The Age of Agentic AI: How One Fundraiser Can Now Do the Work of Five
AI isn’t just writing emails anymore—it’s reshaping how nonprofits plan events, engage donors, and run their entire fundraising operation.
In this episode of Elevate Your Event, Jeff Porter and Mark Laba are joined by Handbid’s VP of Software Development, Taylor Romero, to unpack what “agentic AI” actually means—and why it’s a game-changer for lean nonprofit teams.
From automating sponsorship outreach and auction procurement to rethinking guest check-in and event analytics, the conversation explores how AI can make one fundraiser as effective as a team of five—without losing the human touch donors care about most.
If you’ve been wondering where to start with AI (beyond rewriting emails), this episode gives you practical ideas you can try right away.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
1. AI won’t replace fundraisers—it will multiply their impact
Agent-based AI systems can now automate donor outreach, sponsorship follow-ups, and auction item solicitation—tasks that traditionally take weeks of manual effort.
“AI doesn’t replace the fundraiser. It makes one fundraiser as effective as a team of five.”
2. We’re moving from building software to growing it
Taylor explains a powerful mindset shift: instead of engineering software feature-by-feature, organizations are learning to guide AI systems that evolve solutions organically.
This opens the door for smaller teams—and even non-developers—to create tools tailored to their workflows.
3. Conversational interfaces will reshape event operations
Think beyond forms and dashboards.
Future event tech interactions will increasingly happen through:
- chat
- voice
- automated assistants
- real-time conversational workflows
That means easier guest list updates, smoother check-ins, and fewer day-of-event headaches.
4. AI already helps automate fundraising workflows today
Jeff shares real examples from a live campaign where AI helped:
- identify past donors
- analyze email history for outreach candidates
- build targeted email sequences
- remove donors from follow-ups once they gave
- identify potential sponsors
- draft sponsorship outreach emails
- recover 70% of prior auction items—in one week
These aren’t future tools—they’re available now.
5. Data insights after your event are about to get much smarter
Instead of static reports like “top bidders” or “ticket sales totals,” AI can now surface insights like:
- emerging donor behavior trends
- engagement shifts from last year
- pricing strategy effectiveness
- sponsorship performance patterns
- hidden opportunities your team may miss manually
Even better? It can package those insights into board-ready presentations in minutes.
6. The biggest mistake nonprofits make with AI
Most teams are still stuck using AI like this:
“Rewrite this email.”
Instead, the opportunity is:
“Plan and execute this outreach strategy.”
Agent-style tools like Claude Co-Work or Perplexity Computer can already handle multi-step workflows automatically.
Practical Ways to Start Using AI This Month
Try one of these immediately:
✅ Build a donor re-engagement email sequence
✅ Generate sponsor prospect lists
✅ Automate auction item request emails
✅ Analyze last year’s event performance trends
✅ Create board-ready reports in minutes
✅ Test a conversational workflow for guest updates
Start with the why, not the how—and let AI help design the solution.
A Big Idea to Leave You With
For 15 years, nonprofits have learned how to use event software.
The next 15 years will be about software that learns how to work for you.
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