AI prompts for nonprofits

Is there a more buzzy subject than AI these days? We don’t think so! And for good reason too. 

AI is going to change the game for nonprofit marketing teams. Will it all be good? Probably not. But it will significantly increase the impact a small, hard-working team can make. That is … if they use AI in effective (and ethical) ways! 

We’re going to jump into a few ways your team can start using nonprofit marketing prompts today and get even better outputs from AI.

The saying holds true, “trash in, trash out.” So step one in using AI effectively is giving it the right nonprofit marketing prompt. A generic one is going to give you a generic response, but when you give it specific and nuanced inputs, you’re going to end up with far better results!

Let’s run through a few of the major channels your team can start building a little faster with the help of AI prompts for nonprofits.

Nonprofit email prompts

Email is always going to be a part of the heartbeat of successful nonprofit marketing strategies. From fundraising to sharing impact stories, email is an incredible way to speak one-to-one with almost all of your people — and at the same time!

AI may not be ready to write the next Great American Novel, but it’s certainly ready to help you draft your next email campaign. That’s because AI is great at giving a lot of quick ideas that you can sort through, edit, and send.

Before building out a specific fundraising email prompt for your upcoming campaign, tell your AI counterpart to learn more about your organization by giving it links to URLs of the core pages on your site. Point to examples of other articles and content (again, in the form of URLs) that are a good fit in terms of tone and voice. And let AI know that’s what it should be aiming for.

Now that it has an idea about the overall mission, it’s time to get into the specifics. Your email prompt should include the following:

• What you want readers to do after reading the email (think CTA — but let AI give you options for the actual CTA).
• A specific word count (is it a quick 50-word email or a longer 300-word one?).
• Any and every detail you know about the audience you’re sending the email to, and the suggestion to AI that it matches that group.

You’re welcome to use more details about the tone and voice in the actual prompt, but the best is if you give it those things in the pre-prompt (have we invented a new AI term?). And the reality is that it likely won’t get it right the first time, and that’s ok! I don’t get every writing assignment right the first time either!

It’s always going to require some back and forth, and the initial prompt is really only the beginning of the conversation. What it sends back to you is unlikely going to be ready to publish.

Maybe it didn’t come across serious enough if you’re looking for a big emotional ask. So tell it “rewrite and add a sense of urgency and seriousness.” Or maybe it felt a little too dry and statistical. So tell it “rewrite in a more conversational way, and include a good story or two.”

Nonprofit ad copy 

Just like emails, AI is also really good at coming up with nonprofit ad copy ideas. A primary reason why it’s so good at these quick lines: it doesn’t approach it as rocket science.

Good ad copy is direct and to the point. A lot of us human beings want to be artists when it comes to crafting a quippy phrase, but AI is pretty good about keeping things simple — and that really matters when it comes to designing ads. And that’s what people who see your ad are looking for — someone to tell them what to do next?

In your prompt, include the landing page where the ad goes to, the word count, and as much context about the campaign as possible, including the audience and the desired outcome (for example ticket purchases, donations, or volunteer sign ups). And then unlike email, ask it to give you 10 different iterations.

Again, the prompt is only step one. Now it’s time to refine, refine, refine.

Tell it which of the 10 results you really like. And if it didn’t succeed the first time, tell it what you want it to do differently. We all need feedback before we end up in the right place.

And one of the best parts about it coming up with so many options is that you now have the ability to A/B test your favorites. Or if it gave 3 good ones, you can A/B/C test instead!

Nonprofit marketing strategy

Ok, AI may not be at a place to offer an all encompassing year-end strategy for your nonprofit’s marketing campaigns. But that doesn’t mean it can’t offer you some new ideas while you do the hard work of shaping them into a cohesive plan.

Tell AI what you’ve already been doing in terms of strategy and the specific outcomes. Then point out whatever difficulties you’re facing and even offer ideas for why you think these things are getting in the way.

Again, overcommunicate. Remember, this isn’t a person on the other end of the line. You can ramble all day long if you want to, and it’ll pay close attention to every word. Your final nonprofit marketing prompt should be direct and clear, but that doesn’t mean you can’t lay the groundwork in those brainstorming conversations.

This will go a long way in terms of the results you’ll get out of AI.

When it comes time to ask for strategy ideas, think of something like “give me 5 campaign ideas for a museum trying to attract new members” or “create a social media post to promote our annual gala to past attendees.”

Your people still want to hear from you

As a writer, I’ve never seen an AI piece that I liked as much as my own words. But maybe that’s only a healthy (or unhealthy …) amount of professional pride.

That being said, you need to pay close attention to how the writing feels to you. And you should — since it’s still up to you to publish it — shape and edit it to your liking (what I really mean is shape it to feel like it’s yours!). 

Your community is going to feel a little neglected if they get the sense you don’t have time to talk to them. That’s what your marketing efforts are at the end of the day!

One thing to remember with AI is that everything is editable. So the phrase, “third time’s a charm” is a good thing to recall here. After your first prompt doesn’t work. Try and try again. Or try and try and try and try again.

Things like “read this article at this url: [insert url for reference] and rewrite the article more in that style and tone” or “try writing that same article in a more conversational and human way” or “include more analogies in the same style and tone as your first response, Chad” (that’s what I like to call ChatGPT) can go a long way in getting you to the desired output.

And we want to hear from you

We still answer emails over here, and — at least for now — we’re still writing our own blog posts!

Another thing we still love doing: talking to nonprofits that are taking their marketing efforts to greater heights. If you’re looking for ways to automate your emails or reach new people with display ads, book a demo with us today!