Embracing the Future of Fundraising

Scaling Donor Engagement Without Losing the Human Touch

For years, Fort Collins Habitat for Humanity has used data to shape its fundraising strategy, turning to Prospect Insights in Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT to help identify and prioritize the donors most likely to deepen their support.

As donor activity increased, the team faced growing pressure on time and capacity. Fundraisers were responsible for reviewing prospects, assigning donors, and ensuring timely outreach, often while balancing database management and relationship-building work. As Donor Relations Manager Cortney Moore explains, “My first impression of the Development Agent when I started using it was that there was potential to support tasks that sometimes get away from me with the dual role I play of database administration and donor relations, like reviewing prospects, assigning them to a fundraiser and sending an initial engagement to offer them a way to connect.”

The core issue wasn’t lack of insight—the team already had the data. They needed to operationalize it consistently, at scale, without losing the personal connection donors expect.

A Smarter Approach with Blackbaud Development Agent

To address this, Fort Collins Habitat for Humanity introduced the Blackbaud Development Agent—which the team affectionately named “Val” to reflect values like courage and connection, drawing from words like “valiant” and “valor”—as a new kind of partner in their fundraising workflow. Operating as an extension of the team, the Development Agent executes defined processes within guardrails set by the organization.

Unlike dashboards or reports that require interpretation and follow-up, the Development Agent turns insight directly into action. It identifies opportunities and carries out the work—engaging donors with personalized outreach, logging activity automatically, and escalating questions to human team members as needed, all within the system fundraisers already use. As Moore describes, “Blackbaud Development Agent has a collaborative, engaging, comprehensive element that can utilize data that would be pulled into dashboards, reports and analytics and the entire workflow stays in the database, rather than a fundraiser needing to review these tools and then take action and track it in the database in separate steps.”

This shift fundamentally changes how the team operates. Instead of moving between tools and manually advancing work, the Development Agent focuses on engaging the organization’s highest-priority donors, as defined by the team, capturing new opportunities and supporting timely, relevant connections. The organization defines which donors the agent engages—and how—so every interaction aligns with their goals, audiences, and brand voice. Just as importantly, it complements, not replaces, human decision-making. “The Development Agent supports this balance of having humans doing the work they need to be doing while using tools that strengthen our strategy and keep us building on our mission,” Moore said.

Over time, the impact has gone beyond execution. The Development Agent is shaping how the team thinks about fundraising. As Moore explained, “From the beginning, this has changed how I think about my work rather than just focusing on what I do. Seeing donors assigned, outreach drafted and sent, and activity tracked within the Development Agent’s work center gives us greater visibility into both the work the agent is doing and how quickly it is being done.”

Beyond execution, the biggest shift is strategic. The team is working more proactively—aligning assignments, refining workflows, and ensuring every interaction reflects each donor’s interests and potential. This allows fundraisers to stay focused on what matters most: building relationships that advance the mission.

Engaging More Donors with Greater Intention

With the Development Agent embedded into their workflow, Fort Collins Habitat for Humanity is consistently building personalized, one-to-one relationships with the right donors, without expanding team size or sacrificing their relational approach. The team now has greater confidence that prospects are being surfaced and assigned appropriately, personalized outreach is carried out in a timely, consistent way, and donors are moving through the pipeline with intention.

Expanding What’s Possible

Fort Collins Habitat for Humanity continues to expand how it uses the Development Agent—streamlining workflows, strengthening donor engagement, and supporting long-term growth. For Moore, that impact goes far beyond efficiency: “It challenges assumptions, motivates us, and inspires curiosity that ripples into other areas opening the door for connection, collaboration and visionary conversations.”

That next phase builds on the organization’s earlier success with Prospect Insights, where the team first used AI to identify and prioritize high-potential donors. Now, Fort Collins Habitat for Humanity is showing what’s possible when those insights turn into action—expanding fundraising capacity while preserving the human connection that drives its mission forward.