building secure, scalable technology across fintech and mission-driven software, I believe one thing unequivocally: you cannot have AI-powered fundraising without rock-solid AI security. Trust is not a feature—it’s a foundation.
Below, I outline the essential security musts every nonprofit needs to understand before using AI in their year-end fundraising workflows.
Many nonprofits are already experimenting with AI for brainstorming, summarizing, or drafting content—but they can also introduce risk if teams aren’t clear on what their AI tool is contractually allowed to do with the information they input.
Without a strong agreement in place, you should never enter names, emails, gift histories, payment information, or personal donor notes into an AI tool. Many standard, readily available AI tools allow providers to store or learn from what you type, while enterprise contracts—like the ones Bloomerang uses—specifically prevent that. The bottom line: before sharing any sensitive data, make sure your AI tool is covered by an agreement that protects it.
What is safe to use includes anonymized data, donor segment descriptions, high-level trends, and copy drafts. Mastering this distinction is vital—especially when December’s giving sprint leaves little room for error. Your supporters trust you with their personal information; your tools should honor that trust with the same care.
No two AI models handle data the same way. Some log inputs indefinitely. Some train on them. Some share data across systems. Before your team types a single sentence into any AI tool, make sure you understand:
At Bloomerang, our AI capabilities are grounded in a Privacy by Design approach: donor data stays inside a secure, closed ecosystem—not used to train public models and not available to outside parties. Your mission deserves technology built for your realities, not retrofitted from someone else’s.
The safest, strongest approach is to use AI inside your giving platform or CRM—where access controls, encryption, and role permissions already protect sensitive information. These “walled-garden” systems keep data contained and use proven nonprofit expertise as context when engaging AI models.
Public AI may be powerful, but it isn’t grounded in donor confidentiality, fundraising ethics, or the relationship-driven nature of nonprofit work. Secure AI rooted in certified fundraising expertise and thousands of real coaching lessons—like the systems we build at Bloomerang—keeps your data in bounds and makes every recommendation traceable. That transparency is essential for a sector built on trust.
You don’t need to leap into full-scale AI adoption to benefit from it. Start with anonymized datasets or sample donor profiles to see how AI identifies trends or drafts content. From there, organizations can explore utilizing an LLM in which they have a commercial agreement that guarantees security and the privacy of their data.
For most nonprofits, the simplest and safest path is to use AI that’s already built into your CRM or giving platform. When your software provider handles the commercial agreement, permissions, integrations, and data protection, your team can focus on insights and impact—not infrastructure.
That said, always review the provider’s AI policy. Even built-in AI should never train on your donor data without explicit, transparent consent.
Great AI adoption starts with great guardrails. Every nonprofit—large or small—should have an AI usage policy that outlines:
Establishing guardrails protects donors, protects staff, and ensures smooth, responsible adoption across the organization.
AI can draft messages, summarize donor interactions, and recommend the next best step, but humans must stay involved—especially in emotionally sensitive or stewardship-focused communications.
AI can draft messages, summarize donor interactions, and recommend next steps—and the best AI models should be trained to understand your organization’s mission, values, and tone of voice. That grounding helps ensure the guidance and drafts they produce feel aligned with who you are.
Even so, humans still need to stay involved, especially for emotionally sensitive or stewardship-focused communication. Fundraising depends on empathy and trust, and a human review ensures every message reflects your organization’s intent, honors the donor relationship, and carries the authenticity only people can provide.
Nonprofits are increasingly aware of AI’s environmental cost. Large general-purpose models consume significant computing power—far more than most fundraising tasks require.
Bloomerang’s right-sized AI approach uses lightweight, efficient models for everyday tasks (like drafting acknowledgments or identifying strong upgrade prospects), reserving heavier models only for the tasks that truly need them. The result? Faster performance, lower environmental impact, and tools that scale responsibly with your organization.
December concentrates donor activity, generosity, outreach, and reporting into a few intense weeks. It’s a moment when AI can deliver extraordinary value—and a moment when lapses in security carry the greatest risk.
Purpose-built AI—like Penny inside the Bloomerang Giving Platform—helps fundraisers move faster and with more clarity, while keeping sensitive data fully protected. When AI is secure, explainable, and grounded in real fundraising strategy, it becomes an amplifier of generosity rather than a risk.
As AI becomes more woven into nonprofit operations, the organizations that thrive will be the ones that use explainable, secure, values-aligned technology built for stewardship. With the right guardrails, AI becomes more than a tool—it becomes a force multiplier for good.
Your mission is powerful. Your supporters are generous. And when your data is protected, your impact can keep pushing higher.
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