Major gifts · Nonprofit fundraising
AI coaching for major gift officers whose donor visits stall before the ask
Amotions AI gives major gift officers private real-time coaching on donor calls and visits, plus AI roleplay and post-visit scoring trained on your case for support. Officers listen for donor intent, make a specific ask with care, and keep relationships moving toward a first gift. Amotions never speaks to donors and never gives tax advice.
Published Updated By Pianpian Xu Guthrie, Founder and CEO
- Gift officerWe’d invite you to consider a gift to name the scholarship fund you told me about.
- DonorThis means a lot to me, but I’d want to talk it over with my husband first.
Ask this next
Agree warmly. What will he want to know? Offer to leave the proposal and meet with you both.
Solicitation process
3/4
- Donor interests confirmed
- Permission to discuss a gift
- Amount and purpose named
- Next conversation scheduled
Amotions AI for major gifts
What is Amotions AI for major gift officers?
Amotions AI is real-time behavioral and emotional intelligence software for frontline fundraisers. It coaches major gift, planned giving, and leadership-giving officers before, during, and after donor conversations, using your organization’s case for support, gift policies, and ethics commitments rather than a generic sales script.
- Private live coaching: The Amotions desktop app (Mac and Windows) or a browser overlay listens on the officer’s own computer and shows one short prompt at a time on their screen. It does not join Zoom, Teams, or Meet as a bot or a visible participant.
- Focused AI roleplay: Officers rehearse one conversation at a time, such as a discovery visit, the ask, or a spouse conversation, with AI donor personas built from your scenarios, and are scored against your rubric.
- MSCEIT-informed emotional read: Words, tone, emotion, and conversation dynamics are read together to name the donor’s state (hesitant, guarded, curious) as a word, not a percentage. Scoring is informed by the MSCEIT model of emotional intelligence; it is not an MSCEIT assessment.
- Post-visit and portfolio insights: Every visit gets a transcript, a score, and one practice focus. Enterprise adds multi-call insights and manager dashboards; Salesforce is the only native CRM sync.
The conversations we coach
What do donors say, and what does Amotions cue the officer to do?
Most gifts stall on a hesitation, not on the cause. When a donor mentions a spouse, an advisor, the amount, or too many asks, Amotions shows the officer a private cue to acknowledge the concern and agree on a respectful next step, never to push past it. Cues come from your approved language.
- Family decision
“I need to talk to my spouse about this.”
Amotions cues: Agree. Ask what their spouse will want to know, offer a written proposal, and offer to meet together. Do not ask for a decision today.
- Advisor review
“Let me check with my financial advisor first.”
Amotions cues: Encourage it. Offer your gift-planning materials and a gift-planning office contact the advisor can reach. Do not predict what the advisor will say.
- Amount surprise
“That’s more than I was expecting to be asked for.”
Amotions cues: Thank them for being candid and do not lower the number reflexively. Ask what feels right and whether a multi-year pledge or a different purpose would fit better.
- Donor fatigue
“I feel like I only hear from you when you want money.”
Amotions cues: Acknowledge it plainly. Ask how they would like to stay connected (impact updates, visits, events, or less contact) and note the preference for the whole team.
For the ask itself (permission, a specific amount and purpose, and the silence afterward), read how to make a major gift ask without a sales pitch.
How it works
How does Amotions connect coaching to time-to-first-gift and portfolio yield?
Time-to-first-gift is how long a donor takes to make a first major gift after entering an officer’s portfolio. Portfolio yield is the share of assigned donors who give in a period, however your shop defines it. Each step below targets one of those metrics, and you measure both in your own donor database.
Before the call
1Practice
Focused AI roleplay: new and inherited-portfolio officers rehearse the discovery visit, the ask, and the spouse or advisor conversation with AI donor personas, and are scored before a real donor is in the room.
Outcome: Time-to-first-gift. Officers reach the solicitation visit rehearsed, instead of waiting for the few live asks a quarter brings.
During the call
2Live
Live objection handling: during a phone or video visit, private prompts on the officer’s screen suggest the next open question or an approved response. No bot joins, and the donor never sees the prompts.
Outcome: Time-to-first-gift and portfolio yield. A hesitation becomes a scheduled next conversation, not a relationship that goes quiet.
After the call
3Review
MSCEIT-informed scoring: each visit is scored against your rubric, with the donor’s emotional read and one practice focus. Enterprise multi-call insights show where visits stall across a portfolio.
Outcome: Portfolio yield. Directors see which conversation stage stalls across the portfolio and assign practice there.
FAQ
Questions major gifts teams ask
Straight answers on privacy, playbook training, plans, and how Amotions fits the conversations your team already has.
How does real-time AI coaching improve major gifts fundraising?
Real-time AI coaching gives a major gift officer private prompts during a donor call or visit: the next open question in discovery, a reminder to name a specific amount and purpose, and a respectful response when a donor hesitates. Amotions adds AI roleplay before visits and scoring after, all trained on your case for support.
Can AI coaching shorten time to first gift?
It targets the conversations that delay a first gift. Officers rehearse the ask in AI roleplay before the solicitation visit, and live prompts turn hesitations like “I need to talk to my spouse” into a scheduled next conversation. Amotions does not guarantee a gift or a timeline; track time-to-first-gift in your donor database.
How does AI coaching improve major gift portfolio yield?
Portfolio yield depends on how many assigned donors reach a well-timed ask. Amotions scores every coached visit against your rubric and, on Enterprise, shows multi-call insights, so directors can see which stage stalls (discovery, qualification, or the ask) and assign practice there. Yield is measured in your own donor database.
Does Amotions join donor calls, and do donors know it is running?
Amotions does not join calls as a bot or visible participant; prompts appear only on the officer’s screen. Whether and how to tell donors about transcription follows your organization’s policy and applicable law, and donor privacy, retention, and recording consent are reviewed with your organization in deployment.
Does Amotions give tax or planned-giving advice?
No. Amotions does not estimate deductions, recommend gift vehicles, or suggest will or trust language. When a donor raises those questions, it prompts the officer to use your approved planned-giving materials and suggest the donor talk with their own advisor and your gift-planning office.
Does Amotions integrate with Raiser’s Edge or our donor CRM?
Salesforce is the only native CRM sync: it can bring record context into coaching and optionally write transcript summaries back as Tasks. Amotions does not claim native integrations with Raiser’s Edge NXT, other Blackbaud products, or the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack specifically.
Does Amotions join the call as a bot or notetaker?
No. Amotions runs as a private desktop or web overlay on the rep’s own screen. It never joins Zoom, Teams, or Meet as an attendee, and the person on the other side of the conversation never sees the prompts.
Which plan do I need to train Amotions on our own playbook?
Playbook-trained custom agents are on every paid plan, from Starter up. Start free on Basic to try coaching, roleplay, and scoring built around your own process, then move to Professional when you need more usage.
How long does it take to train Amotions on our playbook?
Teams upload their playbook, approved objection responses, product knowledge, and talk tracks. Calibration typically takes about one week, after which live prompts, roleplay scenarios, and scorecards use your language instead of a generic script library.
Are our calls used to train public AI models?
No. Amotions never uses customer conversations to train third-party foundation models. Workloads run in isolated, encrypted cloud environments separated by customer workspace. Details are on the Trust Center at /security.
Coach your next donor conversation
Start free on Basic to try live coaching and AI roleplay, or book a demo and bring your case for support, gift policies, and the donor conversation your officers find hardest.
Never joins your calls as a bot · Start free on Basic