Let's Talk Fundraising
Welcome to "Let's Talk Fundraising" with Keith Greer, CFRE! This podcast is your go-to resource for mastering the essentials of fundraising while discovering how innovative tools and technology can supercharge your efforts. Whether you're a new fundraiser looking to level up your skills or a seasoned professional seeking timely reminders and fresh insights, each episode is packed with practical advice, creative ideas, and inspiring stories.
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Let's Talk Fundraising
Instant Donor Insights: One ChatGPT Prompt Replaces 17 Research Tabs
Your browser groans under the weight of countless tabs while your prospect's name stares at you from the CRM dashboard. The research rabbit hole keeps getting deeper, consuming hours of your day with diminishing returns. Sound familiar?
Prospect research doesn't have to be this way. The real power in donor profiles isn't found in data volume but in actionable insights that spark meaningful conversations. Yet most fundraisers fall into the trap of mistaking thoroughness for effectiveness, spending over half their preparation time gathering information rather than developing strategy. This misalignment costs more than time—it compromises the quality of donor relationships.
This transformative approach redefines fundraising diligence through a simple yet powerful ChatGPT strategy. Using a carefully crafted 45-word "public source meta prompt," you can ethically gather verified donor information from public sources in minutes rather than hours. The prompt delivers concise, actionable insights about career milestones, philanthropic interests, and mission alignment—each with cited sources—freeing your mental bandwidth for what truly matters: strategic interpretation and personalized engagement.
The shift isn't about cutting corners—it's about optimizing your expertise. True rigor in fundraising research lies in discernment, not manual labor. By letting AI handle the heavy lifting of data gathering, you reclaim time for the deeply human work of building donor relationships based on values and genuine connection. This approach ensures consistency across your fundraising team while maintaining the highest ethical standards, using only public information with proper citation.
Ready to transform your prospect research workflow? Download the free AI Made Easy prompt pack from letstalkfundraising.com and test a proven fundraising prompt today. Experience firsthand how liberating it feels to step away from endless tabs and into strategic clarity. Your donors deserve conversations driven by insights, not data dumps—and you deserve the professional satisfaction of focusing on what you do best.
💡 Want to take the next small step?
→ Free Download: 12 Fundraising Prompts You'll Actually Use
→ Course: The Fundraiser's AI Starter Suite
Your browser groans under 17 open tabs, linkedin, guidestar, the local news, while a new prospect's name stares at you from your CRM dashboard. You need the story behind their capacity fast. But the research rabbit hole keeps getting deeper. Imagine typing one clear question and watching ChatGPT hand you three fresh giving clues before that half-read article finishes loading. No endless tabs, just instant insight. So let's talk fundraising. Let's get honest.
Keith Greer, CFRE:Prospect research often feels like falling down an endless rabbit hole, doesn't it? You've been there diving into LinkedIn connections, parsing obscure GuideStar documents and clicking through news articles hoping to piece together a picture of a donor's potential. Hours slip away and while you've gathered data points, the real story, the insights that could drive a meaningful conversation, still feels fuzzy. This cycle isn't just exhausting, it's costly. Because here's the truth the real power of a prospect profile isn't in the sheer volume of data you collect, it's in the actionable insights that spark personal, values-driven conversations. Yet, as fundraisers, we often find ourselves trapped in a paradox, pouring the lion's share of our energy into data gathering, leaving precious little time for interpretation and strategy. Think about the last profile you assembled. How many tabs did you open? How many sources did you cross-reference, double-check and revisit, just to confirm one small detail. If you're anything like me, the answer is far too many. Each open tab symbolizes not just another data point, but another potential distraction. Another detour away but another potential distraction. Another detour away from what really matters understanding your prospect deeply enough to make an ask that resonates. Now I'm not knocking thoroughness. Attention to detail matters, especially in fundraising. But here's the distinction Thoroughness is about depth of insight, not the volume of data, and too often we mistake the painstaking act of gathering information for rigor. The cost of this confusion is steep. It's your time, your energy and your strategic thinking that suffer.
Keith Greer, CFRE:Consider this Research shows that fundraisers typically spend more than half their preparation time on gathering raw data, leaving less time for reflection, interpretation and strategic thinking. Less time for reflection, interpretation and strategic thinking. When you're scrolling, clicking and cross-referencing, you aren't planning how to approach a donor strategically, you're not crafting thoughtful questions or aligning their interests with your mission. Instead, you're caught up in an overwhelming sea of information, feeling diligent but disconnected from the true goal personalized engagement. So how do we break this cycle?
Keith Greer, CFRE:First, let's redefine what diligence means. In prospect research, diligence isn't measured by how many tabs you open or sources you check. True diligence means effectively surfacing insights quickly and clearly, insights that directly inform your donor strategy. It means streamlining your source gathering so that your brain is freed up for higher value strategic thinking rather than endless scrolling. Let's imagine a new kind of prospect research workflow one where you type a single, focused question and instantly receive clear, relevant insights. Career highlights, instantly receive clear, relevant insights, career highlights, philanthropic interests, alignment with your mission. Imagine the clarity you'd gain if, instead of bouncing between websites, you had just a handful of pointed insights, neatly delivered, each verified and actionable. But why is this so critical? Why does it matter that your brain spends more time interpreting rather than gathering? Because donors don't say yes based on facts alone. They say yes based on values, personal connections and genuine alignment with your cause.
Keith Greer, CFRE:If your mental energy is consumed by the endless chase for data, how can you clearly discern the insights that truly resonate? Do you ever dive deep into prospect research, gathering every scrap of information, only to feel overwhelmed when the meeting finally arrives? Your pages of notes are thorough, yet turning them into a crisp, actionable strategy feels out of reach. The meetings go fine, but you're aiming for extraordinary. What if you focused on just a few truly meaningful insights instead? Picture walking into each conversation clear-headed and confident, fully tuned to what your donor values most. How might that shift the quality of your asks and your success rates? Does that sound something like you asks and your success rates? Does that sound something like you? Here's a truth worth repeating the power of your prospect profiles doesn't lie in sheer data. It lies in insights. Insights that illuminate a donor's passions, their capacity and their willingness to partner in your mission. Insights that you'll uncover more effectively when you're not drowning in that raw data.
Keith Greer, CFRE:Take five seconds right now, pause and reflect what questions about your next prospect feels unanswered right now. Is it their deepest philanthropic passion, their motivation for giving, or perhaps the cause closest to their heart? Jot that down, because clarity on this question is your real task, not just another stack of data. And here's the game changer. This shift doesn't mean compromising quality or diligence. Instead, it's about redefining what diligence looks like. It's valuing discernment over detail overload. It's ensuring your research directly informs your next conversation, not just your next data point.
Keith Greer, CFRE:In fundraising, every moment counts. Every minute spent in strategic thought, rather than mindless scrolling, brings you closer to a meaningful connection. It's the difference between a generic conversation and one that feels tailored and authentic and deeply relevant. So today, consider this your invitation to shift your mindset. Allow yourself to step away from the endless research rabbit hole and embrace a streamlined approach. One clear prompt, a handful of fresh insights, and suddenly you're not just prepared, you're strategically aligned. Imagine entering your next donor meeting feeling grounded and clear, knowing exactly which questions to ask, which topics resonate and how your mission aligns with their passions. That's the power of insight-driven research and that's what we're going to explore next. In just a moment, I'll show you exactly how ChatGPT supports the shift. I'll show you exactly how ChatGPT supports this shift, helping you effortlessly surface critical insights with just one clear question. But before we do hold this new fundraising truth, close Insights, not data, spark generosity.
Keith Greer, CFRE:Let's take the shift from overwhelming data collection to actionable insights one practical step further. Imagine this Instead of your browser creaking under a dozen open tabs, you use just one prompt Clear, concise and designed to surface meaningful insights instantly. That's the power of using ChatGPT strategically in your prospect research. Here's how it works. I call this the public source meta prompt. With one carefully structured question, you signal exactly what information you need, set boundaries to ensure you're using ethical sources and specify the insights required to guide your strategy no guessing, no digging through page after page, just targeted clarity in minutes.
Keith Greer, CFRE:Here's the anatomy of that single prompt. First, you clearly declare your intent. You might write something like using only public sources, which establishes an ethical framework from the start. Then you list safe, publicly available data points that you already have, perhaps the prospect's name, the city or known affiliations. This helps guide ChatGPT to accurate and relevant findings without straying into sensitive territory. Next, you explicitly ask ChatGPT to summarize three critical areas their career milestones that hint at capacity and networks. Their philanthropy indicators that hint at capacity and networks. Their philanthropy indicators, charitable gifts, interests, past donations and mission alignment hints, causes or values aligning with your organization's focus. Crucially, you instruct ChatGPT to cite public URLs for every claim, ensuring each insight can be quickly verified and ethically logged into your CRM.
Keith Greer, CFRE:Let me give you an exact, read aloud, ready example of the prompt that you might use. Here's a precise example, tested 45-word prompt that captures exactly the information you need without risking donor privacy, using only public sources. Summarize career milestones, charitable gifts and any education or board roles for your prospect name. Provide three insight bullets on causes they favor, plus URLs for each fact. Keep it to 200 words with a donor-centric tone and no conjecture. Notice how specific this is.
Keith Greer, CFRE:Clear directions, precise boundaries and ethical guardrails are built right in this. Clarity ensures ChatGPT delivers usable, accurate and actionable insights. It helps you stay within ethical boundaries while dramatically cutting down the time spent navigating endless sources manually. Speaking of ethical boundaries, let's unpack the guardrails explicitly. First, the prompt clearly limits sources to publicly available information. That means no paid databases, no confidential internal records, no proprietary lists. This ethical commitment is non-negotiable. It protects donor privacy, aligns with best practices and fundraising ethics and ensures your organization maintains impeccable integrity. Second, chatgpt is explicitly directed to cite every fact or insight that it provides is explicitly directed to cite every fact or insight that it provides. Every piece of information delivered to you must be verifiable through a clickable public URL. The safeguard isn't just ethical, it's practical. By verifying information yourself, you maintain accuracy and trustworthiness, which is fundamental in donor relations. Think of this verification step as an added layer of due diligence. You're leveraging AI's power to quickly surface critical data, but you remain firmly in control. You still confirm each detail, ensuring your CRM records are accurate, transparent and accountable.
Keith Greer, CFRE:Now let's talk about the actual experience of using this approach the transformation from overwhelming multitasking to a streamlined workflow. Picture this clearly in your mind. Instead of juggling 17 open tabs, endlessly cross-checking sources and feeling scattered, you have a concise, reliable and ready-to-review prospect brief sitting right in front of you. Chatgpt typically responds within two minutes, sometimes even faster, delivering neatly structured, linked insights. The traditional multi-tab shuffle is replaced by a single concise brief structured into clear bullets, each supported by publicly accessible URLs. The transformation is palpable. Instead of scrambling between tabs and notes, you experience an immediate shift. Your brain has space to think strategically, to quickly identify alignment between the donor's passions and your mission, and to formulate thoughtful questions and tailored conversation starters for your next engagement.
Keith Greer, CFRE:This streamlined workflow isn't just about saving time. It's about sharpening your focus. Your mental bandwidth is no longer consumed by the mechanics of information gathering. Instead, you're able to prioritize interpretation, strategy and genuine connection. And here's something else worth underscoring this approach isn't just theoretical. It's actively practiced by fundraisers who recognize that leveraging AI in this focused, ethical way makes them more effective. These professionals aren't cutting corners. They're strategically prioritizing clarity and impact over volume and overwhelm.
Keith Greer, CFRE:But I hear the questions that might still linger. You might wonder can ChatGPT really capture the nuance needed to support meaningful conversations? The answer is yes, provided your prompts are clear and structured. Chatgpt excels at summarizing complex public data into concise, donor-centric insights. It won't invent details or speculate beyond what public records support, especially when it's guided carefully by these explicit instructions, especially when it's guided carefully by these explicit instructions. Another critical benefit of this structured approach is consistency. Think of the advantage gained by ensuring every prospect profile follows the same clear, structured process. Your entire fundraising team gains clarity. Ensuring insights across profiles are consistently accurate, ethical and actionable. Ensuring insights across profiles are consistently accurate, ethical and actionable. This consistency makes your CRM records reliable and easy to navigate, deepening the strategic coherence across your fundraising efforts.
Keith Greer, CFRE:But maybe you're still skeptical. After all, thoroughness and rigor feel deeply ingrained in our professional identity as fundraisers. I get that. Yet embracing chat GPT doesn't mean sacrificing rigor. It means refocusing it. Instead of getting lost in endless tabs, your rigor shifts to verification and strategic interpretation. You're still applying a meticulous lens, just at a more strategic level.
Keith Greer, CFRE:Ultimately, the core of prospect research remains unchanged. It's still about understanding your donors deeply, ethically and insightfully. The difference is that now you're equipped with tools and processes that remove friction and distraction, you're freeing your mental energy for the nuanced and strategic work that really matters Before we move forward. Take just a few seconds now and imagine the shift clearly. Before we move forward, take just a few seconds now and imagine the shift clearly. Your next prospect profile concise, ethically gathered, insight, rich and completed within minutes rather than hours. What would it mean for your day-to-day workflow if this became your new norm? How much deeper could your donor relationships become if your strategic clarity was uncompromised by overwhelming amounts of information? This is your invitation to redefine what effective prospect research looks like, to move from data drowning to insight-driven clarity.
Keith Greer, CFRE:This isn't about shortcuts. It's about strategic efficiency. It's about valuing your time enough to invest it where it truly counts. It's about valuing your time enough to invest it where it truly counts in meaningful, insight-driven conversations with donors. And I want to talk directly to a quiet but persistent thought that you might have Real researchers comb every source by hand. I know this thought well. I've lived it myself, wearing it proudly like a badge of diligence.
Keith Greer, CFRE:There's something comforting about the meticulousness of manual research. It feels tangible, responsible, thorough. But let's unpack this together, because underneath that comforting diligence there's a hidden cost. And here's the truth Manual effort doesn't equate to rigor. Hours spent painstakingly cross-checking data might feel meticulous, but they also drain valuable time and mental energy, and what we often mistake for diligence is, in reality, the illusion of control.
Keith Greer, CFRE:When I first started fundraising, I firmly believed that thoroughness was defined by exhaustive research. I thought diligence meant personally vetting every data, thank you. Does that sound familiar? But let's gently challenge this belief. Is manually gathering every bit of data truly the highest value you can bring to your role, or could your expertise, your deeply human skill for strategic thinking, interpretation and connection be better served by letting a tool handle the heavy lifting? Let's reframe diligence.
Keith Greer, CFRE:Instead of equating it with manual grind, consider redefining diligence as discernment. Discernment isn't about quantity of data. It's about quality of insight. It's about your ability to swiftly surface relevant information, verify its accuracy and strategically apply it. True rigor isn't about scrolling endlessly. It's about recognizing what's most important, connecting dots clearly and preparing for conversations that resonate deeply with your donors.
Keith Greer, CFRE:Imagine for a moment that you're a jeweler tasked with creating a beautiful piece. Would you insist on personally mining every gem, digging through rocks and dirt, simply to claim complete control over the process? No, you would trust skilled miners to bring you raw stones, leaving you to focus on the refined art of gem cutting and setting, which is where your true skill lies. In fundraising research, your true skill is strategic interpretation, cutting and polishing the insights you use to craft meaningful donor relationships. Yet too often, we insist on being both the miner and the jeweler, diluting our strengths by doing tasks that others or tools can perform more efficiently.
Keith Greer, CFRE:Now, embracing the shift doesn't mean you abandon careful verification or become passive. Quite the opposite. It means intentionally choosing to prioritize your highest value work, interpreting data strategically, thoughtfully aligning your approach and cultivating donor relationships built on those meaningful insights. When we let go of the idea that manual labor is the highest form of diligence, we don't become lazy, we become laser focused. Our time and our energy shift from scattered data collection toward intentional and strategic interpretation. We become more effective, confident and clear.
Keith Greer, CFRE:But I understand the hesitation. Letting go feels risky. The manual approach feels safe precisely because it's familiar. But let's gently challenge this idea too. Does familiarity always equal effectiveness? Could you actually be more diligent, more strategic and more impactful by shifting your perspective?
Keith Greer, CFRE:The shift isn't theoretical, it's practical. Think of the hours you've already invested in manually gathering data. Now imagine redirecting those hours into donor conversations, strategy sessions and personalized asks. How much more effective could you become? How much deeper might your relationships grow? And let's be clear you're not compromising rigor by using tools like ChatGPT to streamline your research. You're optimizing your rigor. You're enhancing it by ensuring your time is spent where it matters most in thoughtful interpretation, strategy formulation and relationship building. That's what your donors need most from you, not your ability to open 20 browser tabs.
Keith Greer, CFRE:So how do you practically make the shift? Start small. Give yourself permission to test this new definition of diligence. Choose one prospect profile this week and use the structured metaprompt. Notice how quickly insights emerge. Notice how your strategic thinking sharpens when you're freed from the data overload.
Keith Greer, CFRE:Pay attention to the resistance that might arise. Resistance is normal. It's a sign that you're challenging ingrained habits. But when you encounter that resistance, gently remind yourself. Real rigor lies in discernment. Manual gathering isn't inherently diligent. It's habit, and habits can change.
Keith Greer, CFRE:Think about other areas of your professional life where you've embraced change and seen clear improvements. You've done this before, successfully shifting habits to become more effective, more efficient and more strategic. You already possess the skill to adapt and thrive. And if you worry about losing credibility, know this. Your board, your donors and your team value strategic insight far more than manual labor. They trust your judgment, your expertise and your interpretation, not your browsing history. Your true value as a fundraiser is your ability to deeply understand donors, make insightful connections and foster meaningful relationships, not the volume of sources you've clicked through.
Keith Greer, CFRE:So here's your invitation Gently set down the heavy badge of manual diligence and embrace discernment as your new hallmark of rigor. Trust tools like ChatGPT to help you quickly surface verified, ethical, actionable insights and reclaim your highest value strategic work. Imagine the difference this could make. Imagine the mental clarity, the strategic depth, the confidence you'll feel walking into every donor meeting, knowing that you've prioritized what truly matters. This isn't just a shift in workflow. It's a fundamental shift in how you define your professional identity. This week I encourage you to practice this reframe diligence Experiment. Notice the difference and feel how freeing it can be to let go of manual grind in favor of strategic discernment. I promise you'll see your effectiveness and your sense of fulfillment grow exponentially. So let's embrace this new mindset together.
Keith Greer, CFRE:Today we've clarified why insights beat data overload every time, unpacked the power of public source meta prompts and experienced firsthand how quickly a strategic prospect brief can appear when you use clear, intentional prompts Before you hit stop. Here's your next easy step. The exact prospect research prompt we used today is waiting in the show notes. Grab it, drop in a donor's name and see how much sharper your prep feels on the very next call. And if you'd like a whole toolbox instead of just one wrench, swing over to my website at letstalkfundraisingcom and download my free AI Made Easy prompt pack.
Keith Greer, CFRE:Inside you'll find a dozen field-tested prompts designed for fundraisers who want faster, cleaner work. One turns a raw CRM export into a tight board report summary, another drafts an emotional impact straight from a participant's quote. And there's even a prompt that reorganizes your weekly calendar so you always know where to focus first. Download the pack. Try one prompt before your day ends to focus first. Download the pack. Try one prompt before your day ends, then DM me on LinkedIn to tell me how much time you saved or how good it feels to drop the manual grind. I cannot wait to celebrate your wins with you. Next Monday we'll stitch together every fundraising hack from this month into a practical two-hour weekly workflow reset. Imagine your entire fundraising shop running smoothly, clearly and strategically every single week. If that sounds like exactly what you need, make sure you're subscribed, because you won't want to miss it. Until then, remember this powerful shift Discernment, not manual labor, defines true rigor. Your donors, your mission and your own well-being deserve nothing less. You've got this, my friend. Let's talk again next week.
