Human-Centered Fundraising in a Tech-Driven World

Let me be upfront with you: I'm going to talk about technology in this post, and I'm also going to push back on some of the hype around it.

Because here's what I'm seeing right now in the major gifts space. Fundraisers are being told that the right software will transform their results. And while the right tools genuinely matter, I want you to hold onto something as we walk through this together.

Your donors give to you. To the relationship with the organization, and sometimes because of you as the connector. To the human being who remembered their daughter's name and actually listened when they talked about why they care about your mission. No software tracks that magic — it just helps you not lose the details that support it.

With that said? Yes. You need the right tools. Let’s talk about what that actually looks like.

 The CRM Question: Built for Fundraising Matters

Every major gifts fundraiser needs a CRM — a Constituent Relationship Management system. Think of it as your external memory: where you log calls, track your moves, and make sure no relationship falls through the cracks when life gets busy.

But I want to be direct with you: not every CRM was built for fundraising.

I've watched organizations struggle with platforms like Salesforce that were designed for sales teams and retrofitted for nonprofits. The customization costs alone can eat your budget — and you end up spending more time managing the tool than building donor relationships. These are powerful platforms. They're just not built for the way our work actually moves.

A purpose-built fundraising platform understands how fundraising relationships work. I'm a fan of Bloomerang — it's designed around the way fundraisers think, with moves management, giving history, relationship mapping, and a dashboard that shows you your portfolio at a glance. Any solid fundraising CRM will serve you better than a sales tool someone is trying to make fit.

That said: good CRMs cost real money and I can't pretend otherwise. If you're at a smaller organization, a well-maintained spreadsheet with a disciplined system can be an honest starting point. The tool only works if people actually use it. And the data is only useful if it can be retrieved and analyzed.

This is where I want to shift your thinking: technology is only as good as the discipline behind it.

What Your Data Can Tell You — And What It Can’t

A side note for those of you fundraising in Canada or other parts of the world: WealthEngine is an excellent platform for US-based work. Cross the border and you'll hit a wall quickly. Canadian privacy laws mean far less public financial data is accessible, and screening results run thin. In Canada, it's wise to lean into more traditional — and honestly, more powerful — methods: word of mouth, conversations with board members and community connectors, the ambassadors and champions who know the philanthropic landscape from the inside. Of course, there are national and local richest Canadians lists. But again, they don't address philanthropic intent or where interests or values lie.

Which brings me to the bigger point.

Donors don't give because the numbers say they should. They give because of relationship, timing, belief, and a deep connection to your mission. A loyal $500-a-year donor may have been quietly waiting for years to be asked for something meaningful. Someone may have sold their company last year and nobody at your organization knows it yet. A donor's mother just died, and she's thinking about legacy in a whole new way.

None of that shows up in a wealth screening report.

A fundraiser once told me she knew a donor could give more — because their home in California was valued at $4 million. My response: they're giving at the capacity of the relationship, not their financial capacity. That's the number that actually matters.

This is the heart of what I call human-centered fundraising: using data to inform your judgment, not replace it. Your analytics tools point you toward who deserves your attention. The relationship tells you everything else.

So yes — invest in clean data. Insist your CRM has solid built-in reporting and that your team consistently uses it. Use wealth screening as a starting point, not a verdict. And then go have the conversation.

The most important data point you will ever collect about a donor? What they tell you when you ask them why they care.

Don’t Forget the Analog Side

I want to say something that might feel countercultural in a post about technology: Some of the most powerful moves in major gifts don't happen on a screen.

The handwritten note. The call sharing an update on a beloved program, project, or care modality. The coffee meeting where you spend 80% of the time listening. Remembering that a donor's spouse is recovering from surgery and sending a card. These are the moments that build the kind of trust that leads to transformational gifts.

No AI writes that card for you. (Well — it can draft one. But you have to mean it.)

What good technology does is free up your time and mental energy so you can show up fully for those moments. When your CRM is handling follow-up reminders and your tools are reducing administrative work, you have more capacity for the deeply human work that only you can do.

This is what I mean by human-centered fundraising. The tools serve the relationship. Never the other way around.

A Word on AI

Yes, AI is entering the fundraising space — and I'd rather help you think clearly about it than either oversell it or dismiss it.

There are two forms worth knowing about. Predictive AI uses historical data to forecast donor behavior — who might give, when to reach out, what level to ask at. To be honest, this is what many fundraisers tend to use themselves. Which is why I preach that what you think is the donor's giving ceiling might actually be the floor! Generative AI creates content: draft emails, impact reports, meeting summaries, personalized outreach. (For some past fundraisers or nonprofit leaders, that's what a secretary often did.)

Both can save you real time. That matters.

But I want you to be clear-eyed: a donor who has given to your organization for twenty years deserves a relationship, not an algorithm. AI can support your work. It cannot replace the judgment, the empathy, and the genuine human connection that makes a major gifts fundraiser irreplaceable.

Use the tools. Stay human.

Where to Start

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the technology conversation, here's what I'd focus on:

• Get clear on what you actually have — and whether your team is consistently using it. The importance of data hygiene cannot be underestimated.
• If you're in the market for a CRM, look at purpose-built fundraising platforms before defaulting to a sales tool. You also want something for the longer haul; switching CRMs is challenging and time consuming.
• Use wealth screening to identify capacity, then do your own digging to understand affinity. And... you can easily fundraise without it — using wealth screening can be a crutch.
• Protect time in your week for the analog work — calls, notes, face-to-face.
• Don't chase every shiny new tool. Invest in building relationships.

The fundraisers who will thrive in the next decade aren't the ones with the fanciest tech stack.

They're the ones who use smart tools wisely — and who never lose sight of what actually moves people to give.

That's human-centered fundraising. And it will never go out of style.

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Q: What's the best CRM for major gift fundraising?

The short answer: one that was actually built for fundraising.

I've watched organizations wrestle with platforms like Salesforce — powerful tools designed for sales teams that get retrofitted for nonprofits at significant cost and frustration. The customization alone can drain your budget and your team's patience.

I'm a fan of Bloomerang for major gift work. It's built around the way fundraisers actually think: moves management, relationship mapping, giving history, a dashboard that shows you your portfolio at a glance. Purpose-built platforms speak your language from day one.

That said, the best CRM is the one your team will actually use consistently. Whatever system you choose, invest in data hygiene and train your team well. Technology is only as good as the discipline behind it.

Q: Does wealth screening actually work for major gift fundraising?

It works — as a starting point. But it's wildly oversold, and I want you to go in clear-eyed.

Tools like iWave, WealthEngine, DonorSearch and others can help you identify financial capacity across a large donor pool. That's genuinely useful, especially before a capital campaign. But the data has real limits: it's often outdated, incomplete, and sometimes just wrong. Wealthy people actively conceal assets. And most critically — these tools only tell you about capacity. They say nothing about why someone gives.

I once had a fundraiser tell me she knew a donor could give more because their home in California was valued at $4 million. My response: they're giving at the capacity of the relationship, not their financial capacity.

Use wealth screening to identify who deserves your attention. Then go have the conversation. That's where the real data lives.

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Beth Ann Locke is the founder of The Fundraiser Coach and has been an embedded fundraiser for 30+ years and focused on major gifts for 20 years. She coaches major gift fundraisers and nonprofit leaders to build genuine donor relationships and secure transformational gifts. Learn more at thefundraisercoach.com.