When I began working in fundraising in 2003, direct mail and face-to-face conversations still played a central role. Campaigns took time. A conversation could create an intention, but the donation might arrive several days later, after someone had returned home, read a document and visited a bank or post office.

Today, a few seconds can be enough. Someone discovers a cause on a phone, watches a video, follows a link and donates by card or mobile payment. QR bills have replaced old payment slips. Social media allows anyone to become an advocate for a cause. Artificial intelligence can now write, translate, analyse and suggest campaigns.

Since 2003, I have watched the relationship between organisations and their communities become faster, more measurable and more fragmented. That evolution is the thread running through my book Trust in the Digital Age.

Technology shortens the journey, but it does not create generosity

The nonprofit sector talks a great deal about innovation, for good reason. New tools can automate repetitive work, improve understanding of donors, simplify payments, reach new audiences and accelerate content production.

But a tool does not create a relationship. A CRM can store a donor’s history; it cannot decide how an organisation wants to care for that relationship. A dashboard can display hundreds of indicators; it cannot decide which ones genuinely deserve leadership attention.

Artificial intelligence can produce an excellent first draft. It does not know the organisation’s history, its partners or the realities experienced in the field. It carries no moral responsibility. Technology can shorten the path to a donation. It cannot create trust, emotion or the willingness to act.

Digital transformations rarely fail because of software

Over the years, I have seen organisations invest substantial sums in new websites, CRMs and platforms described as revolutionary. A few months later, teams were sometimes still exchanging Excel files by email.

The software was not necessarily the problem. Digital projects often fail because they modernise tools without questioning strategy, processes, governance and collaboration. Technical difficulties are frequently the visible consequences of unclear priorities, blurred responsibilities, insufficient training or the absence of a shared vision.

The first question should not be “Which software should we buy?” It should be “Which problem are we trying to solve, and what relationship do we want to build with our communities?”

The strongest organisations do not always have the best tools

After more than twenty years alongside associations, foundations and fundraising teams, I have observed something surprising. The organisations that move forward most effectively are not always the largest, wealthiest or best equipped.

  • A clear mission understood by the team.
  • Coherent decisions and explicit responsibilities.
  • The ability to experiment, measure and learn.
  • The courage to reject a tool when it disperses resources.
  • A continuous relationship with donors, volunteers and partners.

Their real advantage is the ability to learn faster, listen to their communities and question established habits. Innovation is not a one-off project. It becomes a collective capability.

Artificial intelligence opens a new chapter

AI is generating the same reactions as earlier transitions: enthusiasm, concern, exaggerated promises and fear that professions will disappear. Yet this shift is distinctive. The internet mainly changed how organisations communicate. AI also enters the production of knowledge, analysis, translation, creation and the preparation of decisions.

It represents a genuine opportunity, especially for smaller organisations without large specialist teams. It can save time and make certain capabilities more accessible. But the essential question is no longer whether NGOs will use AI. It is already entering their daily work.

How can artificial intelligence strengthen the mission without weakening the human relationship that remains the sector’s greatest asset?

Rejecting AI on principle would be a mistake. Handing over human judgement, relationships and responsibility too quickly would be another.

Not everything that can be digitised should be

Progress is often presented as a one-way movement towards more automation, more data and more speed. Yet some experiences lose their value when they are moved entirely onto a screen.

A difficult conversation, a meeting with a donor, personal support or a moment of recognition cannot always be reduced to a more efficient process. Since 2003, the most useful innovations I have seen are those that simplify work without erasing the relationship.

Before every digital project, an organisation should also ask: what might we lose by saving time?

A book born from this transformation

Trust in the Digital Age traces the evolution of fundraising from my beginnings in 2003 to the arrival of artificial intelligence. It explores changing donation habits, donor psychology, trust, the mistakes that hinder transformation, the organisations that learn to adapt and the decisions that will shape fundraising’s future.

The book does not try to predict which tools will dominate in ten years. Its ambition is simpler: to help organisations make better choices, use technology with judgement and never lose sight of why they exist.

The tools will continue to change. Trust will remain the true capital of fundraising.