There’s a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from answering the same questions, looking up the same information, and recreating the same documents over and over again. 

Even with the familiarity of patterns, the work demands complete attention every single time.  

Those of us in donor relations and stewardship can spend much of our day thumbing through our mental file cabinet.

Where do I find that policy? How should I respond to this email? Which version is current? Who needs to approve this next?

These redundant questions are signals. They point to prime candidates for optimization. So let’s explore some ideas on how to make your time in the office feel less like Groundhog Day. 

Low-Hanging Fruit

Productivity author David Allen likes to say, “your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.” 

Dave, I couldn’t agree with you more. There is not enough fish oil in this world to allow my brain to sustainably keep all the metaphorical balls in the air. The good news is that we can lighten that cognitive load by allowing technology to do some of that heavy lifting for us. 

Content generation is a common use of AI because it has the lowest barrier to entry. Anyone can open up ChatGPT and ask their new robot friend to help them draft an email. But that is only scratching the surface. The AI assistance is no longer relevant after that email is sent.

However, if we shift our focus from these one-and-done conversations to strategic use of AI and automation to reduce redundancies, we could get far more leverage out of readily available tech solutions.

Wondering where to get started? Here are some low-risk opportunities that are right in front of you: 

• Frequently repeated tasks

• Frequently referenced documents

• Common questions you receive

• Tasks you won’t remember to do unless prompted

• Not knowing where to look for certain information

• Having to constantly copy and paste data

• Manual data entry

  
  

The less you can worry about these things, the more space you will have to do the meaningful work of building relationships with your organization’s generous donors.

Use Cases

Now hopefully, the ideas above got your creative juices flowing. Our intent is to get you looking at your day-to-day operations with an editor’s eye. 

But if this is still too theoretical, don’t worry. Below are some less-than-obvious use cases for you to try out. Some, you can implement today. Others are intended for you to redesign for your organization.

1. Are the proposed terms of the gift agreement consistent with our naming policy?

Typical Workflow

You scour your files to try to find the appropriate policy. Then you read through the entire policy until you find the piece you’re looking for. You make a judgment call based on what you have read. One-Time Setup

Create a notebook in Google’s NotebookLM specifically for storing all policy documents. These become the primary source of knowledge for your AI chat experience in that notebook.  

New Workflow

Ask your question in the AI chat dialogue of your new policy notebook. The AI responds with your answer and hyperlinks to the relevant portion of your specific policy document. You click on the citation, bringing you to the relevant portion of the appropriate document, then read it to verify with human eyes. 

2. How can I maximize this long-form program update? 

Typical Workflow

A program director sends a long-form email update. You rewrite this for an annual impact report. Communications rewrites it into a blurb for the newsletter. A relationship manager forwards the email to a donor. Alumni Relations gets one social media post out of it. Of course, that is if the original content makes its way to the right parties.

One-Time Setup

Create a Custom GPT in ChatGPT, a Gem in Google’s Gemini, or its equivalent in your AI provider of choice). Upload your brand and style guides. Tell it that its job is to create a “content pack” which includes a principal summary of the original content as well as repurposed content specified by the user at the time of prompting. Be sure to add additional parameters specific to channels or audiences such as:

• Principal Summaries are the source of truth and should include 6-10 bullets

• Social media posts should be: X characters or less. Broken up into easily digestible sentences. Suggest hashtags or mentions. Include a call-to-action.

• Emails from relationship managers to individual donors should feel personable and not exceed X words.

• Newsletter blurb: Use a hook to trigger interest and curiosity. Should be 2-4 sentences and include a hyperlink to the complete story. 

  
  

Build in guardrails to reduce risk by specifying that it should never invent metrics, always remove identifying information, etc.

New Workflow

Use your custom GPT that is trained on commonly repeated parameters. Copy/share the program update from the program director to the Custom GPT chat. Ask it to create a Content Pack. 

Refine the output and share with the appropriate parties. 

3. How can I add more donor touchpoints for a first-time donor without adding more staff?

Typical Workflow

Try to remember to run a report of first-time donors each month. Spend hours of staff time mail merging an additional acknowledgment letter and corresponding envelopes in Microsoft Word. Or worse: doing nothing at all.

One-Time Setup

Plan ahead to send later. Use a CRM like GiveButter Plus to program a workflow for a specific segment with timing determined by the date of the gift. 

New Workflow

Using your first-time donor workflow, create a drip-campaign. You draft a templated communication once and simply drag and drop the relevant fields to generate a personalized final product. This can be an email or text message and scheduled in advance. You may also assign suggested tasks like phone calls to relationship managers. Provide a suggested script to further reduce friction. 

4. How am I supposed to execute my annual goals?

Typical Workflow

Administration asks you to draft your strategic goals for the year. You jot down some outcome goals like increasing first-time donor retention rates. But then what? They usually end up in a Word document until you’re asked to complete the assignment again next year.

New Workflow

Use AI to help you go from outcome goal to process goal. Have ChatGPT map out touchpoints, channel, call-to-action, recommended dates, and success metrics. Refine the plan. Schedule recurring quarterly or monthly reviews of the plan and metrics to ensure progress.

For a visual representation, copy and paste your plan into a tool like Google’s NotebookLM.

Then use one of the multiple built-in summary features. The most useful features for a project like this are Infographic, Mind Map, and Slide Deck.

5. How can I quickly pull key points from event remarks?

Typical Workflow

You either rely on getting the fully edited video back from the videographer or you don’t capture the remarks at all and must rely on your notes or memory. 

New Workflow

Record the remarks yourself—video or audio will do. If you want, you can get high tech and plug directly into the soundboard (though this may require a special dongle). For a more low-tech solution, just park yourself where you can clearly hear the speaker and click record on your device.

Now you can use your tool of choice to get the transcript. If recording from your mobile device, then you likely have functionality at your fingertips. I’m able to get a transcript from my Voice Memos app as well as Apple Notes. In fact, Apple Notes even provides me with a summary. Note: I am running iOS26 on an iPhone 17. 

From here, you could put that transcript into your LLM of choice and ask it to create an overview, identify strong pull quotes, and generate social media posts or post-event emails. 

If you’re working with video, you could even cut your own clips in Canva. 

Regardless of audio or video, you have something to work with so you can ship a post-event communication less than 24-hours after your event. 

6. I spend hours each week formatting spreadsheets. 

Typical Workflow

You receive raw data in CSV format from your reporting team. Each time you receive this list, you take the same steps to format the spreadsheet to make it workable for you and your team. 

One-Time Setup

Open the list in Excel. Go to the ‘Automate’ tab, click the ‘New Script’ button, and select ‘Create from Recording.’ 

Make all your preferred formatting changes—font, freeze rows/columns, text/number format, highlight cells, hide rows/columns, move content, insert charts, set page layout, protect workbook/sheet, insert sheets, etc. Select ‘Stop’ when done and name the script. 

Now when you receive a new list, go to ‘Automate,’ ‘View Scripts,’ and select the script that you made. Click the play button to run the script and boom! Your spreadsheet is now formatted!

Conclusion

Now that you’ve walked through specific use cases for leveraging AI and automation, the pattern should be clear. 

The most effective applications of AI and automation are about doing less of the same work over and over again. 

Each example followed the same blueprint:

1. Identify the question/task that is commonly repeated.

2. Set up the tool that can do, assist, or improve your output. 

3. Use the tool! Review the output with human eyes. 

4. Refine the tool. This is an iterative process by design.
   

This is how you break out of professional Groundhog Day. Not by automating everything and chasing the latest tool, but by paying attention to those moments that trigger déjà stúwardship. 

By strategically freeing up your time, you can take your work from mundane to meaningful. 

Have you used AI or automation to improve your work? We want to hear about it!

Plus, stay tuned for our new AI Lab: Practical Tools for Donor Relations Professionals launching in March!

PS: If you have redundancies that are ripe for optimization but still don’t know where to start, the Donor Relations Group can help you with that. Reach out to info@donorrelations.com to get more info on our consulting services. 

Written by Madelyn Jones