MWD and World Animal Protection Put AI to the Test

At MWD, we recognize that our years of direct response fundraising experience are our greatest asset. Our team has decades of expertise that informs our strategies and guides our clients’ success, and together we are committed to creativity, innovation, and promoting social good. ​

As we experiment with AI, our clients, and the communities they partner with remain at the forefront. ​For that reason, we’ve created clear guidelines on how we use AI that ensure client and data security and confidentiality, acknowledge the bias in AI tools, adhere to copyright laws, and use AI tools ethically.

ChatGPT has taken the world by storm and its promise of saving time is alluring — but can it deliver? 

Those of us working in the nonprofit sector know all too well the challenges of wearing multiple hats. So, when a tool like ChatGPT comes on the scene promising to save precious time and resources, it’s hard not to be intrigued. And at MWD, we wanted to put this new tool to the test! 

With the partnership of our wonderful friends at World Animal Protection US, we set out to find how much time you could save by using ChatGPT to write email copy for you — and whether the results are worth it. 

“Technology can be scary and confusing, but as fundraisers, it’s our job to ensure we don’t get stuck in a cycle of sameness. The best organizations are always looking to challenge themselves and evolve, it’s the least we can do for the donors who trust us with their money and the constituents we serve.”  -Liz Quick-Corral, Director of Development, World Animal Protection US

Here’s what we learned. 

The client:

World Animal Protection US has been creating a world free of animal suffering for more than 70 years. Their work helps to rescue and protect animals across the globe through action and advocacy.  

The test:

We asked ChatGPT to reduce a two-page letter into an email, using fundraising best practices and preserving important information, a sense of urgency, and the emotions in the letter. Then we put it up against our own work to see if AI-generated copy can really save fundraisers time without sacrificing results. 

The results: 

At first glance, it’s obvious that AI isn’t going to take our jobs anytime soon. What a relief! Case closed! 

But wait a minute, there’s more to unpack here.  

Limitations: 

1. To really put ChatGPT’s skills to the test, we refrained from making any major edits to the output we received. This certainly saved time but may also have impacted results. There may be a sweet spot between saving time and enhancing your AI-generated copy.  
2. The two emails were formatted differently. Given our expertise and creative discretion, our control email included a lift note as well as a callout box. Turns out, that made a huge difference. The majority of clicks and conversions were made to these elements.  
3. We also need to acknowledge that GPT’s output is only as good as our prompt. With a different prompt, ChatGPT’s version of the email may have produced a more effective product.   

So, is using ChatGPT worth it? It depends.  

If you plan to rely on GPT to do the bulk of the work writing your appeal, you’ll save time, but your return could suffer (not to mention other ethical implications)! 

If you plan to use GPT as a tool to get your creative juices flowing, ChatGPT could be a worthwhile tool to save you some time — but be prepared to edit. 

This test confirms that ChatGPT should only be used as an assistant to your work. As expert fundraisers, it’s up to us to shape AI-generated copy to adhere to brand standards, organizational values, ethical creative guidelines, and fundraising best practices.