AI Bootcamp: donor-advised bots

The session

Why one day

In June a foundation put nine of its grantees in one room in New York for a morning on benefits access, and we ran it. Nobody there wanted another talk about what AI might do. They wanted to see an eligibility check run on a real application, watch it get one wrong, and argue about why. That morning produced the only engagement we have ever won from a workshop, and it is the shape of this day.

The Bootcamp is one day, and it ends with something running on your own data. We spend the morning choosing the problem, the afternoon building it with one of our engineers at your table, and the last hour showing the room what works and where it fell over. There is no product demo, because a demo is what most of you have already sat through. If a sale ever follows, it follows weeks later, when someone asks what it would take to run this properly.

It is built for the two people who never sit in the same session, the fundraiser who knows the donors and whoever ends up owning the tools, and it works when both come. Eight to twelve nonprofits fill the room, two or three people each, and every one of them arrives with one problem it has been meaning to solve, the lapsed-donor list nobody has written to or the grant report that takes a week. By five o’clock we expect that problem to have a working answer, and the notes to keep it working on Monday.

The day

How the day runs

One day, doors at a quarter to nine, drinks at five. Open a session to see what happens in it and who is in front of the room.

Morning, framing and choosing

08:45Doors open
Coffee and a table for each organisation. The engineer who is yours for the day finds you, and you show them the export you brought.
09:15The shape of the dayRalf Alwani and Jak Spencer
What the day is for and what it is not, how the pairing works, and what we will ask of you by four o'clock. One rule holds all day, which is that nothing gets built that you could not run yourselves on Monday.
09:30Opening talkGuest speaker, announced with the date
Someone who has put AI in front of their own donors, on what changed and what they would not do again. Twenty minutes, then questions.
10:00Five shifts in fundraisingRalf Alwani
The five themes further down the page, each shown working rather than described. A supporter finds a cause through an AI search, an agent answers a donor at eleven at night, a retention score runs on a real file, a CRM talks to a campaign, and a governance page comes out that a board would sign. Each gets ten minutes, including where it falls over.
11:00Coffee
11:15Bring your own problemEveryone
Each organisation names the one problem it will build against this afternoon, out loud, to the room. It might be the lapsed-donor list nobody has written to, the grant report that takes a week, or the inbox that gets answered on Friday. We help you cut it down to something a day can hold.
12:30Lunch

Afternoon, the build

13:15The buildYour team, with a Whitelabel engineer
Two and a half hours on your own data, in your own accounts, with an engineer beside you. Short skills sessions run at the side of the room for anyone who wants them, on getting a clean export out of a CRM, reading a retention score without a statistician, and writing the one-page policy a board will ask for.
15:30Coffee
15:45Show what runsEvery team
Each team has five minutes to show what works, what fell over, and what it would take to run it on Monday. The room asks questions and nobody pitches.
16:45Closing talkGuest speaker, announced with the date
Twenty minutes from someone outside the room on where this goes next for the sector, and what the people who fund this work now expect from it.
17:00Close
We go for a drink nearby, and every organisation leaves with something running and the notes to keep it that way.

Donor-advised bots

What we’ll explore

Five themes, each shown as something working rather than a slide, in the hour before you choose your own problem.

Discovery & donor visibility
How supporters discover your cause through AI search, recommendations and conversations.
We ask an AI search for a cause like yours and watch who it recommends, then look at what on your site decided it.
AI for donor experience
Specialist agents, intelligent websites and personalised donor journeys.
An agent answers a donor's question at eleven at night, takes the gift, and writes the thank-you. You see where it gets it wrong.
Prediction & fundraising foresight
From giving propensity and retention risk to campaign planning.
A retention score runs on a real donor file in the room, and we read it together without a statistician.
Connected intelligence & workflows
Linking CRM, campaign and donor knowledge with automated action.
A CRM export becomes a campaign, the campaign writes back to the CRM, and a person approves each send.
AI-ready fundraising teams
Governance, adoption and scaling beyond isolated experiments.
The one-page policy a board will sign, written from the day's work, and what to do when the pilot's champion leaves.

Bring your own problem

Arrive with one problem

The organisations in the room are the experts on their donors, and the afternoon is built on what they bring rather than what we show. Every nonprofit that has written to us this year asked for a version of the same handful of things, and any one of them fits in a day.

Sort thirty years of donor records into who to thank, who to ask for more and who to win back.
Lift the share of donors who give monthly from a fifth toward what the best healthcare charities manage.
Draft the follow-up to every donor conversation so it goes out the same day, in your voice.
Turn programme data into the grant report that currently takes a week.
Find the corporate sponsors that look like the ones you already have.
Check an emergency-assistance application against the eligibility rules before a person signs it off.

Organisations in the room

Eight to twelve nonprofits, named with the date.

Who is in the room

Hosts and guests

We host and our engineers pair with your team. Three guests join for the talks, and their names go to the sign-up list before they go anywhere else.

Ralf AlwaniCEO and co-founder, Whitelabel
Jak SpencerCo-founder, Whitelabel
Whitelabel engineersOne for every two organisations, all day
Opening speakerA fundraiser who has put AI in front of their own donorsAnnounced with the date
Closing speakerSomeone outside the room on where this goes nextAnnounced with the date
Funder in the roomOn what they now expect from the organisations they backAnnounced with the date

The practical part

Before you come

How long: One day, from a quarter to nine until five, with lunch and two coffee breaks in the room.
Where: On site, in one room, with a table for each organisation. The city and the venue go to the sign-up list first.
What it costs: It costs nothing to attend. A venue partner hosts the day, and a technology vendor never will, because some of them are what the room is there to replace.
Who comes: Eight to twelve nonprofits, two or three people each, the fundraiser who knows the donors and the person who owns the tools.
What to bring: A laptop, access to your CRM or an export from it, and the one problem you want solved by five o’clock.
Your data: It stays in your own accounts. We work beside you on it in the room and take nothing away with us.

Questions about the day go to hello@whitelabel.ai.

The sector whitepaper

Meet the first cohort

We partner with nonprofits taking bold leaps.

Donor-advised bots

Why one day

How the day runs

What we’ll explore

Discovery & donor visibility

AI for donor experience

Prediction & fundraising foresight

Connected intelligence & workflows

AI-ready fundraising teams

Arrive with one problem

Hosts and guests

Before you come

Donor-advised bots

Why one day

How the day runs

What we’ll explore

Discovery & donor visibility

AI for donor experience

Prediction & fundraising foresight

Connected intelligence & workflows

AI-ready fundraising teams

Arrive with one problem

Hosts and guests

Before you come

Hear about the first one.