One of the most valuable things we can do as fundraisers is learn from each other’s approaches—what’s working, what language is resonating, and how we’re making the case for giving.
I recently asked eight of our fundraisers who are great at closing gifts in our annual giving society to send me their go-to pitches. I wanted to see what themes and strategies they were using, and if there were patterns we could all learn from.
Once I had all their pitches, I dropped them into ChatGPT using the prompt below. The goal was to have the tool analyze them and pull out the most effective elements:
I have a collection of pitches written by various fundraisers for prospects to join our annual giving society. Please analyze all the pitches and identify the key themes, persuasive strategies, and most effective language across them. Then, create a single, high-impact pitch that combines the strongest elements from each one. The goal is to produce a compelling, donor-centered message that can be adapted for most major gift conversations.
Focus on:
Emotional and logical appeals used, how the mission or impact is described, common structure or storytelling techniques, The most motivating phrases or calls to action
Then provide:
A list of top 5 persuasive elements that appeared most frequently, a polished, best-in-class example pitch (1–2 paragraphs) Optional: a template that fundraisers can adapt for future use
The results were better than I expected. The analysis highlighted consistent themes, shared language, and smart strategies that came up again and again in our most successful pitches. ChatGPT pulled together:
A breakdown of the top persuasive elements A concise summary of common themes and structure A best-in-class pitch that blended the strongest parts of everyone’s language A simple, customizable template that can be adapted for most donor conversations
If you want to sharpen your own pitch or see how others are positioning Sentinel gifts, this is a great place to start.
Let me know if you want the full output — happy to share. My email is adamplatzer@gmail.com.
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