# AI in charities and fundraising: trustees, donors and honest appeals

*What the Fundraising Regulator's guidance asks before a tool writes an appeal, picks a donor or answers the public.*

## Production summary

- Modules to record: 2
- Total script: 659 words, about 4 minutes of finished audio
- Voices: Emma (host) and George (practice educator)
- Level: Trustees, chief executives, fundraisers, communications staff and volunteers in charities

## Accreditation wording that must appear in the description

- **The CPD Certification Service** (planned): Application scheduled.
- **Fundraising Regulator: guidance for using AI in fundraising** (aligned): Written against the guidance of 8 December 2025 and the Code of Fundraising Practice. Our own mapping, with no endorsement implied.

> Do not upgrade any of these words in a description or a thumbnail. Aligned is not accredited, and planned is not approved.


---

## Trustees, policy and risk: what comes before the tool

**Runtime** about 2 minutes. **Words** 319. **Starts at** 00:00 in the full course recording.

### Learning outcomes to state on camera

- State who is accountable for AI in fundraising
- Say what the Charity Commission expects of trustees
- Explain why a policy comes before a tool
- Carry out a proportionate risk assessment
- Avoid knowledge of AI sitting with a few people

### Script


`[CUE 1]` *Two regulators' documents side by side, dated 2 April 2024 and 8 December 2025*

**EMMA**  [00:00]
George, I'm a trustee of a small charity. Our fundraiser wants to use AI for the Christmas appeal. Is there a rule?

**GEORGE**  [00:08]
There's guidance, from the Fundraising Regulator, published on 8 December 2025. It doesn't add new rules. It shows how the Code of Fundraising Practice applies, so AI is used in a legal, open, honest and respectful way.

**EMMA**  [00:23]
And the Charity Commission?

**GEORGE**  [00:25]
It wrote about AI in April 2024. It said it didn't anticipate producing specific new guidance. But it was clear that trustees remain responsible for decision making, and that mustn't be delegated to AI.


`[CUE 2]` *A board table where one trustee holds all the knowledge, redrawn with it shared round the table*

**EMMA**  [00:38]
So who's accountable if the appeal goes wrong?

**GEORGE**  [00:42]
The charity, and ultimately you, the trustees. The guidance says you're responsible and accountable for your use of AI for fundraising, including that of your third-party fundraisers.

**EMMA**  [00:52]
Only one of us on the board understands this stuff.

**GEORGE**  [00:56]
That's named in the guidance. Take all reasonable steps to avoid a situation where trustee understanding and knowledge about AI is concentrated among a minority.


`[CUE 3]` *A policy document placed before a tool on a timeline*

**EMMA**  [01:06]
So what comes first?

**GEORGE**  [01:08]
A policy. Before the tool. Saying when AI creates or informs content, makes decisions or carries out tasks. And reviewed regularly.

**EMMA**  [01:16]
Do we publish it?

**GEORGE**  [01:18]
The regulator recommends you publish how you use AI in your fundraising, accessibly, on your website.


`[CUE 4]` *A charity website with a plain page headed how we use AI in our fundraising*

**EMMA**  [01:24]
And then we can start?

**GEORGE**  [01:26]
After a risk assessment. The guidance says avoid using any AI tool before conducting one.

**EMMA**  [01:32]
We're four staff. How big does that need to be?

**GEORGE**  [01:36]
Proportionate. Tidying the wording of a newsletter needs less than a tool deciding whom to ask for money.


`[CUE 5]` *A one page risk assessment with five questions, scaled small for a newsletter and large for donor selection*

**EMMA**  [01:44]
What do I ask?

**GEORGE**  [01:45]
What will the tool do? What goes into it, and where does that go? What could it get wrong, and who'd be affected? Who checks the result? And what do we tell donors?

**EMMA**  [01:58]
And once it's written?

**GEORGE**  [02:00]
Keep it with the policy. Look at both again whenever a tool, a supplier or a use changes.

### Sources for the on screen credit

- Guidance for using artificial intelligence in fundraising (8 December 2025), Fundraising Regulator
- Charities and Artificial Intelligence (2 April 2024), Charity Commission for England and Wales
- Code of Fundraising Practice, Fundraising Regulator

---

## Honest appeals, donor data and people working in your name

**Runtime** about 2 minutes. **Words** 340. **Starts at** 02:07 in the full course recording.

### Learning outcomes to state on camera

- Apply the transparency test to AI content
- Carry out the human check before content is used
- Protect donor data when using a tool
- Keep chatbots and automated tools under review
- Hold agencies and partners to the same standard

### Script


`[CUE 1]` *A scale running from low to high risk of misleading, with tidied grammar at one end and a generated child at the other*

**EMMA**  [02:07]
George, our appeal needs a photo and we don't have one. The tool can generate a child at a food bank. Can we use it?

**GEORGE**  [02:17]
Think about what a donor would believe. The guidance gives a sliding rule. The amount of transparency should be in proportion to the risk of misleading donors. The greater the risk, the more transparent you should be.

**EMMA**  [02:32]
And a generated child?

**GEORGE**  [02:34]
High risk. A donor will take it as someone you helped. If the person, the picture or the words were generated, they mustn't be left believing otherwise.


`[CUE 2]` *A person reading an appeal against three words: accuracy, fairness, legality*

**EMMA**  [02:44]
What about AI tidying the grammar of a true appeal?

**GEORGE**  [02:48]
No label needed. Nobody's misled about anything.

**EMMA**  [02:51]
Who checks the appeal before it goes?

**GEORGE**  [02:54]
A person. The guidance says have a process for a human to check the accuracy, fairness and legality of any content generated by AI before using it.


`[CUE 3]` *A supporter list at a gate with three questions: use, store, share*

**EMMA**  [03:05]
Break those down.

**GEORGE**  [03:06]
Accuracy. Are the figures and the claims about impact true? Fairness. Is it respectful, without undue pressure? Legality. Does it meet the Code, data protection law and the advertising rules?

**EMMA**  [03:18]
We'd like the tool to pick which donors to ask for more.

**GEORGE**  [03:23]
Then you're using personal data. The guidance says at all times know how any AI tool will use, store and share the material you put into it.


`[CUE 4]` *A tool choosing whom to ask, with an elderly donor protected by the same rule as for a human fundraiser*

**EMMA**  [03:34]
Use, store, share.

**GEORGE**  [03:35]
Three verbs. If you can't answer them, the supporter list doesn't go in. And your privacy information should say how AI is involved.

**EMMA**  [03:44]
Some of our donors are elderly.

**GEORGE**  [03:46]
The Code's section on people in vulnerable circumstances applies to a tool that chooses whom to ask, how often and for how much. Exactly as it would to a person making those choices.


`[CUE 5]` *A chatbot and an agency both wearing the charity's name badge, with a monitoring log beside them*

**EMMA**  [04:00]
We also have a chatbot on the donation page.

**GEORGE**  [04:03]
Where there's no immediate human oversight, the guidance says have measures to monitor and audit it. It speaks for the charity.

**EMMA**  [04:12]
And our telephone fundraising agency?

**GEORGE**  [04:14]
Same accountability. Review the agreement, ask how they use AI on your behalf, and monitor it. You answer for what's done in your name.

### Sources for the on screen credit

- Guidance for using artificial intelligence in fundraising (8 December 2025), Fundraising Regulator
- Code of Fundraising Practice, Fundraising Regulator
- New guidance to support charities using AI in fundraising, Fundraising Regulator

---

*Copyright WAJD Group. Built by WAJD AI.*