AI Fundraising in Action: How Advancement Teams Decode Donor Sentiment

With a new wave of federal funding cuts hitting the American higher education sector in 2025, the fundraising efforts of advancement departments have become even more critical to the long-term success of colleges and universities. 

However, many institutions struggle to meaningfully engage donors and alumni and build sustainable giving pipelines that drive recurring support and networking opportunities. This isn’t surprising given how often small, yet overstretched advancement teams are expected to do less with more. Fortunately, AI can help close this gap. 

Our Benchmark Report findings show that AI-powered sentiment analysis tools let advancement professionals read between the lines of donor messages and leverage real-time insights into their hesitations, engagement levels, and giving capacity for proactive, targeted communication. 

The Emerging Role of AI in Higher Ed Fundraising

Lasting donor and alumni relationships that contribute to annual donations or major gifts are based on trust. And genuine trust is not something earned through transactional communications that lack emotional connection or ignorable mass messages, but through consistent, timely, and personalized donor outreach. 

That’s where the constant struggle of advancement teams lies: how can we reach more donors with less manual effort while still keeping each interaction personal and relevant?

AI-driven Conversation Intelligence addresses this challenge by analyzing donor conversations, identifying positive, neutral, or negative sentiment, and providing actionable insights for more thoughtful, timely follow-ups that build trust and deepen relationships over time.

In other words, when empowering institutions to engage with empathy at scale, AI fundraising tools become key drivers of donor retention, new giving opportunities, and long-term support.

“Texting has become our top-performing donor engagement channel. Mongoose allows us to meet donors where they are, improve response rates, and create deeper connections—leading to our most successful Giving Tuesday ever.”

LORI APICELLA, DIRECTOR OF ENGAGEMENT FOR DUKE CHILDREN’S DEVELOPMENT

Taking A Closer Look at Sentiment in Advancement Conversations

While analyzing donor messages across hundreds of higher education institutions, we found that:

• Positive sentiment often appears in conversations about data corrections (77%) and university updates (70%), illustrating donors’ appreciation for accurate information and transparent communication.
• Fundraising and donation conversations (52% positive sentiment) reflect a mix of appreciation and frustration, driven by either solicitation fatigue or unclear asks. Even when they don’t result in a gift, these interactions offer valuable insights into donor intent that can help adjust fundraising strategies.
• Event and reunion conversations (50% positive sentiment) are effective touchpoints for sharing logistical details, offering timely, clear follow-ups, and determining interest levels among donors and alumni. 
• Planned and major gifts (37% positive sentiment) amount to under 0,1% of all interactions with donors and represent an untapped relationship-building opportunity within the highly engaged donor segment. 
• Neutral donor conversations are a silent sign of disengagement and can lead to higher opt-out rates and poor giving outcomes. Proactive donor engagement strategies can turn these interactions into opportunities for renewed giving interest and stronger relationships.

Overall, tracking sentiment trends over time helps institutions improve outreach timing and tone, reduce opt-outs, and make donors feel heard and valued. 

At the same time, balancing solicitation with meaningful relationship-building messaging can increase average gift size over time and create advocates who support the mission beyond financial contributions (e.g., alumni mentoring students). The results speak for themselves. 

Why Advancement Teams Need Thoughtful and Intentional AI Adoption

A CASE Insights report reveals that advancement professionals harbor several concerns related to the AI adoption process, particularly regarding internal policies and training, data compliance, and the risks of over-reliance on AI.

Here’s how Mongoose’s Conversational Intelligence Platform can help your institution mitigate these three issues:

• From platform onboarding to sending your first messages and creating full-blown campaigns, Mongoose offers ongoing guidance through dedicated customer success and support teams.
• Unlike most CRM tools, Mongoose meets FERPA, TCPA, GDPR, and SOC 2 Type II standards, minimizing security and privacy risks associated with AI-driven donor communication.
• Designed for strategic augmentation, Mongoose’s AI-driven platform isn’t meant to replace human fundraising interactions but to help advancement teams uncover key sentiment insights, make personalization at scale easier through tools like Smart Messages, identify high-value donors, and intervene before donor interest drops. 

“Texting with Mongoose makes it feel like there’s a real person on the other end. That’s important when you’re asking people to give or attend something.”

AMANDA DOWDLE, DIRECTOR OF ANNUAL CAMPAIGNS AND DEVELOPMENT OFFICER AT PRESBYTERIAN COLLEGE

Transform Your Fundraising Strategy with Mongoose

Despite political pressure, public trust in higher education has grown, with a recent Lumina Foundation–Gallup survey showing an increase from 36% to 42% over the past two years. Your institution can capitalize on this renewed confidence by leveraging Mongoose’s sentiment analysis capabilities to connect with donors and alumni more meaningfully. 

Curious how Mongoose would work for your advancement team? Book a demo today and explore how AI-driven insights can inform your donor communications and contribute to fundraising growth. 

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