Fundraising with Artificial Intelligence Isn’t Just the Future, It’s the Present

Fundraising is a big practice. There are countless moving parts, specialized skills, and complex business processes that need to align to deliver results. As donor expectations evolve and younger generations look for personalized, high-tech experiences, higher education institutions and nonprofits are under pressure to modernize how they fundraise and engage. At the same time, ROI and operational efficiency are more critical than ever as many teams need to stretch a tight budget to hit their goals. The good news? With the right tools, like AI, automation, and QSS™ for Education Cloud, fundraising teams can do more with less to meet these challenges head-on.

At the 2025 Salesforce Education Summit, we shared how Sleek is using tools like Agentforce, Einstein Co-Pilot, and CRMA to make Advancement more efficient, insightful, and scalable. But the real magic comes from how these tools are being put into action. Here’s a look at the strategies we implement every day and how they’re already helping institutions engage constituents in more effective ways.

And while we’re focusing now on high-impact, easy-to-implement tools like Einstein Co-Pilot and CRMA, we’re also getting ready to share more about our newest innovation: a donor concierge agent designed to elevate the constituent experience in powerful new ways. Stay tuned.

What Advancement Teams Are Asking for First

Sleek’s CEO Sabre Leek believes that advancement and development teams aren’t just interested in flashy features. They want tools that bring immediate operational value.

Operational efficiencies and new intelligence and insights are our first wave for Salesforce agents in Advancement. We’re seeing major gift fundraising as the biggest area where organizations want AI and agents to support, with Annual Giving close behind.

Sabre Leek

Instead of starting their AI journey with a constituent-facing chatbot, most teams start by getting AI and automation to help behind the scenes. It can reduce manual work, organize data, and provide better insights more quickly. Once we have AI streamlining back-end processes and supporting fundraisers by playing assistant- or analyst-type roles, then it’s time to explore how AI can interface directly with external constituents to provide great, personalized experiences while easing the burden on engagement officers and other fundraising staff.

How AI Supports Gift Officers in Real Time

After Bobby completes his registration and donation, a notification is sent to the assigned gift officer. With Einstein Co-Pilot, this gift officer can:

- access a summary of Bobby’s recent activity,
- draft then send a personalized thank-you email,
- and automatically log the interaction in Salesforce.

This makes it easier to maintain personalized stewardship at scale. And because QSS™ tracks interactions, campaign affiliations, and memberships, gift officers are confident they’re always working with current, actionable data.

Predictive Insights and Operational Efficiency in QSS™

Alongside agentic experiences, QSS™ leverages Salesforce AI to automate data analysis, allowing AI to study trends among your constituents and suggest strategic actions. This gives advancement teams the clarity and automation they need to hone campaign strategy, prioritize outreach, and segment donors or would-be donors.

With CRMA Model Builder, QSS™ allows institutions to build custom models that predict giving likelihood and donor behavior. These models take into account top indicators like past giving, geography, and engagement trends, helping teams identify who is most likely to give in the current fiscal year. These insights can be applied to everything from annual fund outreach to campaign planning and stewardship.

Opportunity Scoring enhances this predictive view, ranking open opportunities based on their likelihood to close. While we do have models based on industry standards, these can be tweaked based on every organization’s unique constituent base. This feature is embedded throughout QSS™ dashboards and list views, helping gift officers prioritize the prospects most likely to convert.

Sleek also uses Einstein Flow Builder to power smart automation, like the creation of calculated gift commitment schedules and customized follow-up flows. Whether it’s automating reminders for upcoming events or pledge payment tracking, letting AI draft flows reduces manual admin work and increase consistency of outreach.

AI-Powered Engagement with Agentforce and QSS™: A Recap and Roadmap

The AI tools that come with QSS™ interact with both your staff and your external constituents. They’re supporting gift officers as extra eyes and hands to prioritize and streamline personalized outreach:

- QSS™ includes the VIP Donor Concierge Agent, which supports athletics, events, and membership engagement by guiding donors through everything from ticket purchases to event registration. Join us for a great webinar on April 23rd to meet our digital employee.
- Einstein Co-Pilot makes getting the information your team needs simple and quick. Summarize donor records, pull quick lists of contacts based on specified criteria, and draft personalized communications with short prompts and real-time feedback.
- For major gift officers, the QSS5 Trip Planning Agent is designed to streamline visit coordination and travel planning.
- The QSS4 Annual Giving Agent (currently in development) will help manage high-volume outreach and segmentation.
- Also in the works is a Documentation Agent, which will support internal advancement teams by surfacing campaign guidance, FAQs, and standard procedures when needed.

Built on QSS™, Backed by Salesforce AI

At Sleek, we’ve embedded AI and automation directly into QSS™ for Education Cloud, so institutions can modernize Advancement without reinventing the wheel. At the heart of these exciting new features is Agentforce—Salesforce’s investment in powerful AI functionality. Tools like the VIP Donor Concierge, predictive models, and AI-powered reports aren’t just ideas. They’re already in use, driving engagement, donations, and smarter strategies.

AI is already supporting major gifts, annual giving, events, analytics and much more. No matter what specific area of fundraising you’re focused on, QSS™ provides a flexible, powerful foundation for advancement teams ready to step into the future. With an AI workforce to support growth, your staff will be empowered to meet the challenges that 21st century fundraising brings.

Want to see it in action or learn more? Let’s talk about what AI and QSS™ can do for your team.

Contact the Sleek Team!