TL;DR:
- Listen and respond: Build deeper relationships through the ongoing Responsive Fundraising cycle.
- See each person: N1 brings that approach to every supporter as an N of one.
- Build on your progress: Segments and journeys are steps toward one-to-one relationships.
- Keep people at the helm: Use AI to support listening and routine work while protecting trust.
Donors tell your organization what matters to them through the pages they visit, the emails they open, the events they attend, and the gifts they give. A fundraising team can care deeply about those people and still struggle to hear and respond to what they are sharing.
That gap is the Great Donor Ignore. It grows out of systems, methods, and tools that have limited how much attention teams can give each person.
On the Responsive Lab podcast, Nathan Chappell joined Scott Holthaus to discuss that approach and the book he coauthored with Gabe Cooper, N1 Philanthropy: Precision, Connection, and the Future of Generosity.
“Somehow we’ve equated being busy with being successful,” Chappell said.
The opportunity is to give fundraisers more capacity to hear what each supporter is telling them and respond thoughtfully. AI supports the listening and routine work at scale, while people bring judgment, care, and attention to deepening the relationship.
What Is N1 Philanthropy?
A donor visits a program page, opens your emails, or attends an event. They are showing you what matters to them. But when those signals go unheard, their interest may never shape the next conversation or appeal they receive.
N1 Philanthropy is the next chapter of Responsive Fundraising, making that individual attention possible across the donor file. AI helps with listening at scale and the routine work of following through, so fundraisers can focus on responding with care and building the relationship.
N1 is short for “N of one,” an idea drawn from precision medicine, where care is designed around an individual rather than a category. In fundraising, each donor is their own group of one. Their signals help guide how the relationship develops, with each interaction becoming an opportunity to listen, respond, and learn.
How N1 Fulfills the Promise of Responsive Fundraising
Responsive Fundraising means listening and responding to every signal a donor gives to build a deeper relationship and connection. It works through an ongoing cycle: Listen, Connect, Suggest, and Learn. Each response becomes another opportunity to learn and guide the next interaction.
N1 is the next chapter of Responsive. It brings that cycle to the individual supporter across the donor file, with AI helping teams listen at scale and taking on routine work.
Your existing segments, personas, and journeys remain part of that progress. They help make engagement more relevant and provide a foundation for one-to-one relationships. N1 builds on the Responsive work your team has already done.
7 Ways to Put N1 Philanthropy Into Practice
1. Build on Your Segments by Listening to Each Person
Segments bring together donors with something in common, such as giving history or location. They are a useful step toward understanding and engaging supporters more thoughtfully.
An N1 approach builds on that foundation by asking what this person is telling your organization right now.
Look at the signals behind the segment. A page visit, an event attended, a gift, or a conversation can help you understand what deserves a response. A commitment your team made to follow up also matters. Those signals can point to different next steps for people within the same group.
As you plan engagement, ask:
- What is this person telling us through their engagement?
- What have we said we would do next?
- What would make the next interaction timely and relevant to them?
Use the answers to guide a response, then learn from what happens next. That keeps the relationship moving through the Responsive cycle.
2. Give Your Team More Capacity to Listen and Respond
Listening across the donor file takes work. Your team needs to recognize signals, prepare a relevant response, and follow through. AI can support that work so fundraisers have more room to engage each person.
Predictive, generative, and agentic AI bring different capabilities to that process:
- Predictive AI provides predictions to guide what comes next.
- Generative AI creates content that can be guided by those predictions.
- Agentic AI brings predictive and generative capabilities together to support action.
Use those capabilities in service of the relationship. The purpose is to help your team respond thoughtfully to what a supporter is telling you and keep learning as the relationship develops.
When evaluating a tool or workflow, ask which signals it helps your team hear, what routine work it can take on, and how it helps people follow through. Keep fundraisers responsible for the judgment and care each relationship needs.
3. Reconsider the Work Behind the Relationship
Adding AI to an existing process is an opportunity to reconsider the process itself.
Imagine your organization were one day old. It has the same mission and limited resources, but your team can design its work around the tools available to it. Would you organize the work in the same way?
Use that question to review routine fundraising tasks:
- Which processes are routine and mundane?
- Which parts of the work bring people joy, such as being with the right donor at the right time with the right information?
- Where could technology take on routine work so people can spend more time on relationships?
Use this review to consider where your team equates being busy with being successful. Look for routine work that technology could take on so fundraisers can spend more time on the parts of the job that require their judgment and creativity.
Give those human contributions room in the way you design the work.
4. Turn Stewardship Intentions Into Individual Plans
Caring about every donor does not automatically give every donor an individualized stewardship plan.
A plan makes the next action clear. It connects what you know about someone with the attention their relationship needs.
That might mean remembering the anniversary of a donor’s last gift, recognizing a wedding anniversary, or following up because a month has passed since a conversation and you said you would.
Start by asking how many supporters have that kind of plan. Then consider what your team needs to sustain the follow-through.
AI-supported reminders and engagement planning can help fundraisers keep track of those commitments. The fundraiser still brings the discernment to decide what response fits the person and the circumstances.
A useful stewardship plan should help someone on your team answer a practical question: what should I do next for this donor, and why?
5. Use Personal Insight With Care
Knowing more about a donor creates a responsibility to use that information thoughtfully.
The same personal circumstance can lead to very different actions. Learning that someone is grieving could prompt a caring condolence. Using that information to press for a donation could exploit a vulnerable moment.
Precision alone does not determine whether an interaction is appropriate. People need to remain accountable for how donor information is used and how the organization engages supporters.
When a donor interacts directly with AI, disclose that at the beginning of the interaction and again at the time of a transaction. Make clear that they are communicating with a bot and explain how they can reach a person.
A donation can be real even when a donor has misunderstood the relationship behind the interaction. Build your approach around connection that donors can understand and trust.
6. Lead With Curiosity and a Willingness to Adapt
An N1 approach asks leaders to reconsider how the organization works, including assumptions that have served them well in the past.
That requires room for questions. A leader does not need to claim to have every answer about AI to help a team move forward. They do need to guide the team through learning and adaptation.
Make time to examine how work is changing and where people’s contributions are most valuable. Discernment, creativity, strategy, and judgment all deserve attention as routine tasks shift.
Bring your team into the discussion. Ask what they would redesign if they could begin again, which processes absorb time, and what would help them do more meaningful work with donors.
Help your team work through that adaptation together, while acknowledging that you are learning too.
7. Make Time for Reflection and Hands-On Learning
A practical place to begin is with two kinds of learning: stepping away from technology and working directly with it.
Set aside 30 minutes a day away from technology to reflect on how your organization operates. Write down what has brought you to this point and how you could reimagine what is possible.
Then spend another 30 minutes a day working directly with an AI tool. Experiment with it enough to explore what it can do and reconsider your assumptions about what is possible.
Reflection helps your team decide what is worth changing. Hands-on experience gives those ideas something concrete to work with.
Start with a few signals and one group of supporters. Decide what your team can listen for, how you will respond, and what you can learn from the next interaction. That is a practical next step toward fulfilling the promise of Responsive for each person.
Put Individual Donor Plans Into Practice With Momentum
Virtuous Momentum helps your team turn giving and engagement signals into a plan for each donor in your portfolio. A daily action list shows who to contact and why, while emails and call scripts drafted in each officer’s voice help your team prepare for the next conversation.
Your team reviews the plans and approves and sends every message. No autonomous outreach, ever. Momentum supports the preparation and follow-through so fundraisers can spend more time on relationships.
FAQs
1. What Does N1 Mean in Fundraising?
N1 means listening and responding to every supporter as an N of one, or a group of one. It brings an ongoing cycle of engagement and learning to individual relationships across the donor file.
2. How Does N1 Philanthropy Relate to Responsive Fundraising?
N1 is the fulfillment of the promise Responsive Fundraising made: listening and responding to every donor signal to deepen the relationship. It builds on existing segments and journeys to bring that approach to each individual supporter.
3. How Can AI Support Precision Fundraising?
AI can support precision fundraising by helping teams listen to donor signals at scale and taking on routine work. Fundraisers remain responsible for responding with the judgment and care that deepen each relationship.
4. How Can Nonprofits Protect Donor Trust When Using AI?
Nonprofits can support donor trust by keeping people accountable for how personal information is used and disclosing AI interactions at the beginning and again at the time of a transaction. Donors communicating with a bot should also be told how to reach a person.
5. How Can a Fundraising Team Begin Applying N1 Philanthropy?
A fundraising team can begin applying N1 by choosing a few donor signals to listen and respond to within one group of supporters. Build on existing segments and journeys, then use what you learn to guide the next response.
