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Table of Contents

Introduction
What is a ChatGPT Prompt?
Understanding Your Audience
Crafting ChatGPT Prompts
Use Cases
Best Practices for ChatGPT Prompt Writing
Conclusion

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Introduction

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The Problem

As a nonprofit professional, you probably find yourself with…

Limited time
Limited staff
Lots of appeals, social media posts, and other content to draft

Spending your precious time outlining and drafting every message causes stress and makes it more difficult for you to focus on the human side of fundraising.

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The Solution

ChatGPT can help you save time and energy by drafting messages and content for your nonprofit, but it requires you to write effective prompts to do so.

This handy guide will provide you everything you need to know to write effective ChatGPT prompts for your nonprofit. We’ll go over:

An overview of ChatGPT and how it can be a tool for fundraisers
How to write prompts for ChatGPT
Examples of ChatGPT prompts and best practices

Throughout this guide, we will use ChatGPT to illustrate these points.

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Accessing ChatGPT

To use ChatGPT go to 👉 https://chat.openai.com/chat

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II. What is a ChatGPT Prompt?

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What is ChatGPT?

What better way to answer than by asking ChatGPT itself!

We can even ask ChatGPT to format it for this presentation.

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Where You Come In

ChatGPT functions by responding to questions and statement prompts from the user.

The more effectively you can craft these prompts, the more effective ChatGPT will be in providing you with the content you are looking for.

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Examples of ChatGPT Prompts

We’ll get more into what makes an effective ChatGPT prompt in the Crafting ChatGPT Prompts Section” of this guide, but here’s a few examples.

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General Use Cases for ChatGPT Prompts

Search Engine

Find info easily, without having to sift through irrelevant results.

Idea Generation

Explore different perspectives and potential solutions, as well as provide inspiration and insight for various projects or initiatives.

Content Repurposer

Generate new content based on existing materials, such as summarizing or paraphrasing long articles or converting written content into different formats

Writing Assistant

Refine ideas and structure writing more effectively, making the writing process faster and more efficient.

Analyst

Identify patterns, trends, and correlations, as well as generate reports and visualizations to communicate findings more effectively.

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Fundraising Use Cases for ChatGPT Prompts

Creative Event Ideas

ChatGPT can help you compile a list of dozens or even hundreds of creative event ideas, saving you the time of generating this list yourself.

Website/Social Media Management

One of the struggles of managing a website or social media channel is constantly coming up with new content. ChatGPT can assist by repurposing old content as well as suggesting new posts and updates.

Writing Assistant

Whether you’re drafting email appeals or writing copy for event collateral, nonprofit work requires a lot of copywriting. ChatGPT can lighten the load by providing outlines, content, and copyediting for any purpose.

Donor/Giving Analysis

You probably have a lot of data about giving levels, year-to-year income and expenses, etc., and limited capacity for analysis. Streamline this analysis with ChatGPT.

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III.Understanding Your Audience

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Donor Personas and Preferences

Every donor is unique, but you can most likely group them into a small number of categories or “personas.” For example:

Legacy Donors
Corporate Partners
Social Media Followers
Monthly Donors
Peer-to-Peer Participants

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Tailor Your Communication

Each donor persona will require a different communication style. If you’re not sure what communication style to use, ask ChatGPT.

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Writing Tones to Prompt ChatGPT With

Humorous: Amusing and lighthearted, adds levity to a topic.
Informative: Conveys factual information in a clear and concise manner.
Sympathetic: Shows empathy or understanding towards reader's situation or emotions.
Sarcastic: Ironic or mocking, often used in humor writing.
Inspirational: Motivates or uplifts reader, often used in speeches or self-help materials.

Formal: Professional or academic writing, such as business reports or legal documents.
Conversational: Casual and relaxed, like everyday conversations.
Persuasive: Convinces reader of a particular point or action.
Instructional: Clear and concise instructions or explanations, often step-by-step.
Descriptive: Vivid picture or sensory details, used in creative writing or storytelling.

ChatGPT can write the copy it gives you in a specific tone. Give these a try!

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Here’s an example of a ChatGPT prompt directing a specific tone.

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You can also prompt ChatGPT to craft messaging based on the relationship between the recipient and your organization.

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IV.Crafting ChatGPT

Prompts

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Keys to Effective Prompting

There are four keys to effectively prompt and use ChatGPT:

Have the end result in mind
Detail tone, style, word count, and structure
Use follow-up prompts
Use a human for review

Let’s go over these key elements one by one.

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Have The End Result In Mind

When writing a prompt, think about exactly what you want ChatGPT to generate. The more specific you can be, the better.

The response generated by the first prompt is likely to require much more revising on your end. Cut to the chase and let ChatGPT do most of the work for you by focusing on your end result.

Bad Prompt

Good Prompt

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2. Detail Tone, Style, Word Count, And Structure

One of the benefits of ChatGPT is that it can efficiently follow specific directives in your prompt that may be difficult for a human to achieve.

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3. Use Follow Up Prompts

You may find that you have to refine what you receive from ChatGPT by inputting follow up prompts. Let’s take a look at the same example from the previous slide.

As you can see, ChatGPT can easily incorporate edits or changes to previous messages. The more you follow up, the stronger your end result is likely to be.

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4. Use A Human For Review

It is essential that you have a person look over the text that you receive from ChatGPT before you put it out to the public. Not only will this ensure that it doesn’t contain any errors, but also it will allow you to give it a personal touch that will keep donors from feeling like they are dealing with a robot.

In the example above from our discussion of how you can prompt ChatGPT with specific directives, you probably noticed that the end result could apply to any nonprofit. Add details about your organization in particular to stand out!

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Effective Prompt Examples

Directs format

Directs tone

Directs focus

Directs word count and format

Directs audience

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Testing and Refining Prompts

As you get more comfortable using ChatGPT, you will learn more about how to write an effective prompt. As you work with it, ask yourself the following question.

Are your prompts resulting in generic messages that require a lot of revision? If so, consider prompting ChatGPT to incorporate details about your organization, which it will get from your website.

Let’s take an example on the next slide in which we prompt ChatGPT to improve a generic message.

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Generic & Specific Responses

1. This prompt resulted in a generic introduction that is unlikely to grab the reader’s attention.

2. This prompt contains specific details that make the message much more applicable for the reader.

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Testing and Refining Prompts

Here’s another question you might encounter as you use ChatGPT

Is ChatGPT returning messages that miss the mark in terms of content or form? Go back to basics and think about your desired result. Work from there and follow up if need be to arrive where you want to be.

Let’s take another example. You want to educate potential volunteers about your nonprofit. The following slides will show how ChatGPT can miss the mark and what you can do to address this issue.

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Missing the Mark

As you can see in the example below, this prompt left too much interpretation up to ChatGPT, resulting in a message to volunteers for an educational nonprofit, rather than an educational message.

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Hitting the Mark

This version of the prompt provides ChatGPT with a clearer picture of the kind of message you want (as well as specifying the focus of your nonprofit).

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V. Use Cases and Best Practices

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Desired Outcome:

We want to create a draft fundraising email with tone and subject line variations.

ChatGPT Example #1: Fundraising Emails

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ChatGPT Example: Fundraising Emails

1. We give ChatGPT this specific prompt to help us with the first part of any email: the subject line!

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ChatGPT Example: Fundraising Emails

2. We direct ChatGPT to change tones.

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ChatGPT Example: Fundraising Emails

3. We choose a subject line and ask ChatGPT to write the outline for the rest of the email.

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ChatGPT Example: Fundraising Emails

4. ChatGPT writes the email for us. It even includes donation tiers. We can take this and tweak it, and voila! Our fundraising email is ready to go.

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Desired Outcome:

We want to learn how to effectively plan a peer-to-peer fundraiser and draft an introductory message for potential donors.

2. ChatGPT Example: Peer-to-Peer Instructions

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ChatGPT Example: Peer-to-Peer Fundraiser

1. First, we use ChatGPT as an educational tool to learn more about peer-to-peer fundraising.

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ChatGPT Example: Peer-to-Peer Fundraiser

2. We have ChatGPT generate a step-by-step guide for promoting this fundraiser so that we can incorporate this messaging into our general communication calendar.

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ChatGPT Example: Peer-to-Peer Fundraiser

3. We prompt ChatGPT to write the kickoff email so that (with some human editing) it is ready to send out on the first day of the campaign.

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ChatGPT Example: Peer-to-Peer Fundraiser

4. We direct ChatGPT to change the tone to better suit our donors.

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Desired Outcome:

We want to create a GivingTuesday campaign from the ground up and generate a series of social media posts to help promote it.

3. ChatGPT Example: GivingTuesday

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ChatGPT Example: GivingTuesday

1. We ask ChatGPT to help us find inspiration for an effective #GivingTuesday campaign.

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ChatGPT Example: GivingTuesday

2. We specify the focus of our organization so that ChatGPT can make more relevant suggestions for a #GivingTuesday campaign.

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ChatGPT Example: GivingTuesday

3. Once we’ve decided on a fundraiser idea, we ask ChatGPT to help us get a jump start on the social media promotion!

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Desired Outcome:

We want to determine our donation tiers and draft a thank you email template.

4. ChatGPT Example: Donation Page

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ChatGPT Example: Donation Page

1. We ask ChatGPT to make recommendations about the most effective donation tiers so that our average donor has attainable options when they go to donate.

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ChatGPT Example: Donation Page

2. We direct ChatGPT by specifying the tangible value of a donation and then ask it to write descriptions based on that value for each donation tier.

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ChatGPT Example: Donation Page

3. We ask ChatGPT to generate a (brief!) sample donor thank you that our Executive Director can use to acknowledge a donor as soon as they give.

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ChatGPT Example: Donation Page

4. We direct ChatGPT on the appropriate tone for this donor thank you.

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Desired Outcome:

We want to create a donor survey to send out to attendees of a fundraising event.

5. ChatGPT Example: Donor Survey

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ChatGPT Example: Donor Survey

1. As a first step, we ask ChatGPT to make a recommendation for the ideal number of questions on a donor survey.

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ChatGPT Example: Donor Survey

2. Now that we know the ideal number of questions, we ask ChatGPT to generate a list of sample questions for a specific purpose.

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ChatGPT Example: Donor Survey

3. We ask ChatGPT to craft messaging that will allow us to share this survey with our community.

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Other Prompts To Try

Based on the fundraising appeal below, create 5 distinct calls-to-action for an online fundraising campaign.
Use SEO best practices to generate 5 blog post ideas focused on the keyword "STEM."
Write a thank you letter to a donor who has given $1,000 annually for the past 5 years. Express gratitude, highlight the impact of their donation, and request a meeting to get to know them better.
Send an email asking for donations on GivingTuesday. All donations will be matched up to $10,000.
Paraphrase the following text in 50 words and create an attention-grabbing headline.

Here’s some examples of other fundraising-related prompts to use:

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Other Prompts To Try

Generate 3 blog post titles based on the following SEO keywords: XX, XX, XX.
Change the tone of the text below to XX.
Create a standard communications timeline for a 30-day fundraising campaign.
Write a compelling description for…
Develop a social media campaign plan to launch a fundraising initiative aimed at your target audience.
Write follow-up emails to individuals who attended the fundraising gala last week.
Plan a weekly newsletter topic and structure the content accordingly.
Personalize an email greeting for a major donor.
Write a tweet promoting a fundraising initiative.
Develop a 2-minute video script for a Facebook ad campaign promoting your fundraising initiative.

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Other Prompts To Try

Provide an outline for a peer-to-peer fundraising toolkit that can be sent to individuals who are fundraising on your behalf.
Create a fundraising progress meeting agenda.
Brainstorm 10 subject lines for your organization's newsletter.
Draft the body copy for a promotional email with the subject line: [Your subject line].
Write a follow-up email with the subject line: [Your subject line].
Refine the following text, improving its structure and tone to be more persuasive/humorous/etc. Keep the word count under [X words].

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Prompting Tips Overview

The more information you can give to ChatGPT, the more helpful it will be in generating what you want. Don’t be afraid to follow up and refine!

Play around with different length and tone requirements and preferences. ChatGPT can make holistic changes much quicker than you can.

Keep your prompts clear and concise.

Use ChatGPT as a research tool if you’re not sure where to begin with a program or initiative. Asking for lists and basic information will always yield results.

Provide specific details to help ChatGPT generate more detailed responses.

For more tips on writing effective ChatGPT prompts, check out this article.

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VI. Best Practices for ChatGPT Prompt Writing

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Remember: Best Practices Overview

ChatGPT can be an invaluable tool for nonprofits, helping you save time and energy on a range of tasks.

In order to harness the power of ChatGPT, you will need to write effective prompts.

Effective prompts are clear, concise, specific, and open-ended enough to allow for follow up if need be.

The more that you engage with ChatGPT in a unique chat, the more effective it will be in generating the content you want.

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Remember: Steps for Success

Start with your outcome or what you hope to achieve

Provide ChatGPT with the specifics about your organization

Prompt ChatGPT to generate the content you want

Refine prompt with any length or tonal requirements or preferences

Follow up with further prompts if needed

Review generated content for accuracy and to add human element to the language

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Conclusion

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Impact

If used properly, ChatGPT can save you hours of manpower on tedious tasks like copywriting that could be better spent fostering donor relationships and the other parts of the job that only a person can do.

ChatGPT can also generate a communications calendar so that you never miss an important and potentially invaluable donor acknowledgement email.

Finally, ChatGPT is a great tool for learning more about nonprofit fundraising. The more you learn, the more you earn!

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Try It Out!

Try ChatGPT now for free here: https://chat.openai.com/chat

Use the tips and tricks in this guide to maximize your success prompting ChatGPT.

Remember that it will take some time to learn how to use this software. So if you’re new to it, spend some time having fun with prompts to get a feel for how it works.

If you’d like to learn even more about how to effectively craft ChatGPT prompts, check out this CauseVox webinar.