Overview

AI is a new kind of fire. It can warm donor relationships, deepening trust and individualized attention across the entire donor base. Or it can burn those relationships to a cinder. Foreword by Steven L. Meyers, author of Personalized Philanthropy. Stephen Christopher Nill is skeptical of AI in fundraising. After decades building development programs and publishing dozens of books on nonprofit fundraising, governance, and management, he has watched AI insert itself between organizations and their donors, increasing the distance and eroding trust. The hype cycle suggests using AI as a shortcut for producing more appeals, more emails, and ""personalized"" communications at higher volume. The result is more words and fewer relationships. Donors sense that something mechanical has replaced something human, and they drift away. Nill has built the answer. In Holding Fire, he lays out the Human-Centered AI Framework that was created for AI to read at the start of every session. Once it does, it knows just how to work with development officers to build deeper and more productive human-to-human relationships with our donors. The process is remarkably simple. Hand the Human-Centered AI Framework Operating Specification to your AI at the start of any session, and the AI works inside the framework from the first prompt. The Specification, which Nill makes available online for readers to use, is built to work with the AI inside the relationship-building systems fundraisers already use, including Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT, Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud, Bloomerang, DonorPerfect, Neon CRM, Virtuous, Little Green Light, EveryAction, and Kindful, among others. You can start Monday morning with the data you already have, in the platform you already use. Or you can experiment with the free online Practice Portfolio Nill built around the same fictitious donors he introduces in the book. The framework's first move is a healthy division of labor: AI handles synthesis, drafting, pattern recognition, and portfolio-wide tracking; the human fundraiser handles the relationship work that only a human can do. The same quality of preparation once reserved for top prospects now extends to every donor at every level. Nill introduces the Monday morning review as a starting point each week. The AI reads the full donor base, flags what needs attention with specific rationale, and drafts the communications you review, thoughtfully revise, and send. Lapsed donors who stopped giving because the organization stopped paying attention come back into view. Faithful midlevel donors who quietly increase their support get acknowledged. Major gift visits get the preparation that used to be reserved for the top of the portfolio. The ""honored or handled"" ethical test keeps the donor's interest first, always. Major gifts officers, annual fund directors, planned giving specialists, and development directors face the same questions, whether they recognize them clearly or not: How can we use AI to build more and deeper productive relationships with our donors? How do we keep AI from working against us in the process? Holding Fire answers them. Whether your shop has one fundraiser or hundreds, the framework keeps the human at the center. Written by a skeptic, for skeptics.

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9781938077319

Table of Contents

Reviews

""Skeptical, but hopeful,"" exactly how I feel about AI. So, when Steve told me he was writing a book about AI in fundraising called Holding Fire, I said, ""I gotta read this."" And as usual, Steve did not disappoint. I am no longer afraid of being burned by AI; I now see it as a way to keep me warm and cook my ""food,"" my relationships with my colleagues and clients, as Steve teaches you to do with your donors. Linda Lysakowski, ACFRE, MTS-FT Fundraisers do not need another breathless celebration of AI. They need a disciplined way to use it without surrendering the human relationships at the heart of philanthropy. Holding Fire delivers exactly that. Stephen Nill writes as a real-world practitioner, keeping AI in its proper role: beside the fundraiser, sharpening preparation and judgment, but never standing between donor, mission, and meaning. Russell N. James III, J.D., Ph.D., CFP(R) Your AI must read this book! Stephen Nill's framework for artificial intelligence is more than skin deep - it's actual intelligence. Its deepest structural layer (called a specification) is an ethical foundation. Think concrete and rebars. Under Nill's watchful eye, your AI becomes a partner, no longer fighting with you over who's driving and who's the passenger. For me, the best part is that the prompts and principles of Personalized Philanthropy (killer apps and all) are built in, not added on. Steven L Meyers, PhD, author of Personalized Philanthropy: Crash the Fundraising Matrix A great read! It is thought provoking, thorough, informative, helpful, and faithful to fundraising ethics. As a nonprofit CEO, I found the chapters on leadership and governance particularly pertinent. Holding Fire is not only written for the hands-on fundraiser but anyone-board, staff, or executive leader-involved in the procurement of philanthropic resources. I give it five stars! Joanne Oppelt, MHA, CNE, CDE, CNC

Author Information

Stephen Nill, JD, founded CharityChannel in 1992, building it into one of the largest online communities of nonprofit-sector practitioners in the world. He has edited, designed, and published dozens of books for the nonprofit sector through CharityChannel Press. Over four decades, Stephen has built, administered, and advised fundraising programs in the United States and internationally that have raised billions of dollars. He has served as senior vice president of development at a hospital system, chief advancement officer at a West Coast university, director of development at a parochial school he helped to found, and founder and executive director of a charity that feeds the homeless in Southern California. The Grant Professionals Association presented him with its first President's Award. The Grant Professionals Certification Institute later honored him with the Pauline G. Annarino Award for foundational contributions to its existence. Stephen has been a frequent commentator on charitable giving for CNN, Fox News, MSNBC (now MS NOW), and other news shows. He has provided training to attorneys on advanced charitable gift planning techniques on behalf of the State Bar of California's continuing legal education program. As a lawyer and consultant, he advised hundreds of nonprofit organizations and educational institutions. Stephen's engagement with artificial intelligence reaches back to the 1970s, decades before the current wave. Holding Fire: A Skeptic's Framework for the Fundraiser with AI at Your Side draws on that long history and on his career inside development offices. He writes weekly to development professionals through CharityChannel and other platforms. These days he's busy writing his first novel and composing symphonic music in his music studio.

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