Can an AI Agent Actually Work in Your Fundraising Tools?
We scored the 57 tools WIZE connects to. Most fundraising tools are not ready for AI yet, and even the best only connect AI to themselves. WIZE already works across all of them.
AI agents can now do real work inside the software you use: look up a donor, update a record, draft the follow-up. But only if that software lets them in, securely. Most fundraisers have no way to tell which of their tools do.
So we measured it. We scored all 57 tools WIZE connects to, from Raiser's Edge NXT and Bloomerang to Mailchimp, QuickBooks and Slack, on one question: how much can an AI agent do in this tool on its own, safely, today? Every score comes from the vendor's own public documentation, and every source is published.
What we checked
We checked eight things, all from each vendor's public documentation:
1. Does the vendor offer its own AI connector?
2. Can an agent read and update your records?
3. Can you turn on access yourself, on the plan you already pay for?
4. Can a developer or consultant build on it without a fee or a partner program?
5. Can you give an agent only the access it needs, for example read-only?
6. Can your admin see what an agent did, and switch it off?
7. Are the docs written so that an agent can read them?
8. Does the tool announce changes, like a new gift, and allow bulk exports?
We also marked each tool where staff need approval from an admin or IT before they can connect an agent.
What we found
Fundraising software is behind the rest of your office. The 40 CRM and fundraising tools average 61. The 17 everyday tools (email, files, tasks, chat) average 77.
Most fundraising tools are not ready for AI yet. Only 11 of the 40 have their own AI connector. Of the 17 everyday tools, 11 do.
Some fundraising tools lead. Fundraise Up and Givebutter scored 92, and Raiser's Edge NXT scored 87. Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics 365 scored 100.
Most fundraising tools put IT in the middle. 28 of the 40 need an admin or IT approval before staff can connect an agent. That protects your donor data. It also means a fundraiser who wants to try AI on Monday may have to wait for a yes.
Admin controls are weak almost everywhere. The average was 3.9 out of 10. Few vendors publish how an admin can see what an agent did, or turn it off.
Even a perfect score only covers one tool
A high score means an AI assistant can work inside that one tool. But your work does not live in one tool. A year-end appeal pulls from your CRM, your giving platform, last year's letter in your files and the thank-you notes in your email. A connector for each tool does not join them up. Someone still has to.
A low score is a different problem. Someone has to build the bridge first: read the API docs, get access approved, connect the data and keep it working when the vendor changes something. For most development offices, that is a project nobody has time for.
WIZE solves both, out of the box. WIZE already works with all 57 tools on this list, including every tool in the C and D rows. For most tools, you connect your account in WIZE in under two minutes. Then you ask in plain words: "Which donors who gave last December have not given yet this year?" or "Draft a thank-you to everyone who gave over $500 this month." WIZE works across your CRM, your email and your files at the same time, so you do not have to wait for each vendor to catch up, or stitch their connectors together yourself.
Your tool is not on the list? Tell us. We build new integrations in 30 days or less.
Three questions to ask about any AI tool
Before you sign up for AI in any of your tools, ask:
1. Can it work across our CRM, our email and our files together, or only inside one tool?
2. Can our staff see a change before it is saved to our donor records?
3. Who keeps the connection working when one of our systems changes?
[POLL] How does your website look to a donor's AI?
More donors now ask ChatGPT or Claude where to give before they visit a website.
See it with your own data: WIZE 101
Tuesday, Nov 24, 1:00 PM ET. WIZE 101 Week 3: Connect your donor data. Bring in your CRM or a spreadsheet export. Ask plain questions about your donors, find your best prospects, and turn the list into tasks for your team.
Save a seat
New to WIZE? Start with Week 1 on Tuesday, Nov 10, at 1:00 PM ET, when you set up WIZE to know your organization.
~ Louis
PS: Methodology note: The full method, every score and every source are here: The WIZE Agent-Friendly Index: method and scores. If you work for one of these vendors and we missed a public page, reply and send it to us. We will update the score.