It’s a blustery Friday afternoon. Ori, the talent management director at ACME Foundation, is looking forward to heading home for the week, snuggling under a blanket, enjoying a Netflix movie from her watchlist, and savoring a glass of merlot when a sheepish major gift officer peeks into her office.

“I hate to do this to you on a Friday, but I’ve been offered a leadership position and more pay at another foundation,” the gift officer says. “I’m giving my two weeks’ notice.”

Ori feels blindsided by this news. This is the third major gift officer to resign this quarter, and she’s feeling exhausted by the endless treadmill of posting positions, hiring, on-boarding, not to mention emotionally investing in the new hire’s success. Just when the gift officer seems to be hitting their stride, they resign to take another position or leave fundraising altogether.

Ori’s situation isn’t unusual. The fundraising profession’s turnover rate has been consistently (and shockingly) high over the past decade, with an average tenure of a major gift officer between 18 and 24 months—which is equivalent to that of a call center worker (22 months). Even retail (25 months) and healthcare (33 months) workers stay in their positions longer. The overall average tenure across all sectors is a little over 4 years. As a result, organizations are constantly looking for ways to improve and streamline their recruitment processes for fundraisers.

With the accessibility and rapid advancements of Artificial Intelligence (AI), we now have a tool at our fingertips that can transform the way we approach talent management across the industry. From quickly assessing potential candidates to recognizing transferable skills that will fit the position qualifications, AI solutions can help save time and improve our teams in ways we might not have anticipated. Let’s explore ways AI can help organizations recruit and retain the best talent.

Identifying Transferable Skills

It’s been one week since Ori posted her organization’s open position for a major gift officer, and the application portal has been flooded with hopeful job seekers. Ori desperately wants to find the best person, but many of the applicants seemingly send out their resumes in a scattershot fashion. They have no fundraising experience at all. She sighs because she’s currently looking at a resume for a customer success manager. How does that translate to fundraising?

One of the biggest challenges Ori and other talent managers face is recognizing how a candidate’s previous professional experiences can translate into success in a new role, or even a new industry—and that’s a skill vital to hiring fundraisers because there’s no clear educational or career path for them to take. AI can help overcome this challenge by analyzing not only the candidates’ previous job titles and industry, but also the skills and qualifications they’ve developed through those experiences. AI-driven platforms can assess resumes and job descriptions quickly to identify transferable skills that might not be immediately obvious to their human counterparts.

It’s easy to see how a candidate with a background in sales may have developed valuable fundraising skills in communication, negotiation, and customer-centric problem solving, but a wide array of professions develop soft skills that good fundraisers need. Teachers and counselors are likely skilled at building relationships and active listening. Journalists are trained to ask thoughtful questions and build rapport. Entrepreneurs thrive on building networks, pitching ideas, and securing buy-in from stakeholders.

An AI platform can map those skills and highlight how the candidate’s experience might be utilized in various contexts of the specific fundraising role. By using AI, Ori might discover that the customer success manager definitely has the transferable skills of delivering tailored solutions that ensure customers achieve their goals and feel supported—just as a major gift officer does with their portfolio of donors. By focusing on competencies rather than a rigid checklist of qualifications, AI enables organizations to broaden the pool of potential candidates and consider individuals who might have otherwise been overlooked based on their previous job titles or industry experiences.

Reducing Implicit Bias

Ori rubs her temples. She’s been looking through resumes for the past hour and is feeling more discouraged by the minute. Some of the information on them is making her bleary-eyed. There’s someone with the first name of Aoife. How is that pronounced? She’s also come across someone named Chester. She can’t help but think of her ancient great-uncle with the same name who everyone had to shout at because he refused to wear his hearing aids. Ori knows she shouldn’t be thinking these thoughts, but her fatigue has lowered her professional defenses.

When reviewing applicants, implicit or unconscious bias can creep in, causing talent managers to gravitate toward candidates who “seem like a good fit” rather than seeking out a strong match of qualifications, skills, or experience relevant to the position. AI can help remove implicit biases related to education, name preferences, location, and perceived socioeconomic status.

Broadening the Candidate Pool

Ori and her colleague Glen feel buried in resumes, but they all seem similar. Finding one that stands out above the rest is starting to feel like searching for the proverbial needle in the haystack.

“Hey, Ori,” Glen says. “What would happen if we tried posting this opening on some different platforms? That might open the door to an untapped source of applicants—maybe just the type we are looking for.”

“It’s a great idea,” Ori responds, “but finding those platforms will be time-consuming. We need someone in this position now.”

“I’ve got a solution—we can try using AI,” says Glen.

What both Ori and Glen discover is that AI can help broaden the scope of recruitment by analyzing recruitment patterns across industries to uncover job market trends and suggest new avenues for finding candidates. For example, AI-driven platforms can identify a variety of online communities, niche job boards, and social media channels that human recruiters might not consider. This allows recruiters to tap into previously overlooked candidates, including individuals from different geographic regions, industries, or underrepresented backgrounds.

In addition, by harnessing the power of AI, talent managers might find a suitable candidate right in their own backyard. AI can identify potential talent within the organization’s current employees by analyzing their job descriptions and identifying transferable skills. By considering current staff, the organization is demonstrating a willingness to invest in professional growth opportunities for staff. Learn more about growing your talent internally.

Increasing Inclusivity

Talent managers can use AI to analyze job descriptions and offer suggestions for modifying language to improve inclusivity in the hiring process. AI can efficiently spot gendered terms or unnecessary experience requirements and suggest simple changes to create job postings that are more appealing to a wider audience. In addition, talent managers can employ AI to help standardize the interview process by analyzing the current methods and suggesting a consistent framework for all applicants.

Two months later, Ori is making follow-up notes from a check-in session with the foundation’s newest major gift officer—a former journalist who, thanks to insights from AI, was identified as a standout candidate with exceptional skills in relationship building and thoughtful inquiry. The new hire hit the ground running, engaging donors with confidence and creativity.

Ori feels a deep sense of optimism as she reflects on how much easier the process was this time. AI not only helped her identify transferable skills, but also expanded her applicant pool, reduced unconscious biases, and streamlined the entire recruitment process from job posting to interviewing. This success has shored up Ori’s confidence in hiring and strengthened her hope for building—and retaining—a resilient, high-performing team.

For talent managers like Ori, AI is proving to be a game-changer. By simplifying the hiring process, uncovering hidden talent, and reducing bias, it offers a smarter way to build stronger teams. AI is a practical tool with real benefits that can help talent managers focus on what matters most—building a team that inspires donors and drives the organization’s mission forward.