Face-to-Face Conver­sa­tion in the Digi­tal Age

Version 4 of ChatGPT has just been laun­ched, so it is ente­ring the next stage. One of the new features is speech reco­gni­tion. Now it’s possi­ble to talk with arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence and receive an error-free, trans­la­ted spoken reply at the touch of a button. AI can also tell stories in an emotio­nal voice. This is just one exam­ple of the rapid evolu­tion of such tech­no­lo­gies. Will deve­lo­p­ments such as these make perso­nal cont­act in fund­rai­sing – and thus the many young fund­rai­sers who can be found in public places repre­sen­ting various aid orga­ni­sa­ti­ons – superfluous?

A quar­ter of a century of face-to-face fundraising

Street campaigns to attract new members for aid orga­ni­sa­ti­ons have been going on since 1995. Two students in Austria had the bril­li­ant idea of directly addres­sing passers-by on the street, provi­ding infor­ma­tion and signing them up for member­ships. Neither addres­sing people directly nor giving verbal infor­ma­tion were revo­lu­tio­nary at the time; nor was the idea of member­ships. The method’s success lies in combi­ning all these measu­res. Measu­res that were previously prac­ti­sed indi­vi­du­ally or only partly in combi­na­tion now all take place at the same time and in the same place. Suddenly, indi­vi­dual fund­rai­sing acti­vi­ties turned into a single campaign with long-term dona­ti­ons, thanks to self-rene­wing member­ships via direct debit. Adver­ti­sing methods were still comple­tely ‘analo­gue’ in 1995 – there were no tablets, the success of the campaign could not be veri­fied with figu­res, and even e‑mails were not yet very widespread.

Tech­no­logy meets face-to-face conversation

Viewed from a distance, street campaigns still seem to func­tion in exactly the same way today, as the focus is still on the person and the perso­nal conver­sa­tion. This is a good thing, because fort­u­na­tely, no arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence can replace humans with their emoti­ons, intui­ti­ons and imper­fec­tions. But even though the conver­sa­tion takes place between two people, digi­ta­li­sa­tion has long since found its way into the infor­ma­tion booth: presen­ta­ti­ons and videos on iPads have repla­ced analo­gue display folders. Data entries on the tablet are checked in real time. The success of each campaign can be analy­sed using various KPIs, both by the client and by the team leaders. The donors will auto­ma­ti­cally receive an SMS or e‑mail after the conclu­sion of the contract. Many orga­ni­sa­ti­ons use sophisti­ca­ted digi­tal commu­ni­ca­tion to conti­nuously inspire newly recrui­ted members to engage with their concerns and create a lasting connec­tion. Howe­ver, if someone deci­des not to become a member, the dona­tion can be adjus­ted or cancel­led online.

Recruit­ment for fund­rai­sers for infor­ma­tion booths – known as ‘dialo­guers’ – is largely carried out by means of targe­ted adver­ti­se­ments on online plat­forms. An e‑learning plat­form is used for their training.

Huma­nity in fundraising

With the growth of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, it would be easy to think that human inter­ac­tions were incre­asingly being pushed into the back­ground and that sophisti­ca­ted, measura­ble, controll­able digi­tal commu­ni­ca­tion was supe­rior. But the use of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence in fund­rai­sing must be done with caution, as trust and authen­ti­city form the foun­da­tion of every dona­tion. AI-gene­ra­ted images, texts and videos may seem convin­cing at first glance, but they run the risk of disgra­cing an entire indus­try. ‘The more we live in tech­no­lo­gi­cal worlds, the grea­ter beco­mes the need for authen­ti­city,’ fittingly obser­ves philo­so­pher Richard David Precht.

Making dona­ti­ons is a deep human need, feeding our instinct for soli­da­rity, which needs to be awakened. Whether by e‑mail, letter, TV advert or at the infor­ma­tion booth, ulti­m­ately it is always a direct message from people to people, for people. Although AI can gene­rate perfect donor letters, their authen­ti­city is quickly called into ques­tion. Fort­u­na­tely, there are still dialo­guers whose smiles bring passers-by to a standstill, and who make giving dona­ti­ons an easy and trust­wor­thy process.