Nonprofit AI with Mallory Erickson: How to Create Prompts and Ethical Guidelines

Why mindset matters when using nonprofit AI

AI can’t relieve the emotional labor of fundraising, but it can ease the chronic stress created by feelings of perfectionism and overwhelming workloads.

The key is approaching AI as a tool for alignment:

• Clarify your message and purpose
• Strengthen donor relationships
• Ease the decision fatigue that keeps you in reactive mode
• Reduce the burnout that comes from trying to do it all
• Develop more sustainable daily practices

I created a prompting guide to help fundraisers approach AI with the right mindset—find it Inside AI for Nonprofits, the free resource from DonorPerfect!

Get copy-and-paste prompts for scenarios like:

Personalized outreach

• Campaign planning
• Donor stories
• Re-engagement
• Virtual event follow-up

How to prompt nonprofit AI

Anytime I’m working with fundraisers who are curious about nonprofit AI, my goal is to help them stay grounded in their values while letting AI handle the heavy lifting on structure, phrasing, and first drafts.

Remember, your talent cannot be replicated—your fundraising knowledge and mission values are what guide your AI tool. Time-consuming tasks like campaign planning and personalized outreach can be started with AI, but should be polished by a fundraising professional like you. Let AI kick off the heavy lift, then bring your strategy, instincts, and voice to shape what really matters.

And if you’re feeling stuck, you can use AI for creative and emotional support.

To get started, here’s the five-step process I recommend:

Step 1: Identify your need

Create a prompt based on the fundraising task or emotional support you need—whether that’s crafting donor stories, reframing scarcity mindset, or generating personalized appeals.

Step 2: Customize the prompt

Provide context and background information to make your prompt more specific, such as campaign details, audience segments, or organizational values.

Step 3: Activate your nonprofit AI tool

Paste your customized prompt into your preferred generative AI platform. Some tools—like ChatGPT—allow you to upload documents to support your prompt, such as strategy briefs or meeting notes.

Step 4: Review and refine

Ensure the output aligns with your mission, voice, ethical standards, and fundraising strategy. Ask your nonprofit AI for as many revisions as you need. E.g., “Please tailor this appeal letter to a once frequent donor who recently lapsed.”

Step 5: Apply your content

The goal is to pair your creativity with the capabilities of your nonprofit CRM. Fundraising data (such as list criteria and engagement metrics) can strengthen your nonprofit AI outputs—try including it in your initial prompt or providing it as guidance for revisions.

For example, DonorPerfect can strengthen your nonprofit AI outputs by:

• Populating placeholders (like name and gift amount) with donor data
• Creating segment-specific lists to match your AI-generated content
• Creating automated email campaigns for each segment-specific list
• Tracking how donors engage with AI-generated vs. organic content

How to develop ethical guidelines

Before integrating nonprofit AI into your team’s workflow, establish clear, human-centered guidelines. These protect donor relationships, strengthen trust, and ensure that AI supports (rather than overrides) your values. Your donors trust you with their stories. That trust isn’t something we should ever delegate to a machine.

Here’s what I recommend:

Keep humans in the lead

AI can generate ideas, structure, and drafts, but humans must make final decisions. AI is a helper, not a decision-maker. Your intuition, relationships, and values are the real drivers of aligned fundraising.

Before using any AI-generated content, take time to ensure that:

• Messaging aligns with your organization’s values and mission
• Tone feels authentic, warm, and human
• Language honors your nonprofit community’s identity and culture
• Stories are portrayed accurately, without embellishment or misrepresentation

Protect donor privacy

Never enter personally identifiable donor data into nonprofit AI tools.
Instead:

• Use generalized segment descriptions
• Merge personal details securely inside your nonprofit CRM later
• Avoid copying donor stories or gift histories directly into AI inputs

Prioritize cultural and contextual accuracy

AI doesn’t know your community like you do. Without thoughtful review, it can flatten lived experience or miss the nuance that makes your work so powerful.

Without careful review, AI-generated content can unintentionally:

• Misinterpret or oversimplify donor motivations
• Use phrasing that feels culturally insensitive or out of touch
• Overlook community context, historical nuance, or identity-related considerations
• Generalize experiences that should be treated with specificity and care
• Reinforce stereotypes or assumptions embedded in its training data

Be transparent internally

Get on the same page before rolling out your nonprofit AI subscription.
Make sure your team understands:

• What data is safe to use
• What tools are approved
• How AI-generated content should be revised
• How to talk about AI’s role in your organization

Use AI to support well-being (not replace it)

AI can help reframe stress, perfectionism, or mindset challenges, but it should never be your only source of emotional support. Prompts for creativity and well-being are designed to complement your reflective practices, team check-ins, and the human connections that make fundraising meaningful.

Perfectionism doesn’t mean you’re broken—it means your brain is trying to keep you safe. Let’s give it a new job.

Here are a few sample prompts to copy and paste:

Reframing scarcity mindset

“Act as a behavioral coach for fundraisers. Provide practical and effective neuroscience-backed strategies to help fundraisers shift from a scarcity mindset (characterized by anxiety and perfectionism) to an abundance mindset, particularly during high-stress fundraising periods like year-end.

• Evaluate and recommend the three most effective reframing techniques, considering ease of integration into daily routines and the potential positive impacts on mental health and donor relationships.

Then, create a practical daily reflection template, structured as follows:

• Identify a typical scarcity-driven thought
• Provide a clear and compelling reframe statement
• Suggest a simple self-care or connection-focused action to reinforce the abundance mindset

Additionally, include tips for fundraisers to easily incorporate this daily reflection routine into their regular practices, especially before engaging in donor interactions.”

Overcoming perfectionism
“Act as an executive coach for fundraisers’ well-being. Identify five common ways perfectionism manifests in fundraising activities and briefly explain how each can negatively affect burnout and donor relationships.

For each perfectionism symptom, propose a practical and easy-to-implement reframe or action step that can shift fundraisers from perfectionist behaviors to more effective, human-centered practices.

Create a structured daily ritual to help fundraisers consistently manage perfectionism, including:

• A morning mantra promoting ‘progress over perfection’
• A quick midday reflection prompt, ‘Who did I move forward today?’
• An end-of-day reflection prompt focused on identifying ‘one small win’

Provide actionable tips for integrating this ritual into regular individual routines and team check-ins.”

Want to practice your donor conversations before they happen? Check out my nonprofit AI platform, Practivated—the practice space for fundraisers! Through realistic simulations and instant feedback, you’ll strengthen your messaging, navigate objections, and walk into every donor interaction feeling confident. (DonorPerfect users: You’re eligible for preferred pricing! Check with your Account Manager for details.)

Nonprofit AI prompts for fundraisers

I partnered with DonorPerfect to provide fundraising prompts you can implement right away! Download your free copy of AI for Nonprofits for these ready-to-use prompts:

1. Campaign planning and alignment – Evaluate past campaigns and create AI-assisted plans that reflect your purpose, donor motivations, and organizational values.
2. Personalized fundraising appeals – Use AI to identify milestones, giving patterns, and motivations that resonate with your long-term donors.
3. Lapsed donor re-engagement – Analyze giving patterns and prepare personalized re-engagement strategies and outreach sequences.
4. Virtual event follow-up: Create warm, timely messages tailored to different donor segments.
5. Impactful donor stories – Craft more powerful stories centered on donor impact and shared purpose.

These ideas are just the beginning. Stay curious, lead with your values, and let AI make your fundraising more aligned, compassionate, and fulfilling. You don’t have to choose between fundraising that works and fundraising that feels good. You get to have both.

Happy prompting! – Mallory