Quiet-Phase Momentum: Autonomous Fundraising Rewrites Campaign Planning

Campaigns are the immovable force in our industry. Every major innovation in fundraising – from new communication tools to robust stewardship processes, from advanced data analysis to groundbreaking research insights – has found its true purpose in service of campaign success. Campaigns are where we pressure-test our boldest ideas, expose our biggest assumptions, and commit to goals that stretch the imagination of our institutions.

But today, even the campaign planning process is being rewritten and redefined by new tools at our disposal.

More and more of our Innovation Partners are building campaign staffing plans that don’t begin and end with human capacity. With Autonomous Fundraising, they’re integrating digital labor across every stage of the campaign lifecycle. The invention of Virtual Engagement Officers gave us the ability to fundamentally rethink how outreach, qualification, and donor readiness happen at scale.

Take the College of Charleston, for example. After a first year with Autonomous Fundraising that delivered exponential growth in both dollars raised and alumni participation, they’re expanding the scope of their VEO, Alex, to engage high-capacity prospects ahead of their campaign launch. Alex is delivering targeted, personalized outreach to build relationships early with a segment whose collective philanthropic power in year-over-year annual giving will be critical to success. 

At both University of Puget Sound and CUNY Lehman, their newly onboarded VEOs were hired to create a campaign-qualified pipeline, focused on key segments of donor populations that align with internal areas of opportunity and campaign themes. From these segments, coming from their vast pool of rated but unassigned donors, the VEO identifies digitally responsive donors, surfacing prospects with high engagement signals and securing test gifts.

These teams are proving that campaign staffing plans no longer begin with, “How many people can we hire?” The new question is, “How much strategic coverage can we create?” Autonomous Fundraising is changing the math by giving nonprofits the ability to engage more donors meaningfully and ensure that by the time a campaign goes public, the groundwork isn’t just laid, it’s already in motion.

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Turn Planning into Progress

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