155. SPN: Fund raising is multi-modal

Plus, FOMO vs ROI, and jobs that took my fancy this week

Jun 01, 2025

A very warm welcome to all the new subscribers.

You’ve joined a community of over 3k marketing and fund raising operators at mission-driven Org’s. I’m thrilled to have you as readers and truly appreciate your feedback and support.

In this week’s SPN:

Chart of the Week
Use case for AI: exploring video
FOMO vs ROI
and, plenty of Jobs & Opps that took my fancy this week

Let’s jump in!

Fundraise Up Saw the Future — and Built It
While most platforms are still tinkering with what AI could do, Fundraise Up has been quietly putting it to work — years ahead of the curve. From dynamic donation prompts to AI-powered checkout experiences, Fundraise Up is rewriting what fundraising performance and experience looks like built on nearly a decades worth of fundraising data.
For Org’s that means:
→ Smarter donation asks and donor journeys
→ Less friction during the donation process = better donor experience = more $$$ raised for your programs
→ Higher conversion rates (2x !!)
AI isn’t a side feature. It’s the engine. And it’s about results.
Talk with Fundraise Up this week to learn how Org’s consistently raise more on their platform 🚀
Game-changer? It Is for me!

Africa’s Gen AI Potential

These numbers make me want to return to Lagos, Nigeria. Just so darn exciting!

Africa has clearly embraced gen AI with remarkable speed, and institutions are quickly catching up with - and in some instances leading - global developments.

But their progress so far with both gen AI and AI more broadly seems only the tip of the iceberg. Of course Gen AI adoption varies widely by sector, and digitally mature sectors - tech, teleco, and financial services - lead the way. It’s exciting to see the public and social sector, and education, sitting mid-table.

This chart is pulled from a super interesting McKinsey report published earlier this month: Leading, Not Lagging in which the authors estimate that at-scale deployment of gen AI could lead to $61 billion to $103 billion of additional economic value across Africa. At minimum, it’s worth a quick skim.

FOMO, Not ROI

A new deck from Benedict Evans is always eagerly anticipated and his latest doesn’t disappoint. Connected there’s also a couple of podcasts I listened to this week where he talks with Giant Capital and with VC Matt Turck.

Interesting stuff. Across all the content he argues we’re on something of a plateau - the models are improving but the error rate isn’t. So those who have found a use case advocate the impact of AI but for those who haven’t (yet) there’s a degree of skepticism.

Like Benedict I’ve yet to find a strong use case or killer app; it’s helpful in planning which vineyards to visit on an imminent Sonoma trip but of little use for SPN or my advisory work beyond sharpening a sub-head. Although video is looking tasty - and the focus of today’s longer psot.

It’s still a vitamin for me, but it’s clearly a pain killer for others.

Most big companies have pilots running - like this paper from P&G explaining their work with Harvard and Wharton, learning

AI Can Be a Great “Teammate”

AI Breaks Down Silos and Allows for Shared Expertise

AI’s Positive Influence on Employee Morale

Read the full paper here: The Cybernetic Teammate: A Field Experiment on Generative AI Reshaping Teamwork and Expertise.

The recent IBM research asking CEOs how they’re testing and learning dropped into my inbox. They surveyed 2,000 CEOs globally and revealed that execs expect the growth rate of AI investments to more than double in the next two years, and 61% confirmed they’re actively adopting AI agents today and preparing to implement them at scale.

As the Register put it: “FYI: Most AI spending is driven by FOMO, not ROI, CEOs tell IBM, LOL.”

One sector where AI is clearly significant is video - whether you fear the disruption or welcome the opportunity, AI ‘made’ video is a thing.

One of the elements to have the most impact at the Google I/O event last week was the Electric Pink film. In a Google doc Henry Daubrez went into detail with a look behind the scenes. Which no doubt inspired the WSJ take here: “We Made a Film With AI. You’ll Be Blown Away - and Freaked Out. We tried to direct an AI film with Veo and Runway. The tools are magic. The process is madness.”

The takeaway?

As someone creating content on the daily and trying to encourage any and all around me to explore video formats, AI opens up new ways to create things we never could before. But it can’t replace the craft nor can it replace lived experience. Or instinct. Or the messy magic of mission-driven work.

These tools are nothing without human input, creativity and original ideas. As the film hopefully reminded you, we’re not robots. Live a little.

Watch the full video Me and My Robot here. To get a sense of where Hollywood is at with AI take a peak at a scene from The Studio - the Apple TV cult show - covered in this cheeky TikTok.

Jobs & Opps 🛠️

The (England) Football Association (FA): Head, Fundraising & Programs

Susan Komen: National Director, Donor Experience ($85,000 - $120,000)

NYC Outward Bound Schools: VP, Marketing, Development, & Communications ($180,000 - $220,000)

Girls Who Code: Director, Individual Giving ($145,000 - $170,000)

Major League Baseball (MLB): Director, Social Impact ($115,000 - $140,000)

Sesame Workshop: Director, Global Partnerships ($120,000 - $130,000)

American Cancer Society: Managing Director, Leadership Annual Giving & Philanthropy Ops ($150,000 - $160,000)

The Royal College of Radiologists: Head of External Affairs ($120,000 to $130,000)

→Plenty more jobs on SPN’s sister site: www.pledgr.com

Video

The internet was recently flooded with a wave of Ghibli-style memes. Even 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue chimed in. What happened?

ChatGPT launched its new native image generation and added more than 1 million users in a single hour (for comparison: it took ChatGPT five days to reach 1 million users when it launched).

Aha Moment #2

It’s available to all of ChatGPT’s 400M+ users, making it out the box the largest creative graphics tool on the planet (Canva has 220M users, Midjourney about 20M+).

I wrote this off as just another toy. Then I started playing with it for a few weeks. I think it’s changing the rules. A business leader friend just called it her second AI “aha” moment - the first being ChatGPT itself - and it’s unleashing a whole new wave of creativity.

But organizational use cases aren’t straightforward. That’s why I thought I’d share my favorites.

Multi-modal

Before, AI image generation was kind of a hack job. When you tried getting ChatGPT to create an image, you weren’t really talking to one model. Instead, it would just pass your request to another AI tool (like DALL-E).

→ Like talking to a painter over the phone to explain what you want - a lot gets lost in translation.

Why? Because “old” GPT-4o couldn’t “see” my original image and properly describe all its details to DALL-E.

What’s happening now is fundamentally different. Models like GPT-4o and Gemini are now truly multimodal - they can understand and generate both text AND images natively.

This matters because:

No technical skills required
Much higher quality results
Better understanding of your intentions
Faster iterations

And here’s the business angle for context: the global graphic design market is valued at around $60 billion. Think about how often we need visuals in our professional lives - presentations, social media, ads, reports, even program mockups.

This new capability puts AI image power in everyone’s hands.

Your use cases for AI image generations

Here are my favorites I’ve spotted or used recently:

Visual asset variations

Upload your Org’s key visuals (that you've used 20+ times in slides and comms) and generate fresh variations in the same style. Because these new models can literally “see” and “paint” in one go, they maintain your Org’s brand aesthetics while still making it look “fresh”. Quarterly updates and campaign retros just got a lot easier.

Before/After comparisons

Show potential donors the transformation your program delivers. No more complicated layer masks or Photoshop skills needed. The AI understands the entire image context and can generate compelling visual stories for your Org.

I say this often - SPN likes to cite as many internal examples as external examples to our sector. I find it inspiring. This example found here on X by someone whose business is buying and renovating shopping malls (“StripMallGuy”) stands out - using ChatGPT’s new image generation for pre-rendering shopping mall renovation projects, saving $$$ and time going back and forth with architects.

Creative Program Shots

I’m always wanting to show donors how being a user or recipient of the program they’re sponsoring or supporting might look and feel like. Now with AI image generation, it’s as simple as describing what I want.

→ hello much higher engagement, better storytelling, and a deeper emotional connection with your donor audience.

Want some branded swag placed on a cozy cabin windowsill at sunrise? Or a therapy app being used during a sunrise jog in Tokyo? Done in seconds.

Okay, I don’t think billboard ads will get disrupted so fast. But think of all the countless display ads you run on the web (especially those thumbnail-sized, or images for Meta campaigns). Grabbing attention is going to be so much easier when you’re actually able to effortlessly test multiple variations of your ad and double down on the one that works best.

Easy 5-figure impact here, even for small campaigns.

Perfect output? No.
Useful starting points? YES!

No doubt there’s lots of applications that might not seem obvious at first, but once you start thinking about relevant processes that need you to touch graphics, opportunities will start revealing themselves.

Your Opportunity to Seize

So what does this all mean for your Org?

We’re witnessing the democratization of visual creativity at unprecedented scale – and it’s happening right inside tools millions already use daily.

It’s clear that we’re not dealing with “yet another IT project”. It's a capability shift. If you’re waiting for your IT team to “look into it”, you're already behind.

You don’t need to be technical to benefit. But you need to be aware. Strategic. Open to experimenting.

The Org’s that figure this out have a serious competitive advantage.

You’ve got options: use this moment to innovate – or wait until your peers show you how it’s done 😉