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How Virtual Engagement Officers Are Making Big Wins For Small Fundraising Teams
- Grace Carew
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
There’s a universal challenge most small fundraising teams face: very limited staff, ambitious goals, and a growing donor base that demands personalized attention.
From a staff perspective, this contributes to the staff turnover and burnout. From a donor perspective, it leaves them feeling disconnected from your organization—and leaves revenue on the table.
But what if small teams could expand their fundraising capacity using autonomous AI?
Autonomous Fundraising in Action
Technical College of the Lowcountry knows this problem intimately. With a three-person advancement team and just one gift officer managing 30 donors, they needed a different approach. Their structure wasn’t sustainable or bringing in revenue fast enough to serve their community’s needs.
So they brought on Morgan, their Virtual Engagement Officer.
Morgan was assigned 1,000 donors to manage autonomously, with clear revenue-based goals: raise $100K, achieve 18% participation, and maintain 68% donor retention.
In just 10 weeks, she raised over $20,000!
Here’s what makes Morgan different. She doesn’t send mass templated emails and texts. She engages her portfolio in personalized, ongoing conversations that adapt based on donor responses and behavior. She curates specific content for each donor based on their interests and affinities. She sends invites and campus updates. For the 1,000 donors in her portfolio, she’s individually creating a closer connection to the college.
For Technical College of the Lowcountry, this meant a 33x growth in their one-to-one fundraising capacity.
Why this matters for your team
TCL’s story illustrates what’s possible when small teams stop trying to do more with less and instead expand their capacity through autonomous AI.
There is so much potential at all levels of the pyramid, not just major gifts. But identifying and building relationships with mid-level and annual fund donors takes time and capacity that small teams don’t have. Virtual Engagement Officers solve this by handling the essential, relationship-building work that would otherwise fall through the cracks.
The technology is proven, the results are measurable, and organizations adopting Autonomous Fundraising gain a competitive advantage in donor engagement and revenue growth.
Want to learn more about Technical College of the Lowcountry’s success?